Tuesday 24 May 2011

Aspiring bakers #7: Cocoa Coffee Chiffon Cake

 I will be submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.

The name of my bake are a mouthful isn't it? Bump into this recipe and immediately bookmarked it.

When i bake, my ipad acts as my recipe book. I would open up the recipe i want on my safari and put it into a standing position. Every day, i would browse through all the baking and cooking blogs in my bookmarked folders. Recipe that i am interested in will be save in another bookmark folder titled "recipes". When i am in a baking mode, i would open up my recipes folder and browse for something i like.

I will be typing the recipe on my blogpress app when I am waiting for the cake to be baked in the oven.

Starbucks 2010 Christmas Mug



Don't know what happen when I invert the cake, maybe I was too rough.. or maybe the cake is sooooooooo soft that it sort of unmould on its own and resulted in a big big hole at the bottom. Sigh...
Never happened to me before.

See the big "hole" there?


Cocoa Coffee Chiffon Cake
(Adapted from: '爱'生活 My Life)
** make a 18cm chiffon tin

Ingredients:
4 Egg Yolks
20gm Castor Sugar
60gm Corn Oil
80gm Warm Milk
20gm Cocoa Powder
4 tsp Instant Coffee Powder
130gm Baking Chocolate
60gm Self Raising Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
5 Egg Whites
50gm Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method:
1. Melt baking chocolate in a double boiler and set aside.
2. Add the coffee powder and cocoa powder to the warm milk and stir till everything dissolve.
3. Using a hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and sugar together then add in oil, melted chocolate and cocoa coffee milk and whisk till well incorporated.
4. Sieve in flour and baking soda and mix well.
5. Using an eletric mixer, beat egg whites till foamy then add in cream of tartar and 1/3 of the sugar.
6. Gradually add in the rest of the sugar and best till stiff peaks.
7. Pour the batter into a chiffon cake tin and bang it on the counter several times to get rid of the air bubbles.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 35 to 40 minutes or till cake is done.
9. Remove from oven and invert the cake tin immediately. Wait till cake is completely cool before unmoulding.

Monday 23 May 2011

Aspiring Bakers #7: Chocolate Banana Muffin

I will be submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.




Chocolate Banana Muffin
(Adapted from: Teacher Meng's 100 Cupcakes 孟老师的一百道小蛋糕)
**Make 5 5cm x 2.5cm muffins

Ingredients:
70gm Mashed Bananas
30gm Condensed Milk
65gm Butter
40gm Icing Sugar
1 Egg Yolk
90gm Cake Flour
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
10gm Cocoa Powder

Method:
1. Mix condensed milk and mashed banana in a bowl.
2. Using a rubber spatula, mix butter and icing sugar together so that it won't be a messy affair when beating them with an electric mixer. 
3.. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter and add in egg yolk and beat under high speed.
4. Put in the banana and condensed milk mix and beat under high speed till well mix.
5. Sieve in cake flour, baking soda and cocoa powder and mix well using a rubber spatula till mixture becomes cake batter.
6. Scoop the mixture into muffin cups.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 160c for 20 to 25 minutes or until cook.

Thursday 19 May 2011

Meat Floss Sponge Cake 肉松海棉蛋糕

Found a packet of meat floss when I was organizing my food stuff in the kitchen. I would go through all my stuff and throw away anything that are expired or doesn't look nice to me.

Since I reckon meat floss should have a longer life span because its suppose to be dried and dehydrated so i didn't throw it away.

Going through my one and only recipe book, i found this recipe and remembered i did bought a little tub of SP emulsifier.

Actually i think this recipe is better if it is done in a cupcake style so the meat floss won't get messy when you are cutting the cake. I also think that i should use the mixer and beat the batter a little bit before i pour the batter in for the second time because i found a thin line of wet batter in the top layer.


Meat Floss Sponge Cake 肉松海棉蛋糕
(Adapted from: Teacher Meng's 100 Cupcakes 孟老师的一百道小蛋糕)
**Make a 7" Aluminium square tin

Ingredients:
35gm Milk
25gm Corn Oil
100gm Cake Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
200gm Whole Egg
100gm Castor Sugar (Reduce from 120gm)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp SP Emulsifier
45gm Meat Floss

Method:
1. Grease a 7" aluminium square baking tin and line with parchment paper.
2. Put the milk and corn oil into the same container.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat whole eggs and sugar together till even.
4. Add in SP emulsifer and sieve in cake flour and baking powder and beat under high speed till mixture become pale.
5. Pour in the oil and milk mixture slowly and beat till the mixture are smooth and flowing.
6. Pour half of the cake batter into the baking tin and even out the top.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for about 12 to 15 minutes or till batter set. There is no need for the batter to be cook at this point.
8. Take out the baking tin and spread the meat floss on top evenly.
9. Put it bake into the oven and bake at 150c for about 20 to 25 minutes till cook.

Wholemeal Chiffon Cake 全麦戚风蛋糕

I have some leftover wholemeal flour (全麦面粉) and found some wholemeal chiffon recipe online. Really curious how it would taste so I tried this recipe today.

After i finish preparing everything only i saw that the egg whites are about 175gm. My 4 whites only weighs about 125gm. Nevertheless, I proceed to bake it since the flour and liquid ratio are about the same as the other chiffons I have attempted.

The taste is really good! Its taste like wholemeal bread with a chiffon texture. The raisins I added gave it some extra flavour!

Look at the fine texture of the chiffon!

Despite dusting my raisins with flour, it still sink to the bottom... 

Wholemeal Chiffon Cake
(Adapted from: The Kitchen 70's)
**Make a 18cm Chiffon Mould

Ingredients:
3 Egg Yolks
20gm Castor Sugar
50gm Corn Oil
50gm Water
60gm Wholemeal Flour
20gm Self Raising Flour

4 Egg Whites
50gm Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

40gm Raisins

Method:
1. Using a hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and sugar till sugar dissolve. Add in oil and water and whisk well.
2. Sieve in self raising flour and add in wholemeal flour and mix well. (Mixture will turn a bit dry when u fold in your egg whites due to wholemeal flour)
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till soft foam. Add in cream of tartar and continue beating.
4. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
5. Take 1/3 of the egg whites and fold into the egg yolks mixture and raisins with light strokes.
6. Pour mixture (5) into the remaining egg whites and fold till no streaks of whites can be seen.
7. Pour the cake batter into a chiffon cake tin and bang the tin on the counter several times to get rid of the air bubbles.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 30 minutes. When cake is ready, take it out from the oven and invert immediately till cake is completely cool.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I was assigned the task to bake a cake for last Saturday's celebration. We were celebrating mother's day and a couple of birthdays.

I never tried frosting a cake and didn't wanna risk it and so i need to bake something that doesn't require frosting yet its presentable enough. I also afraid that one cake is not going to be enough for so many people so i bake FOUR! Yes... FOUR types of cakes.

Among them was my Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake, Coffee Chiffon Cake, Pandan Chiffon Cake and 15 premix chocolate muffins.

Everything was polished off within seconds! :)


Pandan Chiffon Cake
(Adapted from: Coffee Chiffon Cake)

**Make a 18cm chiffon mould

Ingredients:
4 Egg Yolks
40gm Castor Sugar
40gm Pandan Juice
40gm Cooking Oil
80gm Self Raising Flour

4 Egg Whites
80gm Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method:
1. Using a hand whisk, whisk egg yolks and castor sugar till sugar dissolve. Add in oil and pandan juice. whisk well.
2. Sieve self raising flour into egg yolk mixture and mix well.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till foamy and add in cream of tartar and 1/3 castor sugar.
4. Add in the remaining sugar slowly and beat till stiff peaks.
5. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites mixture into the egg yolks mixture using a rubber spatula.
6. Pour the mixture into the remaining egg whites and fold with light strokes till no streaks of white can be seen.
7. Pour the cake batter into a chiffon cake tin and bang the tin on the counter several times to get rid of the air bubbles.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 30 minutes. When cake is ready, take it out from the oven and invert immediately till cake is completely cool.

For my pandan juice, I use 10 pcs of pandan leaves and blend with a 1-2 tbsp of water. Sieve the mixture and use a spoon squeeze out any remaining juice. Add more water to make it to desire amount.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Spongy Banana Cake

Bought a big bunch of bananas on my trip to jusco. Some is for my helper who loves banana so much and some is for baby. The remaining? Attempt to bake a banana cake of course!

There are always so many recipes that I found when browsing the blogs I love to read. I think I found about 10 banana cakes recipe so I choose one that uses the most bananas.

Funny things, maybe I did not mix the flour in correctly or maybe I did not beat the eggs and bananas to really stiff peaks, my cake did not turn out spongy. It turn out crumbly instead.

Nevertheless, it's a very nice recipe.

I also use some paper moulds from daiso to bake this cake but oh boy, my cake burned! Maybe next time I should put the moulds on the baking pan instead of the wired one.


Spongy Banana Cake
(Adapted from: Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)
**Make 2 7.5" x  3.5" loaf pan

Ingredients:
3 Whole Eggs
230gm Ripe Bananas (Original recipe calls for only 200gm)
130gm Castor Sugar
150gm Cake Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
100gm Corn Oil

Method:
1. Cut the bananas into tiny pieces and using an electric mixer, beat bananas, sugar and whole eggs Under high speed until stiff. Mixture will double the amount at this stage.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda twice and fold into banana mixture.
3. Lastly, add in corn oil and mix well till batter is shiny and flowing.
4. Pour batter into cake tin lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 30 minutes or tested clean with skewer.

Monday 9 May 2011

Solids: Pears and Bananas

Till date, baby Samantha tried 4 types of fruits and one type of vegetable. She is doing very well and loves her solids. I bought a green pear last Tuesday and she started on Friday. No watery poo and not passing motion very frequently, still have her usual toilet habits.

I gave another meal just now at 5.30pm. Mashed 1/4 of a banana with one scoop of rice cereal mix with water. She did not finish it maybe because she doesn't like sitting in her bumbo and got angry...

Next item I would like to try are pumpkins. Wait till she finish her stash in the freezer first.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Black Sesame Chiffon

Went to HOI.. Hands itchy so bought a pack of 100gm black sesame powder. The staff said it's their best seller recently. Without an idea of what to do with it, I google search and found this black sesame chiffon recipe.

The black sesame taste is mild and u need to slowly chew to release it's flavor. But I love this recipe as the whites are very easy to fold in and my chiffon did not crack very badly.


Black Sesame Chiffon
(Adapted from: Lucky Inn 幸福小站

Ingredients:
4 Egg Yolks
20gm Castor Sugar
70ml Milk
1/4 tsp Salt
50gm Cake Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
50gm Black Sesame Powder
40gm Corn Oil

4 Egg Whites
70gm Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method:
1. Using a hand whisk, mix the egg yolks, salt, castor sugar and milk together till even.
2. Sieve in cake flour, baking powder and black sesame powder and mix well.
3. Add in corn oil and stir all ingredients till well incorporated.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till foamy and add in cream of tartar and 1/3 of the sugar.
5. Continue beating and add in the remaining sugar gradually. After all sugar had been added, beat under high speed till stiff peaks.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the whites with the yolks mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into the remaining egg whites mixture and fold in light strokes till no streaks of whites can be seen.
8. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bang the tin on the counter several times to et rid of large air bubbles.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 150c for 30 minutes or till cake is done.
10. Invert the cake tin when cake is done and let cake to cool down completely before serving.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Cantonese Egg Tarts

Went to House of Ingredients again today to get my cream cheese and low protein flour. The Philadelphia Cream Cheese over there is much much cheaper than the ones sold outside at the supermarket. For RM 11.50, i can get 500gm of cream cheese instead of 250gm at the supermarket.

Bought a lot of muffin cups and 10 egg tarts mould to try the recipe below. Came home and can't wait to start work.




Cantonese Egg Tarts
(Adapted from: Christine's Recipe)
**Make 8-10 pcs 7cm x 3cm tart moulds

Ingredients:
For the pastry,
113gm Plain Flour
63gm Butter
27gm Icing Sugar
1/2 Egg
A Dash of Vanilla Essence

For the Egg Custard,
1 1/2 Eggs
42gm Evaporated Milk 
65gm Castor Sugar
112gm Hot Water

Method:
For the pastry,
1. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and icing sugar together.
2. Add in whisked egg and mix under low speed. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
3. Sieve in flour in 2 parts and mix till it become a dough.
4. Roll the dough into desire thickness and then cut out with the tart mould. Put the cut dough into the tart moulds at the centre and lightly press the dough with your thumbs, from bottom up to the sides. Trimmed away any excess dough.

For the egg custards,
5. Whisk eggs and evaporated milk till well combine.
6. Melt sugar in hot water till dissolve and add into the (1).
7. Sieve the mixture to get a smooth liquid.

7. Pour the egg custard into the prepared tart moulds making sure that the custard doesn't overflow.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180c for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 150c. Keep an eye on the egg tarts and once it starts to puff up, bake with the oven door open for another 10-15 minutes.
9. Test for doneness with a toothpick. If a toothpick can stand well in the middle of the custard, then its cooked.

Note: Each oven is different and I always lower my oven temperature by 20-30c for a recipe. Keep an eye on your egg tarts so that u can adjust the temperature accordingly.