Teatime Treats

Steamed Rice with Minced Pork and Salted Fish

2012-01-13T14:29:00.004+08:00

Occasionally, I would need to cook a decent meal. This is an attempt to remake Crystal Jade's steamed rice with minced meat and salted fish. I had spread raw minced meat and salted fish on top of a bowl of cooked steamed rice. And I steamed it until the meat is cooked. It looks pretty with chilli and xiao bai cai. But the meat leaked out a lot of water when it is cooked and turned the rice quite soggy. Nevertheless, I still have to eat the somewhat less than expected meal. And top up with some black sauce for flavouring.

A typical meal

2010-08-16T09:30:00.003+08:00

Ever since the KitchenAid was retired snugly in its packaging box, it never met daylight again. There was once a flood in our house & it was taken out to dry itself. Yes, a flood in sunny island Singapore. We stay in a high-rise apartment & the rain have secretly seeped into the rooms via the tightly-shut windows. There were so much rain tapping on the windows railings that it overflow & dripped into our rooms. The KitchenAid was quietly sitting in a corner below the windows. I think it was the only expensive item that was affected, together with a 30 year-old electric organ.

The cooking scene has evolved over the past 8 months. No more convectional dry baking. It's all about sterilising & wet-steaming. No more cake tins, it's all about bottles.

I recently learnt how to cook yummy & nutritious porridge for the little one. This meal meets the dietary requirement for a 6month-old, according to the Singapore Health Promotion Board recommendation. Isn't it nice to have some authorised sample menu so that I don't have to crack my brain to think of what to cook for baby?

Baby J eats this for breakfast & dinner, at around 10am & 4pm respectively. She also eats scraped bananas, papayas, orange juice & apples as teatime treats & to fulfil her fruit dietary requirement.

Recipe: (Makes 3/4 coffee cup)
Ingredients:
1 handful of rice grain
3/4 saucepan of water
a chunk of pork fillet
1 tablespoon of fish, scraped
1 tablespoon of vegetable, scraped

Method:
1. Cook the rice on high heat (big fire) till boiling. Stir the rice grains to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of saucepan. Reduce fire strength such that it simmers. Continue to boil the porridge until about 2 handfuls of water is left.
2. Add in the scraped fish. When the scraped fish is cooked, it does not disintegrate. Hence, fish out the fish & press it through the seive to mash it up.
3. Add in scraped vegetables. Take note not to cook the vegetables until yellow as yellow means that the vitamin c & iron is lost. Bring porridge to boil again, to ensure porridge is thoroughly cooked.

Notes:
1. Remove stems & veins of vegetables & cook only the green leafy portion. This is because baby cannot digest the stems.
2. For ease of preparation, use spinach as it has the least stems & veins to remove. Also, it is a rich source of vitamin c & iron.
3. PS: don't ask me how much is 1 handful. That is how all of us cooks.
4. PS: don't ask me how big is the saucepan. I use one that is for cooking instant noodles.

Wonderful.

Simple Treats

2010-02-06T00:11:00.004+08:00

It has been a long time since I baked. I noticed that my last post was on 11 November 2009. Wow, can't imagine that I gave birth on 24th November 2009. Before I gave birth, the KitchenAid was already temporarily retired into its own box and the kitchen table cleared for baby gadgets.

Now that I am busy taking care of a 10 week old baby, there is no time to resume baking, especially those involving the KitchenAid (no space!). I am recollecting what are the simple teatime treats that I can do with just hands and ovens. Below are the list:

1. Egg Tarts!
2. Scones!
3. Carrot Cake (not chai dao kueh)
4. Cornflake Cookies
5. Tiramisu
6. Savoury tarts
7. Rosemary bread (ask the Husband to knead it)
8. Brownie
9. Muffins!

Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Condensed Milk Cupcakes

2009-11-11T10:28:00.007+08:00

How I love these cutesy little domed cupcakes!

I renember the days when my mum steamed a condensed milk cake, based on a Milkmaid recipe. The aroma was so unique that until today I wish I can eat it again. But the recipe was lost. Thus, I was very delighted when I chanced upon a recipe from Simply Anne's. Instead of making a cake, I made it into cupcakes so that it is easier to eat.

But alas, this recipe is still different from the ones that my mum used to make. This cake smells more like a butter cake, with a tinge of condensed milk, although half a can of condensed milk was used.

I added some oats to the cutesy cupcakes but it made it real heaty.

I also practised my crumbling skills with some margarine. I noticed that margarine really isn't as fragrant as butter & it doesn't hold its shape well. Perhaps it is also because I didn't add in any sugar. Making crumbles with a knife is easier than using fingers.

Another thing to note is that the black cupcake liners will leech out colour onto the cake when the cake is peeled hot. So much for making pretty cupcakes. But when cooled, the colour is not transfered to the cake as the cake crumbs are stuck onto the liners instead.

Condensed Milk Recipe

(Makes 20+ cupcakes)

Ingredients:

226g unsalted butter at room temperature

1 and 1/3 cups cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

3 large eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan and set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a bowl beat butter and white sugar until light and fluffy about 2 minutes. Add condensed milk and vanilla beat until well incorporated.

4. Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat until no traces of flour remains.

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl after each additions.

6. Transfer batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is dark golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean about 1 hour. Cool and slice.

Scones

2009-09-28T17:49:00.008+08:00

I have been recently inspired by Cedele by Bakery Depot. I tried its Raspberry Scones for Sunday breakfast. I would say I still like the old plain scones. So I was motivated by my own craving to bake my first scones.

Scones are challenging to me because it requires the rubbing-in method which I have never acquire in this hot and humid weather in Singapore. Also, I am a very slow person. Usually, the butter would have melted. I first tried half the recipe so that I do not bake so many which otherwise would have ended up in the garbage. But alas, I do not have milk and egg. So, I substituted it with just plain water and the mixture was sticky before I could pour all liquid in. Disappointed, I discarded the dough before I had to do more cleaning up for the baking.

The second time I tried, I used the full recipe from HHB. I was skeptical about the 1 tbsp of baking powder used. A check on the net shows that it is reasonable as the amount would make the flour a self-raising flour, which is the same as Delia's recipe. I should have sifted the baking powder together with the cake flour as it remains as large crumbs after mixing the dry ingredients. Using a butter knife and later a spatula to cut the butter into small fine crumbs, this method is better than rubbing in.

I mixed in 1 beaten egg first, followed by 2 tbsp of milk. Then, as the mixture is still quite dry, I added the milk tsp by tsp and that came up to about 3 tsp. The trick with scones is never to overmix the dough and to roll them to more than 1" thick. Using a 2" cutter, I got 7 scones, each 1" tall before baking. By right, it should yield 10 pieces. Did something went wrong?

The scones were delicious when eaten hot with the butter. It tasted a little bit sweet, a bit like biscuit. Reminds me of the cheese scones that my sister did 10 years back.

Scones

Ingredients: (modified from HHB)

250g cake flour

1 tbsp baking powder

50g butter

30g sugar

1 egg

2tbsp milk

Method: (modified from Delia)

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix well.

2. Rub in butter using a palette knife or cold fingertips until they look like breadcrumbs.

3. Mix in sugar.

4. Make a well in the centre of the crumbs, add 1 beaten egg and incorporate with a spatula.

5. Add 2 tbsp of milk to combine.

6. If the dough is still dry, add milk a teaspoon at a time until it leaves the sides of the bowl. It should be soft and not sticky.

7. Roll the dough to 1" thickness and cut out the scones using 2" round glass or cutter.

8. Bake at 200C for 13-15mins.

The Art of Muffins

2009-09-12T16:21:00.011+08:00

After eating an expensive and yummy Orange Carrot Muffins from Cedele by Bakery Depot, I decided that I should learn how to make a good muffin.

Muffins, I read that, there are 2 types. One the American which uses chemical leavening like baking powder/soda to rise the muffin, the other the English muffin which uses yeast. A muffin is actually a bread but some prefer it to be more cake-like, and hence some muffins have soft fluffy cakey texture. A bread muffin is more crumbly. And I found that making muffins do not require a lot of utensils and washing up. And it uses pretty available ingredients like apple, orange, carrots, banana, berries and so on for flavouring. So that means I can easily bake muffins on a weekday night when cravings come. More dollars & cents saved. :)

Making muffins require 2 bowls: one for dry ingredients, the other wet ingredients. After mixing both bowls of ingredients separately to ensure that everything is well-dispersed, pour the wet ingredient into the dry ingredients and complete the mixing within 12 strokes. Other solid toppings like diced apples, berries should be folded in last. The mixture should be lumpy with flecks of flour.

I tried an Orange Muffins with Cinnamon Streusels from Allrecipes. This muffin is not as citrus as Cedele's. And my streusel is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it is because I use table margarine instead of butter (lazy me). But anyway, I'm glad my attempt ended well. Below is the adjusted recipe for 6 muffins.

Orange Muffins with Cinnamon Streusels

(makes 6)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour ( I use cake flour)

1/4 cup and 2 tbsp sugar ( I use 1/4 cup)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp and 2 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup buttermilk ( I use non-dairy whipping cream)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Method:

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease muffin tray or line it with liners.
Mix plain flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in one bowl.
Mix vegetable oil, orange juice, milk, vanilla extract and egg in another bowl.
Pour the wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until combined. The mixture should be lumpy.
Pour into muffin tray and place the toppings before baking for 20-22min.

Streusel toppings

2 tbsp plain flour

2 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon ( I omitted this)

1 tbsp butter

Mix the above until it resembles crumbles and top it on top of muffins before baking.

Banana Cake I

2009-09-06T20:55:00.009+08:00

This is the best banana cake I have ever made! Such were the comments from my ever-critical parents. They even encouraged my siblings to try some too. My previous banana cakes usually turn out to be a kueh. The banana cake recipe was from Aunt Yochana. Although it is nowhere near to Bengawan Solo standard, I am very pleased with its fine texture.

It started on a lazy rainy afternoon when the husband had to attend a company carnival event. I was alone at home, nothing to do. The husband will only come back at 3pm & by then, he will be exhausted from running all over the little island of Sentosa. So he will not be able to bring me out for teatime. Feeling bored and having craving for either butter or banana cake, I was contemplating of baking a cake, not bread, as cake is simple. I browsed through the blogs from Baking Mum, remembering that there is a nice banana cake recipe being raved about in her blog.

Since there are 3 sticks of bananas & a block of 3-week old butter at home, I decided to venture this recipe out, knowing that most probably it will turn out to be a kueh due to my unskillful techniques. Also, I didn't have all the appropriate ingredients & tin size. As the recipe calls for an 8" round tin, I adjusted the amount to fit into my 7" round tin & 125g butter. I also reduced the sugar to 125g. The cake was sweet when hot but ok when cold. The eggs I added in was also excessive for my cake size. I didn't weigh it but I bet it was around 60g each. The bananas were non-rotten del monte, not the pisang type. So I wasn't sure how fragrant the cake will be without any banana essence. On top of that, I used non-dairy whipping cream (too much at home) although the recipe calls for either whipping cream or evaporated milk. I had a HL milk at home but was skeptical to use it for fear that it is not creamy enough.

It was a long time since I had creamed any butter & I was scared of curdling as well. I forgot when to switch from the K-beater to whisk. The best temperature to cream the butter was when the butter leaves an imprint when lightly pressed. My KA creamed the butter & sugar into light & fluffy state within minutes. It was amazing how a 125g butter can more than double in volume and turn whiter in colour (due to the addition of sugar). When I added in the mashed bananas, the batter was a bit curdlish. Luckily, it turned out fine after I incorporated the flour into it. I remembered not to overmix it.

As my oven is on the hotter side, I baked the cake at 170C on the lower shelf for 55min. The crust is crispy when hot & the oven is full of the banana aroma when opened. There is a tinge of milky taste, most probably due to the whipping cream. I have always thought that only condensed milk can do such wonderful taste. So, actaully whipping cream is ok too.

Below is the recipe.

Banana Cake
(8" round tin)

Ingredients:
180g butter
180 g fine sugar
2 nos Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly
250 g Cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 g Bananas - mashed
50 g Dairy whip cream (can substitute with evaporated milk)
1/2 tsp Banana essence
2 bananas - slice

Method:

Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked.

For 7" round tin, below are the portions:
137g butter ( I used 125g)
137 g fine sugar ( I used 125g)
99g eggs ( I used 120g)
191g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda ( I omitted this)
168g bananas ( I used about 3 sticks of del monte)
38g dairy whipping cream ( I used PH non-dairy whipping cream)
3/8 tsp banana essence ( I used 1 tsp vanilla essence)
1/2 banana - sliced

Recipe adapted from: Aunty Yochana Banana Cake

Lunch Time Treat

2009-08-31T14:19:00.008+08:00

Clears your tray, leaves no trace. Yes, this is a similar tagline in Ikea Singapore, reminding customers to help clear the trays after having a meal. No, this is not about my experience with Ikea dining. This is about the pizza dough that I tried for lunch. One of the virtue is that it does not stick to the baking tray! The pizza dough texture is similar to the Focaccia bread dough that I did some time ago.

With 2 3/4 cups of flour, the husband kneaded everything in a Corningware cooking pot. The plus point is that the it has a transparent lid that allows us to check dough size during proofing. No more tearing hard-to-shear cling wrap. The ingredients are similar to the Focaccia bread recipe, especially when it calls for olive oil. So I sprinkled in some rosemary leaves too.

As it was a rainy day, we proofed the dough in an enclosed microwave oven, with a transparent lid on & a mug of warm water. The dough was ready in 1 hour's time.

It was difficult to roll out the dough in a neat circular / rectangular shape, despite using the newly-bought $2 dim-sum rolling pin. The toppings were simple tomato sauce, honey-baked chicken ham, mozzarella cheese and freshly chopped tomatos. We also pinched off 2 handfuls of dough to make our garlic bread.

In about 7-10mins' time, the pizza is piping hot ready. The hot buns tasted fresh with the margarine. We have about one-third of the pizza left for breakfast. It was really a wonderful experience to eat fresh, hot, thin crust pizza on a rainy day.

Pizza Dough
Makes one 12" crust

Ingredients:

340g (2 3/4 cup) bread flour
2 teaspoons fast acting dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
200ml lukewarm water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

Use a 30cm (12in) round pizza tray. Grease the tray. (I used a baking tray, lined with parchment paper).
Mix flour, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the water and olive oil. Mix with hand to form a soft dough. If needed, add a little more water.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10 mins or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave to rise for 1 ~ 1.5hrs until double in size.
Turn out the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knock it down to release the air. Give it a few gently kneading. Roll or press out to a round to fit the pizza tray, place dough on tray.
Spread pizza sauce over the pizza base to within 1 cm (0.5 inch) of the edge. Arrange a layer of grated cheese, followed by preferred toppings. Sprinkle the top all over with grated cheese.
Leave the pizza in a warm place for about 15mins. Preheat oven to 220degC (425 degF)
Bake pizza for 20~25mins or until the crust has risen and is golden and the cheese has melted. Serve warm.

Recipe source: Happy Home Baking / adapted from Baking with Love (Readers Digest)

Traditional Mooncakes

2009-08-27T19:09:00.003+08:00

I know it is a bit early for mooncakes when it is one and a half month away. I have ran out of baking inspirations & I have been wanting to do a mooncake since last year August. Last year this time, I was happily married & was starting a new life in another place with another person. Too busy to make mooncakes. Next week onwards, I will be busy with weekend errands, so I am trying to quickly bake all my favourite things.

The mooncakes turned out well. The big mooncakes were without filling and were my first attempt. It is a bit over-baked & cracks a little bit because I forgot to spray water before baking. The underside is very charred because I greased the baking pan, treating it like normal cookies. Other than these little imperfections, the taste is fanstatic!

The mooncakes were made using Snoopy cookie cutters. Pressing the dough into the cookie ring, the shape is formed. Removing the dough is easier than knocking them out from mooncake moulds. Luckily, I didn't buy any mooncake moulds. Plastic ones cost around $4 and wooden ones are around $10.

The ingredients are readily available from Phoon Huat. I bought the sugar syrup ($2.40 for 500g) and alkaline water ($1.25 for 250ml) from PH. There is the branded Abram Lyes sugar syrup ($5 for 907g) which I forgo, because I don't want to spend too much capital on my first attempt. And that will mean I have to make a lot of mooncakes or everything will go to the rubbish bin.

The quick-and-easy outcome makes me crave for a 2nd attempt with filling. The next day, I went back to buy a kg of lotus paste to make mini mooncakes. It was very tedious this time, handling both the paste and skin and squeezing them into mini cookie cutters. My production rate is only 6 per 15min. So, I called it a day after making 19 & some of them have already started to seep out oil while waiting to be baked.

With the mini mooncakes, I baked at 160C and tenting them. It tooked about 30mins in total for the colour to be satisfactory. The skin, surprisingly, turn out to be very thin. Nevertheless, the mini mooncakes is very delicious! The 1:1 ratio (by volume) skin and paste is not too sweet. It suits my taste.

Traditional Mooncakes

(makes 8 pieces without filling)

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

60g peanut oil (I use cooking oil)

130g golden syrup (I use PH sugar syrup)

1 tsp alkaline water

Egg glaze:

1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water lightly beaten and strain ( I added more drops of water for mini ones)

Method:

1. Mix peanut oil, golden syrup and alkaline water together in a big cup and sit this cup in a bowl of boiling water. Stir till mixture is well combine. Remove and leave aside to cool till warm state but not cold.

2. Sieve plain flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the warm syrup. Mix till a dough is formed. Cover the mixing bowl with a wet towel and rest the dough for 30 - 45 minutes.

3. Divide dough according to the size of your mould. Put the mooncake into the mould. Flatten it with your oiled palms and make sure that the mooncake fills up the mould nicely.

6. To dislodge the mooncake, let it slip through the cookie cutter.

7. Place mooncakes on a lined pan and spray the mooncakes with some water. Bake at 180C - 190C for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cool the cakes for 5 - 10 minutes then apply egg glace and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or till golden brown. As every oven varies, please standby to check on your mooncakes. If you are doing standard size mooncakes, the baking time might be longer.

8. Store cooled mooncakes in an airtight container and serve only after 3 days.

Recipe Source: Florence Mini Mooncakes 2005

Ran out of Baking Soda

2009-08-04T10:42:00.012+08:00

Halfway through measuring the ingredients for Chocolate Swiss Roll, I realised that the Bake King bottle in my hands is actually gelatine powder & not baking soda. For 2 seconds, I froze. Then I decided to omit the baking soda since I learnt that the purpose of baking soda is to give the chocolate an enhanced darker colour. Besides, the recipe has baking powder as well, so leavening is taken care of, to some extent. I doubt I'll buy another bottle of baking soda since it is usually only called in chocolate recipes.

The cake roll turn out to be very spongy(due to large eggs used) & has a milo colour. It is also easy to roll, with the help of the tracing paper. I am very delighted that it can be rolled, although there are some minor cracks. Anyway, it didn't disintegrate beyond repair.

But its twin is different. It was very difficult to remove this sponge cake from the tin. I think I didn't grease it & flour it well enough. The trick is to be generous with the oil & flour.

Crumbly sides

Well-greased & floured pan

Not as good greasing & flouring

I used the red box of Phoon Huat whipping cream and I must say it is very reliable. After thawing from the freezer, the liquid cream was not like the thawed Pour n Whip cream. The Pour n Whip cream had some white precipitates. I poured half a rice bowl of liquid cream and started whipping with a fork. I was too lazy to use KitchenAid as the cream amount is too little & I didn't want to wash the whisk & mixing bowl again. I thought I can whip up the cream with a fork in no time. I was wrong. 15mins went past & the cream just look like frothy milk. It did increase in volume.

Not wanting to repeat my mistake in the Strawberry Heart Jelly Mousse Cake, I poured the cream into KitchenAid & let it do its work. Since it is a small amount, a high speed of 8 to 10 is required to whisk. At speed 10, my table shook. Luckily the whipping cream is ready within 5 mins at Speed 8. I would say it is worth re-washing the mixing bowl and whisk.

Recipe Source: Creative Culinaire

Matcha Cake

2009-07-27T11:13:00.008+08:00

Time for an asian taste - Matcha Cake.

This seems to be an infallible cake. I have never failed, except for a modified version intended for The Husband's birthday.

Thanks to one of my aunts who passed me a 9x9 inch square tin, I am able to separate the cake batter into 2 tins & bake them together. This saves the trouble of having to slice a single sponge cake into 2 layers. Anyway, my sister says that it is better to bake them in layers, rather than slicing them from a single sponge cake.

In the past when I have only one 9x9 inch square tin, I would bake them in 2 batches. The 2nd batch is always more deflated than the first. I guess the air bubbles have deflated a little while waiting for the first layer to be baked.

When I tried baking in a single batch, the centre of the cake sank, so this method is no good either.

Now, I bake them in 2 tins, the top tin that is closer to the heating elements is not as well risen as the bottom tin. The top layer gets brown faster as I was too lazy to "tent" it. The bottom tin takes longer to be browned, due to sheltar from the tin on 2nd rack.

I think, the best method is to bake them in a big brownie tray & cut them into 2 pieces. This way, all parts of the cake gets the same treatment. My sister did it this way.

For the red beans, I have learnt my lesson. The red beans were soaked for an hour, boiled for an hour, then, sugar is added. The amount used is sufficient for 1 layer, about 20cents worth, below 100g. (30cents is 100g).

For the whipped cream, I used non-dairy whipping cream from Phoon Huat. Although it does not taste as nice as Pour n Whip, it can keep longer than the latter.

Assuming a 1 cm thick cream to be shared with 2 9x9 layers, volume required = (9 x 2.54cm)(9 x 2.54cm)(1cm) = 522 cubic centimetre. Since whipping cream will double when whipped, volume required in liquid state = 522/2 = 261 cubic centimetre.

The actual amount used seems to defy the calculation. It is 1/3 less than the calculated. It is no easy feat to spread the cream too, taking care not to touch any cake crumbs, if not the cream will not be glossy white.

One saving grace is that the KitchenAid was able to whip up 250g in no time. The husband says I should have used the KitchenAid to whip up the dairy cream in Strawberry Heart Mirror Cake, instead of using manual. In future, I should use maybe 100g for Matcha Cake.

I really love how home-made the cake turn out to be, without the straight side edges. The green crumbs are also carefully placed to give a light finishing touch.

After chilling the cake in the fridge for 1 hour, I used a string to cut the cake into squares, to give a really neat look. For a big cake (9"), it is not easy to maintain the tautness in the string, hence the cake is not thoroughly cut through in the centre.

Also, re-packaging the squares in sandwich boxes meant that the aluminium foil needs to be lined properly first & taken out during transfer. The quarters of the cake could not be fitted into the box, so the flossy sides were trimmed away.

I was extremely satisfied and proud when the squares could sit fittingly snugly into the box like a bento set. When the lid was pressed over, it barely touched the green crumbs. This is a good piece of work.

The cake that wasn't made to be...

2009-07-14T15:16:00.004+08:00

The Strawberry Heart Mirror Cake was almost a success. The main failure was at the mirror layer part. It was devastatingly disappointing.

I really have to pen all these observations down to help me improve in my future similar cake making experience. And never give up trying. A good baker will always try. Thomas Edison experienced 1000 failures before he invented the light bulb.

The jelly was pretty ok when pouring onto the mousse. Until the jelly started bubbling at a corner. Looks like the mousse layer gave way & pockets of air are escaping. So, the jelly seeped in from the sides. By the time, the cake tin was transferred to the fridge for cooling, all jelly has disappeared within seconds.

The sponge cake that was next to the wall absorbed the liquid jelly, so do some parts of the base. In the centre of the base, the jelly was not absorbed by the sponge cake, so it remained as another layer underneath the sponge cake.

I could only identify a few possible triggers for this:
1. The mousse layer was too thin to hold the jelly, and hence caved in.

2. The mousse layer was not well set long enough. It was placed in the fridge for half an hour only. Now, I read somewhere that it should be set at least 2 hours.

3. The mousse layer did not fill in completely all gaps. It was spread to cover all sides and corners & also a bit of the walls where the jelly will come in contact. But it most probably didn't fill in between the sponge cake and tin wall as it was not liquefied enough & it was a bit too little. Only 250g of dairy cream was whipped for a 2 layered 9x9 square tin. Next time, be generous with cream. Also, I read somewhere that the mousse should be tapped lightly to fill up all gaps.

4. The tin gave way. It can bulge out during the transfer to the fridge. Next time, use a more rigid tin or put the tin on a plate.

Some of the irritating stuff encountered:
1. No small bottle of strawberry puree readily available. Phoon Huat sells 1 litre or 1 kg for $10+. I need to mash up the strawberries myself.

2. No fine sugar at home. Coarse sugar are available. Being on a tight budget and not knowing how often I will use the fine sugar, I insisted on not buying extra fine sugar.
The coarse sugar turns out ok for usage. There is no graininess in the cake. 50% of the required sugar are dissolved in the liquid ingredients. The other is added into egg whites gradually.

3. Dairy cream is difficult to be whipped up as it was not cold enough & the amount I used was 125g for 1 layer. So, I manually whipped it up. It didn't occured to me that I needed a lot of cream as I always have a huge excess whenever I buy a 1 litre package or followed the recipe. This time, 250g is insufficient. Next time, use non-dairy & try to use more.

Some great things encountered:
1. The 2 9x9 tins are great to use. Saves the trouble of slicing into layers.

2. Preheating the oven before the batter is ready for baking is healthy for cakes.

3. The sponge cake is really springy and nice. :)

Btw, there is no need to buy a heart-shape cookie cutter to stamp out the hearts from strawberries. The strawberry, in my opinion, will look quite artificial. Removing the stem buy cutting a V-shape made the strawberry look like a heart already.

Excited over Strawberry Heart Mirror Cake

2009-07-08T16:30:00.005+08:00

I have been losing a little bit of sleep dreaming & planning if I should do a Strawberry Heart Mirror Cake.

I have considered this on a few occasions each time I see a beautiful Strawberry Heart Jelly Cheesecake. So far, I have not attempted it due to a few reasons:

1. I don't like non-bake cheesecake.

2. There seems to be some technical difficulties in pouring the jelly into the mould. Sounds similar to mango mirror cake. And the difficulty in un-moulding it.

3. It is difficult to find an appropriate sized heart-shaped cookie cutter for the strawberries here. Usually, the cutter is not small enough. Also, only the US strawberries are big and there only a few big ones among the small ones in a punnet.

4. It is not cost effective to buy a 1 litre non-dairy whipping cream for just one cake. I did re-package them into 250ml, but I had an experience where it cannot be whipped up if it has been frozen for too long but still less than 1 year. See my experience in Green Tea Cake.

Recently, I have sorted out the difficulties.

1. Make a mousse cake, not cheesecake.

2. Either buy a cake ring or just use normal cake tin. The cake will be slightly damaged when removed. But it should be pretty when served into squares.
I have considered lining the tin with aluminium foil but the foil is rather filmsy and may not align well with the sides of the tin. This may caused the mousse not to be fully filled to the sides, and maybe the jelly will leak in from the sides. Thinking too much?

3. Just bought a cutter and compared it with the strawberries sold here. The cutter is bigger than the strawberry but the strawberry should turn out quite heart-shape looking if I cut away the V-shape at the stem. Strawberry itself is pretty heart-shape looking.

4. Will buy a 250ml Paul's Thickened Cream at Giant for $3.50. I don't eat a lot of mousse. Will keep it thin.

As for Strawberry puree, buy from Phoon Huat. And buy $0.61 Strawberry Tropical Jelly from Giant. Don't really wish to do a pureed jelly.
Next, I need to do time management.

Wish me luck!

Sandwich Bread Recipe

2009-07-06T10:56:00.010+08:00

I tried Happy Home Baking Sandwich Bread on Sat because it looked so soft! I was very interested to try out the swiss roll style of rolling the dough into the Pullman tin. I read about this rolling method in 2 Taiwanese bread books and had since forgotten it when I returned it to the library.

I like the layers of bread from Happy Home Baking pictures. It makes it look so soft.

Although bread making requires less hands-on than cake-making, it needs a lot of waiting time for it to knead & proof to the right texture & size. So, learning from my few experiences in time management, I decided to wake up early, around 9am to start the machine process.

Unfortunately & fortunately, I woke up real early at 730am on a Sat! I could have slept longer on a non-working day. But a brief visit to the toilet has kept me from returning to sleep again. Fortunately, I started this early! Because later on, I was told that the niece will visit us around 12 plus. Well, she will be in time to taste the fresh bread! Looking forward to her visit. :)

Happily, I measured all ingredients & by 835am, the KitchenAid has started kneading the dough. I made a 500g bread flour portion as the KA could not handle a 250g. I was very confident that I will finish early that day.

But alas, the hiccup came at 915am, I noticed the dough has turned from smooth to sticky. Panicking, I quickly stopped the kneading & check its temperature. It felt warm. KA motor was scalding hot too.

I took out the dough from the kitchen, bring it to cool down in the living room, in front of a fan. Maybe the yeast has started its work under the warm temperature & caused it to be sticky. Anyway, I dusted some flour into it & think to myself that the bread can't go too wrong. One suspect is that the kitchen was a bit warm that morning as some cooking was done too. So, it might have catalysed the yeast activity.

Then, the dough was proofed for 1 hour. Luckily, it managed to rise to double. Then started the fun part of weighing & portioning out the dough (as if I'm selling char siew), shaping the dough & putting it in pans. I noticed that the dough is rough on the 2nd rolling in the swiss roll method. I would need to read up more on the bread making to find out why.

For 2nd proofing, I tried a new method. I placed the dough into the microwave with a cup of boiling water for 1 hour. The tins were covered with clingwrap. Time was running out & the kitchen is still hot. So, I had to build my own mini "chamber" to control the proofing.

Maybe God has designed the day in this way. He is never late, He is never early, He is always on time. The niece appeared at our doorsteps when the dough underwent the 2nd proofing. She witnessed the bread-baking scene. She saw the pre-heating activity, saw the dough after 2nd proofing, took some pictures of it, and saw it went into the hot oven.

Below are some of the pictures that she happily took. Some very sharp, some a bit blur coz she was excited to show us the pictures once she snap it. And my camera requires the photographer to keep still after pressing the button.

The happy family the husband took.

The small buns are 50g each. The bigger sections are 158g each.

We all know that she is very scared of the gingerbread man chasing after her eversince she read about the story. We teased her and said that the gingerbread man will jump out from the oven & run after her when he is cooked. I think she overcome the fear when she composed her song "You cannot catch me, you cannot catch me, I will eat you up".

When the bread was ready, she was really really very thankful to us, the shu-shu & shen-shen. As she was munching her bread, she kept saying it is very nice. But I still don't understand why she took such a long time to finish one small little bun, if it was really that delicious. Haha..

The finished products:

Personally, I find that the small buns are softer than the loaf buns, contrary to what my sister thinks.

Focaccia Bread

2009-06-29T17:44:00.005+08:00

Finally, my return to baking after 3-4 months of rest.

I chose the Focaccia Bread recipe from Happy Home Baking because I love focaccia.

It was a good choice. The smell of rosemary and olive oil was fabulous. I'm not sure if the recipe was designed to produce hard-crusted buns. I just accidentally created Focaccia Mini Baguettes.

These plain buns with butter are heavenly for my breakfast & Teatime Treats. :)

On the dough part, the 250g amount is a bit too little for KitchenAid to handle. The dough was rolling around or spinning on its own most of the time, rather than being kneaded. In the end, the Husband kneaded & moulded the dough with his palms, just like plasticine. Would recommend a 500g portion if using machine to knead.

The dough is non-sticky and friendly on hands. Just that, the next time when I want to do it, I would shape & portion the dough before the 1st rising. Because it is quite difficult to shape it after its 1st rise. Nevertheless, the buns turn out beautiful.

If anyone has recipe for soft Focaccia buns, like those served in sandwiches, pls pass it to me. I am still thinking how to make it soft, like burgers. :)

Hersheys Brownie

2009-03-02T20:55:00.009+08:00

After reading Happy Home Baker's Rediscovery of Brownies, I was very tempted to try her version of the fudge brownies.

My brownie turned out very crumbly and dry. There was no sign of the fudginess and no sign of shiny flaky top. I think I must have over-baked it.

I had scaled down the recipe to fit into a 7" round tin. Knowing this, I was very cautious about baking for 30mins time the recipe of 7.5" square tin has called for. I decided to check for signs like, the sides of the brownie to peel away from the tin OR any chocolate smell, to determine if the brownie is cooked. None of these signs appeared at the 20th min. But the brownie doesn't look uncooked, which means that I may have overshot the baking time. Nevertheless, I don't want to end up with an uncooked inedible brownie, hence, I continued baking until the 30th min.

But it was very chocolately which I think the credit must go to the 100% Hersheys Baking Bar and Hersheys Cocoa Powder. The brownie tastes chocolately-bitter when chewed and tastes sweet when swallowed. Quite amazing. I think it's the Hersheys credit again.

My Father-in-Law kept a Yu Sheng plate and cover to keep my baking food. The brownies fits in nicely.

My modified version of the recipe:
Makes 12.
7" round tin

Ingredients:
102g unsweetened Hersheys baking chocolate bar, chopped
82g cooking oil (I use Knife's brand)
147g fine sugar (no signs of granulated sugar in brownie, so this size is fine)
74g eggs
few drops vanilla essence
44g plain flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 3/4 tbsp Hersheys cocoa powder

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 7" round pan.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
3. Stir oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl. Mixture is gooey.
4. Stir in melted chocolate until evenly mixed.
5. Sift flour and cocoa powder into mixture. Fold thoroughly until just well mixed.
6. Pour mixture into prepared tin. Spread the mixture evenly to edges.
7. Baked for 30-35mins. (next time, i will reduce the baking time, maybe 15min?)
8. Cool in pan and cut into squares.

I am determined to try again next time.

Tuna Buns

2009-02-27T17:37:00.003+08:00

Apart from the Petalled-Tuna Buns showed on Saturday, I came out with 2 other nice designs.

This Twisted Bun is adapted from Grace Kitchen's Corner Twisted Cheese Bread.
These petals are pretty delicate to twist.

This is a design adapted from the instructional library book.

Instructions:
1. Roll a 50g dough into a long and thin dough.
2. Split the dough lengthwise, leaving a little dough un-cut on one end.
3. Twist the 2 lengths together.
4. Connect the ends together and form a ring.
5. Leave the ring dough to expand.
6. Add the Tuna toppings into the ring.

Ham and no-cheese Buns

2009-02-25T17:00:00.003+08:00

Finally, I learnt how to make the BreadTalk's lookalike Ham and no-cheese Buns. Even with the instructional Bread-making book I borrowed, it took some levels of reasoning & a few repetitions to get the outcome right. Still need more practice.

A few sprinkles of parsley leaves makes it look more appetizing.

This is my 2nd favourite Bun. The first is Garlic Bun.

Sausage Buns

2009-02-24T17:25:00.005+08:00

These are the 2 designs made using sausages, one longitudinal, the other a flower shape. The most enjoyable portion in making sausage buns is that the twisting is really easy.

I don't really like to eat sausage but it is cheap & easy to manage in bread-making.

Luckily, The Husband likes to eat Sausage Roll. So, at least, there is somebody who can help me finish up these.

Instructions to making this Design:

1. Flatten a 50g dough, big & rectangular/squarish enough to roll a sausage.

2. Place a sausage and roll the dough.

3. Cut the sausage, not length-wise, but circumference-wise (is this the correct term?), leaving a little dough to "connect" the whole bun.

4. Bend the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc portions to the right & the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc portions to the left.

5. You may need to snip a bit more to help you bend the cut portions.

This design is adapted from many blogs.

Garlic Bun

2009-02-23T18:08:00.008+08:00

These Garlic Buns are really heavenly to the taste buds! I like margarine and garlic.

Only that the garlic aroma could be amplified by toasting in the oven before spreading it on the buns.

The margarine melted faster than the bun can be cooked. Hence the liquid margarine overflow the bun and dirtied the pan slightly. I would recommend spreading just sufficient margarine before baking. And re-apply more margarine once the bun is cooked & is hot from the oven. The bun can then absorb more margarine. Just like what I always do to my plain Kong Bah Pow (without Kong Bah) once it is freshly steamed.

I like the design of the garlic buns too. Simple and yet appetizing. It is amazing how little details like parsley leaves can enhance the its appearance. This bun is a lot easier to make too, compared to other buns that needs more art-&-craft.

This design is inspired by Happy Home Baking Garlic Buns.

Tuna Bun

2009-02-21T22:34:00.005+08:00

Today's Bun-making is a success!

I am thankful that I have time to bake something this weekend, despite the busy weekend schedule and demands at work. The weather is good too. No rain though humid.

I was also fortunate to get hold of an instructional Taiwanese/Japanese bread-making book from the library. The book taught me various types of kneading processes for different types of bread. So this time, I tried a longer kneading time for the dough - 45min, compared to the past when it was kneaded for 30mins. The results are positive. The buns are bigger, maybe, the extra kneading makes it more elastic, hence expansion is easy.

Anyway, I made about 5-6 types of buns. I am still trying to get nice photoshots of them, which I will have to wait till tomorrow and pray for a sunny day.

For now, the Tuna Bun is ready to make its appearance.

This design is adapted from Grace's Kitchen Corner Red Bean Bun & also BreadTalk. I simply love its petalled-flower shape. The Mother-in-law nicknamed it as the Han-chin-peng shape.

For this Saturday - Buns IV!

2009-02-20T13:15:00.003+08:00

This Saturday, I'm planning to make new design buns. Got the design inspirations from blogs like Happy Home Baking and Kitchen Corner, plus some instructional library books.

Below is my scribbled plan:

Bread Craft Ideas

2009-02-17T16:59:00.002+08:00

Grace's Twisted Cheese Bread caught my eye recently, thanks to Small Small Baker's link. This bread look like a flower and she gave the recipe and instructions to craft out the bread. Her Red Bean Bun is also another flower art. I am inspired to give it a try this coming Saturday.

My First Bento

2009-02-16T21:00:00.012+08:00

The first Valentine's Day as a married couple - 14 February 2009.

What did we do?

We did what I planned. Packed a bento & go to Changi Beach during evening.

I planned to do a sandwich that looked like the Snoopy ornament at home. I even draw it out! But alas, halfway while preparing the tulip and flower sausages, I didn't have the patience to cut out the snoopy blueprint, hence WE decided that we will make do with simple square sandwiches.

Hoof. We went to Bedok Central to have breakfast. I ate Mince Pork Soup Noodles. Not as great as Blk 511 nor Blk 538, but still enough to satisfy my childhood craving. Had a small cup of coffee from a unknown stall. But hey, it tastes great man! I think, in order to survive in such a competitive hawker centre, every stall must be up to a certain standard.

Then I proceeded to buy eggs from the wet market. My gosh, it was so expensive! $2.20 for 10. Luckily, she allowed me to buy any number of eggs. So I bought 5 eggs. It did overflowed the egg mould slightly. Next time, I should buy the $2.10 range. Anyway, Bedok South market's eggs are still the cheapest, so I would go there instead next time.

We bought Butterhead Lettuce (hydroponics-bred), picnic ham, blueberries (on offer), red grapes & hotdogs from NTUC. I wanted to buy korean strawberries in NTUC, only to find out from The Father-in-Law later that Giant has it instead.

Didn't know that my first bento would look so squarish. But I had fun with the tulip weiner cutter. To make it 3D, I cut both back and front sides. The leaves stood out once baked. The hand-crafted flowers are a bit small, so won't be trying next time. The animal-picks are very cute too!

New Bento Gadget

2009-02-11T21:42:00.004+08:00

It has been a long time since I dished up something due to increase in demands at work.

With Valentine's Day approaching, I plan to whip up a homemade bento for The Husband and go to either the East Coast Park or Changi Beach on a cool evening.

Anna The Red is an interesting source of bento creations. I have also bought a Tulip Weiner Cutter from Daiso recently! Although I know the sausage won't really look like a tulip in the end, I bought it because I never play with it before. :) Moreover, it is the last 2 left.

When you cook Red Beans...

2009-01-22T21:12:00.001+08:00

A common pitfall in cooking red beans is adding sugar too early, before the red beans are well-cooked. I learnt this, together with many other tips, when I was trying to make the Green Tea Cake III.

All along, The Mother has been helping me and The Sister boiling red beans for Green Tea Cake. It was the first time I boiled red beans myself on my independent journey with Green Tea Cake.

Below are the tips.
1. Soak the beans in water before boiling.
This helps the beans to be cooked faster. (I did this step)

2. Put a porcelain spoon, not metal, in the pot of red beans (with water) before heating up.
This accelerates the cooking. To get to the "beans are splitted" stage, it takes 30mins.
Note: Never introduce the porcelain spoon when the soup is heated up as this will cause cracks in the spoon.

3. Never add sugar before the beans are cooked. Always add sugar last.
This is the common pitfall that me and The Sister made during both our first independent attempts to boil red beans. We thought that the earlier the sugar are added in, the more sweetness the red beans can absorb. Sounds scientific right?

The Father laughed at this theory. His theory is that sugar will absorb the heat, thus the beans will never be cooked. The example he quoted is that when you eat something spicy, you can coat your tongue with sugar to lower the spicy-ness.

Anyway, I didn't know it takes so much knowledge just to cook a simple red bean soup. In hostel, I always eat the green bean soup prepared by others, hence I didn't learn the art of bean cooking.

What happen to the Green Tea Cake?

2009-01-18T18:51:00.005+08:00

The non-dairy cream cannot be whipped up. It was from a smaller packet of 250g which I freeze up in the freezer when I bought Pour n Whip about 4 months back, and repackaged it into smaller qty.

When I took out to defrost, it appears to be more watery. The cream (white part) seems to have separated from the liquid and precipitated out. Anyway, I gave it a 2 tries. It could not be creamed. Ok, no green tea cream cake, only green tea sponge cake.

The sponge cake could have been baked longer. The bottom is a bit dense. It sank after taking it out. It was in the oven for 20mins. My sister says the recipe is more for layer cakes & should baked it in 2 batches.

Next time, I'll try baking at 180C, for 30mins.

Birthday Cake

2009-01-14T18:09:00.008+08:00

The Husband's birthday is drawing near. There will be a family lunch this weekend to pre-celebrate his birthday. I wonder if I should bake a Matcha Sponge Cake for him? It suits local tastes. The design I have in mind is a simple sponge cake, sandwiched with red bean and cream, dusted with icing sugar. There is 200g of non-dairy cream in the freezer, expiring in February. The tough part is cooking the red bean as my mother has been helping me to cook it.

I have a few ideas, take a look:

Fig 1 shows the simplest design which most adults can accept. Not sure if The Niece sees it as a birthday cake. She is 3 years old and may need some education that a birthday cake should be as elaborate as possible.

Fig 2 is slightly better though the surface of the cake may look too plain with just some blobs of whipped cream. Nothing bright & red? I don't think I can sprinkle red bean to brighten up. Something like cherries or strawberries is good for presentation but weird to match a Matcha cake.

Fig 3 is a combination of Fig 1 & 2. Still the surface looks plain. What should I do? Blobs of pink whipped cream (red bean + cream)?

Also, won't he know it if I bake one at home? Should I give him a surprise? With the CNY coming & all the spring-cleaning, I most probably won't have time. But, his birthday is always before CNY....

More Tips on Kueh Bangkit

2009-01-12T18:13:00.004+08:00

1. Melt-in-the-mouth:
Minimize kneading according to Kitchen Capers Forum
But strangely, someone followed all the tips and her cookies still turn out crispy and crunchy. I wonder what other pitfalls to avoid?

2. Too hard:
when it is too hard, it means that too much coconut milk is used, according to Lily Ng the dough should not be crumbly, it should be able to bind and to be kneaded into a smooth dough. Try adding in more shortening/margarine.

Kueh Bangkit with Snoopy Imprints

2009-01-10T21:30:00.006+08:00

My first and most probably my last attempt in Kueh Bangkit. I must say it is a tedious process. The cookies do not melt-in-the mouth and is crunchy. As the cookies were big, the centre part of it were slightly soft. I just read from Florence that the dough should not be over-knead, otherwise the cookie will not melt in the mouth.

Anyway, it satisfied my curiosity of how a Kueh Bangkit would look like with Snoopy imprints.

CNY - Kueh Bangkit

2009-01-03T22:23:00.006+08:00

It is time I really really try out making kueh bangkit with the snoopy cookie cutters bought in Hongkong.

I have been saying this since last April 2008. So, this year, I am not going to miss this festive opportunity.

A selection of Kueh Bangkit recipe comes from:
1. Baking Mum
2. Florence

Some tips by Bakingmum, Florence and Lily:

- Tapioca flour, Microwave / Stir Fry / oven-dry?
If using microwave, put on high for 1 min and stir. Do this for 5 times
If stir-fry, put on low fire and fry for 30mins.
If oven, baked it very low temp for at least 30 mins and stir occassionally

- 2 days/1 week?
Always remember to leave the tapioca flour aside at least 2 days after drying it.

- What is the purpose of butter?
A recipe in Imperial Kitchen does not use butter. But I noticed that BakingMum's, Florence & Lily's recipes use butter. The purpose is not to have a too-hard-to-eat cookie.

- Dry the cut out cookies for a while before baking
This is to have a melt-in-the-mouth texture.

- I just read from Florence that the dough should not be overknead so that the cookie will melt in the mouth.

I think using either BakingMum's or Florence's recipe will work anyway.

2009

2009-01-03T22:16:00.003+08:00

A very blessed 2009 to all of you! Thank you for the supportive readership for the last 3 weeks in 2008.

I would also like to thank my family, colleagues & friends who have been giving support in one way or another:

1. by gobbling up all the cakes, breads & cookies no matter how un-tasty they sometimes can turn out to be
2. by giving me freedom & kitchen space to store my bakewares and to do my baking work
3. by giving me constructive comments so that I can improve further
4. by encouraging me to pursue my hobby
5. for taking pictures, passing me videos of nice cakes & breads
6. for buying nice cakes so that I can sample and learn and improve further

Baking comrades! Hope that we can have more inspirations in 2009!

Making Someone's Day Happy...

2008-12-29T13:44:00.004+08:00

Indeed. The Niece, Jeanelle, was very delighted when she viewed this on my mobile phone during a wedding dinner. I think she likes the pokka dotted heart. She says she is very interested to make the Christmas Cookie Tree.

What a waste... I should have brought the cookies for her as a keepsake (not to eat) since Singaporeans don't really like to eat these cookies.

Iced Cookies

2008-12-28T15:21:00.006+08:00

The recipe for Christmas Cookie Tree yields 1 set of cookie tree and about 10 additional cookies. With the extra icing sugar, I decorated the additional cookies as well.

Snowflakes, hearts, tie, pokka dots. I had great fun mixing the colours and squeezing little dots out. It feels like I am using poster colours. The green colouring came from the pandan paste. Mixing green and red will produce brown, so I didn't try it.

I also noticed that Singaporeans don't really have a sweet tooth for cookies. So, these are more for decoration and to make someone's day happy. :)

Christmas Cookie Tree II

2008-12-27T23:10:00.005+08:00

I made a second Christmas Cookie Tree after friends have seen its debut not on this blog, but on facebook. The piping was easier this time round as the icing is less stiff.

Photography by friend, Peen

I made a smart and green act today by spooning out about 1 tablespoon of egg white from the 1-egg cookie recipe for the icing. The last time I made icing with 1 egg white, it ballooned to almost a big soup of icing! There were too much leftovers and it is a waste of sugar.

The batch of egg white today is more than enough for the cookie tree and the additional cookies. The piping is much neater this time.

Baking Preparation for Christmas Party on 26

2008-12-24T22:34:00.002+08:00

If time allows...

I would like to bake 26 cream puffs (all without chocolate coz I don't like) & 12 fruit tarts. A quick mental stock check shows that I have just sufficient butter (150g) & tart casings.

I need to buy a piping nozzle for the cream puff, eggs & fruits. Maybe strawberry (Red ) , kiwi (Green) , peach (Yellow)?

Will I fall sick from over-baking?

Remember to try the new method to egg-wash the pastry to prevent it from turning soggy.

No chiffon cakes over the weekend

2008-12-23T22:33:00.002+08:00

I have sort of run out of local flavours for the chiffon cakes. Anyway I was busy attending to weddings that I don't have the time to do any baking. A pity. Envy those who bake Christmas stuff during this season. Will try to make something this week.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

2008-12-16T19:43:00.005+08:00

Voila! A Green Tea Chiffon Cake! I am very happy with the outcome though there are still areas of improvement. The obstacle - Air Tunnels - is slowly being overcomed. There are lesser and lesser big bubbles as I bake more chiffon cakes. Keep it up!

I like the taste of Green Tea Bakeable Powder from Phoon Huat. At first, I was worried that it only have the Green Tea aroma. Luckily it has the bitterness that green tea always have. The cake does not taste sweet. Before eating, the aroma of green tea lets you know the identity of the green coloured cake. Except for one colleague who thought it is Pandan Cake even after tasting it. I certainly have to dis-qualify him from the Judges Team. The bitterness comes after swallowing the slice of cake.

The texture is more dense. Is it because the green tea powder makes the batter more gluey? Or is it that I did not handle the egg white whisking well enough?

This time, the 4 egg whites managed to be whisked ahead of time (Speed 4) while I prepared the wet ingredients. So, I let it stand while I finish the preparation and I didn't want it to reach the stiff peak stage (overwhipped will lead to over folding in later part). Then I realised that the egg whites have deflated a bit after, say 5mins. This led me to think if I have stabilised the air bubbles. If it can be deflated in such a short span of time, by the time it gets to the oven, many air bubbles would have disappeared or diminished. The less-than-light texture outcome convinced me that I should whisk at low speed like how I did in Vanilla Chiffon Cake II.

3 "judges" feedbacked that the crust is burnt and felt it should be softer. Perhaps it is because I poured everything into the tin, forgetting to leave some for 2 cupcakes. The cake is taller, hence the crust is nearer to the heating elements.

There are some some portions where the batter did not rise and appeared to have been squeezed. Is this a case of incomplete folding or a case of early-burnt crust causing the batter to be unable to expand?

My next chiffon cake will be Milky Chiffon Cake, another local taste.

Banana Chiffon Cake

2008-12-15T19:06:00.007+08:00

I wanted to bake a chiffon cake with local taste, so I did a Banana Chiffon Cake since there were two bananas left. I didn't break my record of 1 hour to do the preparation. The egg whites whisking (Speed 4 for 2 egg whites) is still a bottleneck in the process. Took about 45min.

I have learnt that, the lower the amount of egg white, the higher the speed the mixer needs to be set to. This is because the whisk is a spinning-top shape. A low amount of egg white only has contact with the bottom tip of the whisk which doesn't have much wires. Hence, a higher speed is required to compensate for lesser wire contact.

Also, as this is a 2 egg white recipe, the batter volume was half of the Vanilla Chiffon Cake. The surface of the cake did rose but shrinked back quite nicely into the tin. It didn't get burnt easily as it was near to the heating elements.

This batter was also more liquefied, hence the cake turns out pretty compact, not that soft. No big air tunnels at all! But it certainly will not qualify to be a chiffon-texture.

The banana used was not over-riped, hence the banana aroma isn't significantly strong.

Tips to Removing Air Tunnels

2008-12-10T14:49:00.003+08:00

The improvements in Vanilla Chiffon Cake II were due to:

1. Lower oven temperature (173 on my oven) so that the crust does not harden and set the height of the cake too early. In Vanilla Chiffon I, some "meat" were compressed. I think it is because they cannot expand upwards further.

2. Running the spatula through the batter in the tin several times.

3. Bang the batter in the tin several times.

I am looking forward to making a Green Tea Chiffon Cake this weekend, with improved process timing.

Vanilla Chiffon Cake II

2008-12-09T09:50:00.009+08:00

Determined to get rid of the big air tunnels, I made a second batch of Vanilla Chiffon Cake at night. This time, I ran my spatula through the tin of batter several times in star-routes & square-routes. I banged the tin on the table at least 6 times as well, although still worried that I may over-deflate the rest of the helpful bubbles.

The outcome is favourable. The air tunnels are much smaller, to the acceptable size. I also made 2 extra cupcakes as there were extra batter. The cupcakes do not have huge air bubbles. I think running the spatula through the them helps a lot.

Below is the first slice. No trapped bubbles!

Analysing back the process, the hypothesis is that running the spatula through the batter helps in breaking up the big air bubbles into 2 smaller bubbles. Maybe that is why the more times the spatula is ran, the smaller the bubbles.

I think the air gets trapped when the batter is folded and when it is poured into the tin. I noticed that the batter is foamy and not liquid. Hence, it does not flow that easily and would not occupy any air voids.

I am still practising banging the tin hard on the table.

The most ugly sights.

The nicer sights.

Vanilla Chiffon Cake

2008-12-08T12:29:00.011+08:00

This is a Vanilla Chiffon Cake, adapted from a Japanese Cookbook. So far, my adventures with chiffon cakes were never 100% successful. Having big air tunnels is a major problem. This time, the air tunnels are smaller, although they still exist.

Worse experience from the past. The air tunnel circled the entire cake!

I found some troubleshooting tips from:

1. All That Matters
The trapped air can be removed by banging the cake tin on hard surface. I did it 4 times this round, but dunno why still got big air bubbles.

2. Happy Home Baking

Either bang it or use a spatula to go zig-zag in the batter. Happy Homebaker suspects it is due to the way she folds the egg white that is causing the air tunnels. Anyway, her air tunnels are not as bad as mine.

Pls let me know if you have anymore remedies to air tunnels.

Christmas Tree Cookie

2008-12-05T11:14:00.013+08:00

Oh, finally the Christmas Tree is out, the one in front. I have a lot of fun with the icing sugar. Making the icing sugar was easy. Just watch TV (now showing Little Nyonya at 9pm) and keep beating the mixture.

The photos are taken by the Husband. His angled shots are a lot better than mine. Assembling the tree was fun too. As I do not know what can stick the pieces together, I used icing sugar as the "white glue". Hehe...

Piping the cookies were very fun too! It requires a lot of skill. Great for kids. I am excited to pipe other shapes & patterns in future.

Let me just show the tree in another angle since it looks really cute! I like the snowy star on top, it is really small! Positioning the small star on the top came as a BIG surprise. It just sits on top snugly without any glue nor toothpick support.

Packing the Christmas Tree was an engineering feat. The cookies must be in stored in a airtight environment to stay crispy. It must be easy for removal to display as well. At first, I tried to placed it into a upside-down glass jar, however it is just a bit too big. The next choice was to place it into a ziplock bag, however, I couldn't find any. So, I put it into a normal transparent plastic bag (those used for packing fruits in supermarket) and secure it with a rubber-band. If it turns soggy, nevermind, let it be a display ornament.

Btw, everything from the cookie to the icing-sugar were all made by hand, no machine involved. Another feat.

Crazy over Bentos

2008-12-03T20:39:00.003+08:00

Recently, I read on and off about bentos. There are a lot of bento-making sites but so far, the food are either Western or Japanese. Bento-making looks cute but the portions are small and hence difficult to cook fresh. Usually the food are freezed.

I doubt I'll eat dabao bento for lunch. Finds it more interesting to eat at hawker centres and breathe in fresh air. Anyway, the bentos are really attractive. Bento delights looks pretty local to me.

In the pipeline for Christmas Tree

2008-11-30T16:21:00.008+08:00

Woohoo! Above are the Chocolate Star Cookies. Recipe taken from Wilton. Half the batch makes 3 sets of 6 pcs, just nice. Am glad that my estimation is accurate.

This cookie dough is made by hand as the quantity is a bit too little to use KitchenAid. Imagine having to wash the mixing bowl & K-beater. I rather utilise my arm muscles to hand-mix the ingredients. The mixture turns out pretty ice-cream texture, which is good. It is my first hand-mix cookie dough.

The Snoopy Image embossed in the centre of the cookie did not turn out clear. Snoopy stamps are bought in Hongkong, for The Husband.

Wish comes true

2008-11-29T20:10:00.013+08:00

How lucky am I! I accidentally spotted a pack of 6 pieces of star cookie cutters in Daiso at IMM today! Costs only $2, compared to Wilton's Christmas Cookie Tree set (10 pieces) USD7.99 (SGD12). What a good bargain I got!

Daiso Star Cookie Cutter

I found the Wilton's Cookie Tree Kit on ebay, which comes in 10 granulated sizes.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-WILTON-Christmas-Tree-Cookie-Cutter-Kit-Recipes_W0QQitemZ110312644370QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Wilton Cookie Tree Kit

I am glad that I do not have to tediously cut out stars using bare templates & knife. Neither do I have to cut out squares as a modified version. I think stacking up square cookies vs star cookies give different look to the Christmas tree. The star cookie will give a good branch shape with a thin centre trunk.

How will the Cookie Tree turn out? Looking forward to it.

Christmas Desserts for Year-End Party

2008-11-26T18:02:00.010+08:00

There are at least 2 home Christmas parties this year. Thinking of preparing either a 3D Christmas tree cookie or a platter of fruit tarts for at least 1 home.

Below is an image of the 3D Christams tree cookie from Wilton website:

Wonder how successful it will be. It will be my first time doing roll-out cookie dough, royal icing & piecing the whole assembly together. Need to invest in different sizes of star-cookie cutters. How successful will it turn out?

New Egg Mould

2008-11-24T23:18:00.006+08:00

My first attempt at a star-shape egg mould resulted a flower-shaped egg being born. Due to dinnertime, I didn't take a picture to show. The egg was a little bit small. Next time, I'll use bigger eggs. More egg days to come.

The technique is to peel a hot hard-boil egg and put it into the mould, press & lock it and chill it for 15mins.

You don't believe that the hard-boil egg will take shape? See this from another fellow forumer.

Dishes that uses hard-boil egg:

1. Nasi Lemak ==> Bento idea?

2. Mee Siam

3. Mee Rebus

4. Popiah

Bento Ideas:

1. Ikea meatballs with potatoes

Excited over frozen cheesecake

2008-11-17T11:06:00.004+08:00

The outcome of the frozen cheesecake was fantastic! I'm glad the pudding-like cheesecake can still be remedied.

Ice-cream. Yes, it tastes like ice-cream. The whole chunk needs some chopping. Pop any chunk into your mouth and slowly savour the melting cake.

No-cheese taste. Nevermind if there is no cheese taste at all. I prefer its ice-cream texture more than anything.

Feedback from tasters are a fair distribution of personal preferences:
1. Oreo base very sweet
2. Oreo base is just nice
3. More oreo chunks needed
4. "I like the sour taste"
5. "I like the pure cheese, less oreos"
6. No cheese
7. "Taste like ice-cream"
8. "Base is better-made this time round, not that crumbly"
9. "can remove the icing-cream from the oreo in the filling?"
10. Oreo chunks are soggy. --> sorry, this one is a generic limitation. All oreo chunks submerged in cheesecake won't be hardy.

Not sure if I'll proceed to make strawberry cheesecake next week?

No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake tastes like..

2008-11-16T17:08:00.013+08:00

Pudding. It may have got to do with the chiller. I place it in the fridge. When Mae Shaan brought hers, she recommended putting it in the freezer. It was as hard as a rock that Abigail, the birthday gal, had to chop it. But it tasted like ice-cream.

Sour. I doubled the sour dosage with 4 pieces of lime, compared to 2 limes in the baked cheesecake where there was no sour taste. Now tasted like sour cream.

Non-Oreo-y. Thanks to the Husband and miscalculation on my part. The Husband keep reminding me that Oreos are heaty. Considering the recent outbreak of pimples on my skin & the many weddings to come in Nov and Dec, I gave in. Okie okie, so I ask him to chop 6 pcs, instead of 8 pcs, of Oreo cookies into 24 pcs. Yet I keep thinking that I have added in 32 crushed cookies, when it was actually twenty-four!

Disintegrated. The oreo base was disintegrated probably because the butter has melted when the cake stayed at room temperature for too long during slicing.

I have transferred the sliced cheesecakes into the freezer. Hopefully it will turn out like ice-cream.

Recipe used: http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2005/03/no-bake-oreo-cheesecake.html
Feeling: accomplished (after slicing it)

As promised, the Oreo Cheesecake

2008-11-15T21:19:00.004+08:00

This is the 2nd time making an Oreo Cheesecake. The first attempt was back in 2002, I was sian of baking normal cheesecake, so I dropped some oreo cookies for a change, being encouraged by a recipe on the Philadelphia cream cheese packaging. The turnout wasn't appealing to others. Maybe, Oreo in a cheesecake wasn't a common sight in restaurants yet. Or, maybe the people were sua-gu (ignorant). Just because the cake was spotted-black and the oreos went soggy doesn't mean that it is not tasty. After that feedback, I had condemned oreos in cheesecake forever.

Until I ate a super-duper delicious oreo cheesecake at a friend's birthday in Oct, I found hope in Oreo Cheesecake. It was non-bake, tasted like ice-cream. No doubt it had taken a cow's effort to slice the cake, it was heavenly. So, maybe, oreo cheesecake has to be non-baked. The oreo that I ate was also soggy, so it is not a defect.

Right now, that oreo cheesecake is sitting in the fridge, waiting to be cut. Tomorrow.

Changing minds

2008-11-10T21:00:00.004+08:00

From Strawberry to Oreo, I decided to do the yummy creamy taste-like-ice-cream Oreo cheesecake with gelatin. That will be good too, as a basic start to lead to strawberry cheesecake. I think the challenging part is the gelatin portion & gauging the whipped cream.

Some findings:
1. Interesting 2-layer cheesecake by Aunty Yochana
http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2008/06/chilled-cream-o-cheesecake.html
Noticed that the oreo portion is a bit 'tainted' with oreos.

2. No-bake Oreo Cheesecake by Florence
http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2005/03/no-bake-oreo-cheesecake.html
Florence has more cheesecake variations like strawberry, mango which I am interesting to try. But let me get this basic oreo cheesecake right first!

3. By Baking Mum
http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2008/06/oreo-cheesecake.html
Calls for 2 blocks of cream cheese. Notice no milk.

The best part is, some recipes calls for 1 block of cream cheese for a 7" cake size, compared to the usual 2 blocks. Eg, the one I baked. Heehee...

The Remake of the Cheesecake

2008-11-09T15:44:00.021+08:00

Finally... I get to use the last tool that comes with KitchenAid -> K-beater.

It has been 3 years since I bake a cheesecake. The reason being I am not a big addict fan of creamy heavy stuff, not even milkshake. I started baking cheesecakes 10 years ago when cheesecake was the 'in' thing in starbucks. The recipe I have is from allrecipes.com. The cheesecake then tasted very yummy in my mouth although it is full of appearance-defects, eg a crater-looking cake. Today, the cheesecake I baked would definitely scored higher points in appearance, smoothness & granularity but it just doesn't taste as nice as yesteryears.

7-inch cheesecake

Maybe my taste expectations have gone up.

Perfectly sliced cheesecake

Anyway, some of the tips I learnt (through the hard way) in achieving a basic cheesecake:

1. Room temperature: use cream cheese at room temperature so that it is easier to get a smooth batter.

2. Add sugar only after cream cheese is smooth.

3. K-beater: Do not use whisk as it introduces a lot of air bubbles and will cause the cake to rise during baking and fall upon cooling. The end result is a crater-look cake. Use K-beater just to blend in the ingredients.

4. Cream: Add cream to make it creamier. I omitted it and it doesn't taste like ice-cream.

5. Leave the sides alone: For the harder batter that got stuck to the sides of the bowl, do not scrape them into the cake tin as they are different from the main batter, and not that smooth. What you can do is to scrape them regularly while mixing.

6. Water bath: use water bath as the heat source

7. Cool in oven: Yes, for 1 hour at least, to cook the center portion using the residual oven heat.

This attempt is just to set my foundations right for cheesecake. I am looking forward to making strawberry creamy cheesecake using gelatin the next round!

Next ideas:
1. Strawberry Heart Cheesecake
http://sandhyaskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/strawberry-jelly-heart-cheesecake.html
Note that the strawberry fruit starts swimming around when the jello is poured over.
http://forum.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=5477

2. Strawberry Marshmallow Cake
http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/11/strawberry-marshmallow-cake.html
"... to prevent the strawberries from swimming around, you can place them on a not too frozen marshmallow layer and freeze them before spooning the jello.."

Some Comments from those who tasted:

1. Not smooth, not creamy

2. No cheese taste

3. Oreo base breaks easily, can be harder.

4. Appearance is ok.

Sweet Pastry

2008-11-02T15:27:00.009+08:00

Recently, I was inspired by Mad Baker's fruit tarts that it almost got me making some this Sun.

http://www.madbaker.net/2008/10/mad-about-fruit-tarts/

In addition, there was a cheesecake recipe series in U-Weekly and I think I may be back on track in making sweet sinful desserts soon.

The List:
1. Fruit Tart
2. Strawberry cheesecake - gelatine type
3. Molten choc cake - inspired by the flourless chocolate cake ate yesterday
4. Cream puffs

Check out Choux Pastry in The Sunday Times 2nd Nov 2008, the column "Ask The Foodie" by Chris Tan. Some pointers taken:

Presence of too much pudding-like interior (softer dough inside cream puff) means that the puff did not rise as much as they could have.

This could be that the dough was too hot when eggs were beaten into, hence partially cooks them and robbing them some of the rising power.

Proportion of water, eggs and flour are not balanced.

Oven temperature is too low.

Ingredient-wise, you will get drier puffs by replacing up to half the quantity of whole eggs with an equal volume of egg white

Technique-wise, the dough must be warm but not too hot to touch when raw eggs are beaten in. Beat eggs and egg whites together before adding it into the dough incrementally.

Stop adding eggs when the dough is glossy but still holds its shape. Too little egg, there won't be enough steam for the puffs to rise enugh.

Oven-wise, start baking at between 200-220C, high enough to make the liquid in the dough rapidly convert to steam and explode each puff outwards, creating the hollow inside.

Once puffs are fully risen and pale golden, lower the temperature to 180C and continue baking to dry out and fully brown the puffs.

If you like, you can cut small slits in the puffs to release steam before continuin gwith the lower temperature phase.

Good article! I will definitely cut out for my keeps.

We made buns - old school

2008-10-26T14:54:00.017+08:00

Our buns were another success, an improvement from the 1st attempt! Time taken was cut short by only 1/2 hour even though I had done all the major measurements way beforehand.

This time round, our focus was on making the flavours that we like. I personally would like to try making luncheon meat buns. It is rarely sold in bakery shops...I do not know why. My top favourite is still butter bun, another rare commodity in bakery shops. Below are the flavours unveiled.

A. Plain Buns

You will be surprised that plain buns is listed as a hot favourite. When asked what flavour she wants, my mother replied "Plain", to my atonishment. Come on, I am making bread and we would have a choice of wrapping whatever fillings you want. Ok, plain then plain lor.

Look at how the plain buns expanded in the oven. So round and look like hamburger buns.

B. Butter Bun

Buns stuffed with butter. With careful wrapping, it didn't leak like last time. But the previous leaky buns tasted better as the buns soaked up the liquid butter. This time, the butter were sort of merged with the dough upon baking. Or maybe because I use NTUC brand butter, not as fragrant as SCS?

C. Luncheon Meat Bun

Tulip branded luncheon meat were used. The husband wrapped all these. Potatoes do they look?

D. HotDog Roll

I wanted to do a normal hotdog bun with a slight dent on the top, using a spoon, but wasn't successful. Here, we have 2 types of shapes, the twirl look and the normal look. A short survey with colleagues shows that they prefer the twirl look. I also noticed that they like the twirl bun, even if it is not properly done.

Poll findings with 8 participants:

1. Some like buns to be soft, some like it chewy (like chewing roti prata)

2. Some like pan-fried hotdogs.

3. Some like hotdog with cheese.

4. Some like darker-skin, some like brown-skin.

5. All like even tone.

6. Some prefer glossy look - commented by someone who eat bird's nest daily

7. All do not really like hotdogs in can.

8. All prefer twirl look for hotdog buns.

9. No comments on whether buns are salty or sweet. So, I guess this recipe suits everybody's taste.

In short, you cannot please everyone. There is a market for everything.

Measurements

2008-10-22T16:30:00.007+08:00

Last night, after watching my favourite 9pm and 10pm TV show, I started preparing for "The Great Bread Making" session.

In pitch darkness, I make my way to the kitchen. I cautiously switched on the lights & gingerly open the squeaky drawer to retrieve my weighing scale. The objective was to re-package all my bread flour, sugar and any dry ingredients essential to bread-making, into the right amount, so that whenever I need to bake a bread, I do not have to painstakingly weigh the ingredients. => Production efficiency.

Woah... weighing ingredients is quite time-consuming even though I am already working at my best efficiency. From 1040pm to 1140pm, I managed to re-package 3 bread flour & 2 sugar. I realised my weighing scale is not that erroneous at all. Its reading error is +/- 1g. I concluded that I need to use the big clear plastic bowl that comes with the weighing scale for accurate measurement. Maybe the bowl is pressing at the right sensing points on the weighing scale.

Tomorrow, I will try weighing 4g of salt and see what happens. :)

Mushroom Cheese Omelette

2008-10-21T17:08:00.010+08:00

My first attempt in the new kitchen, making omelette! Turn out well! Yummy for breakfast.

Mushroom Cheese Omelette

It was a Saturday, 2 weeks back. We woke up, finding things to eat. There were an excess of eggs in the fridge as I miscalculated the quantity required for pandan-cake-baking. Choosing between Pancake OR French Toast OR Mushroom Cheese Omelette, I decided to cook the latter.

Mushroom Cheese Omelette is my favourite western food in Temasek Junior College. So is the Husband's. Back then, Alex was selling it. He moved out for greener pastures after we graduated.

Of course, I cannot cook as well as Alex, but am happy to be able to eat this omelette again. I am shocked that the Husband do not how to cook this dish. I thought a lot of ex-TJcians would know?

Using a saucepan for cooking instant noodles, the nice rounded thick and fluffly omelette was born, with cheese melting and steaming out when you slice a small bit out of it.

My FIL (aka Father-in-law) likes the version I cooked for him - Mushroom and Ham omelette. Asian elderly usually don't like cheese.

Pandan Cake

2008-10-21T17:04:00.011+08:00

A second attempt on pandan cake ended up with the same air tunnels I encountered previously.

I did bang it! Twice!

Any idea how to remove the air tunnels next time? I am pretty sick of the coconut taste now. I will be doing breads until I'm 'well' again to do cakes.

A weirdo sponge cake

Sweet Success

2008-10-13T13:25:00.009+08:00

2 weeks back, we made sweet buns. It was so fun & easy! Especially with a big marble table and a reliable KitchenAid.

The most easy part was the kneading done by KitchenAid. There is no need for skills like folding in, whisking egg whites etc, those encountered in cake making.

The most difficult part was measuring out the ingredients. My weighing scale seems to be having errors of +/- 5grams. It was damn difficult to measure 6g of salt. No matter what bowl/dish I use, it just can't detect 6g. The final solution was to use a plastic bag.

Ok, just found out that 6g of salt is 1 level teaspoon.

Shopping was fun when we have to plan how many of each type of bun to make. Like sausages, ham, cheese, butter, so that we do not buy excessively. The result was that it was not economical at all to make our own buns due to the diseconomies of scale. The material cost of each bun is at least 59cents.

I am making 2 more batches for this coming weekend holiday. The strategy is to measure the ingredients in advance so that I do not use too much time on the baking day. Measuring time takes about 45mins.

I did bake a Pandan Chiffon Cake

2008-09-30T15:16:00.006+08:00

I did bake a Pandan Chiffon Cake but alas, I forgot to take the outcome. The cakes were eaten up before I remember to take some snapshots. It wasn't beautiful but it was tasty. The funny thing is, some parts of the cake wasn't cooked properly - the kueh like texture, yet it was finished up, thanks to my supporting parents-in-law and husband.

The chiffon cake batter was poured into a chiffon cake tin & a sponge cake tin. Then, it was baked at 180C for 15min (for the first batch) and 25min (for the 2nd batch). I was too anxious to take it out, fearing that the crust may get burnt, as was always the case in my earlier adventures. Impatience & lack of experience led to parts being uncooked. The sponge cake was more uncooked. I think I better use a proper pandan sponge cake recipe next time. I thought I didn't have!...until I read my earlier posts....

Another thing was that there were many huge air bubbles trapped in the chiffon cake, none for the sponge cake. Maybe I didn't bang it hard enough.

After reading some tips from some blogs and forums, I found out that some possible causes could be that I didn't bake long enough. Also, maybe the temperature could be a little bit too high, hence making the outer layer cooked & inner layer uncooked.

I am determined to perfect it.

Sweet Buns

2008-08-20T16:26:00.003+08:00

First time making sweet buns. Ham and cheese is my favourite.

The other cake looks different

2008-08-13T13:45:00.003+08:00

I made 2 chocolate banana cakes using 1 bowl of cake mixture. 1 mixture, 2 cakes, turn out differently. Yesterday, I commented that the sponge cake is on the porous side. But later I noticed that the other smaller cake is more dense than the big one. The cross-section of the smaller cake also looks better and have more mousse than the big cake, although I had deliberately spreaded lesser amount of mousse on the small cake (since it is for family).

The uneven choco glaze on the cake turn out pretty smooth on my K850i Sony Ericsson phone camera.

Next time, I will try cream + melted chocolate, microvave, + butter. Maybe it tastes creamier & the mixture may be of better consistency.

Chocolate Banana Cake

2008-08-12T16:36:00.006+08:00

My first attempt with the newly bought KitchenAid is a Chocolate Banana Cake.

1. The chocolate tastes great, thanks to Hersheys.

2. The sponge cake was a bit too dry. Perhaps it was because the temperature used was a bit high(?), as what I read from forums. Every oven has its own characteristics. If the cake starts to crack, it means the temperature is a bit high. Lower down the temperature by 10 degree Celsius the next time you bake the same cake. The suggestion was to use a brownie recipe next time so that it will be more moist.

3. Chocolate mousse is good. Perhaps it is eaten fresh. Critics commented that it is not oily.

4. Chocolate frosting is tasty, although it is ugly. I do not know what went wrong. The oil was just not well-incorporated into the mixture.

5. Banana can put thicker slices. One suggested mashing the banana slightly(and still have some bits) so that the smell is more pungent.

6. There was no coffee taste. Home-made nescafe water was added in no taste detected.

Some comforting acts: 2 of my colleagues wanted a 2nd helping.

What am I going to do next?

Why I Buy KitchenAid over Kenwood

2008-07-09T11:38:00.003+08:00

Anyone who first heard that a KitchenAid costs $899 in Singapore would say in astonishment "why so expensive?" You would get more reaction if you ask a US resident.

Its competitor and look-alike is a Kenwood cake mixer. In Singapore, it costs less than 1/2 the price of a KitchenAid - $438.

There must be at least 1 reason why KitchenAid is priced higher. Other than the shipment costs, I couldn't think of any other reasons. Since then, I have a dilenma over whether to buy Kenwood or KitchenAid. Both achieve the basic cake making function but one can make me feel more confident when making cakes.

I tried finding feedback from Kenwood & KitchenAid users. All feedback are positive. Also, there are more KitchenAid feedback than Kenwood's.

Since I am in R&D engineering, I believe that an item can cost more truly due to its superior design, other than its logistics and shipment costs. I do see a quality deterioration in cost-reduced products. Cost-reduction products are designed to meet basic needs and at times, some luxury features need to be removed.

Is there a material & design difference between KitchenAid & Kenwood? Both have the same features - mixing, kneading, whisking.

Some engineering observations:
1. The handle of the mixer bowl on KitchenAid is ergonomically designed. It is smooth and does not cut your fingers. The one on Kenwood hurts more when you want to remove the mixer bowl.

2. The mixer bowl on KitchenAid is securely locked. On Kenwood, it is still shaky.

3. KitchenAid does not get easily moved around with a medium-force push. Kenwood does.

4. KitchenAid shakes the entire table. I don't know how well does Kenwood performs.

Overall, I think Kenwood is designed to achieve basic cake-making functions and KitchenAid is designed to give additional comfort, durability and ease. Just like Toyota Vios vs Honda Civic.

KitchenAid

2008-07-04T17:58:00.008+08:00

Oh, I finally have the money to buy the $899 KitchenAid cake mixer with the help of the Great Singapore Sales! Thanks to my colleague who passed by CK Tangs during lunch at Vivocity & this is what she took for me:

My Prized Buy

Immediately, that Fri, I rushed down to purchase a Icy Blue KitchenAid, the one next to the pink one. It was the last piece for that colour. How lucky I am!

I had actually applied for a Citibank Tangs card & was waiting for some $10 voucher per $100 purchase promo. On top of that, I signed up for the card via Tangs instead of Citibank because the staff told me that I'll get a $20 voucher.

When I bought the $699 KitchenAid that day, my Citibank Tangs card has not arrived. Fortunately, I have a normal Tangs card which will give me 6% rebate. So the final price is $699- 41.94 (6% on Tangs card) = $657.06!

2 weeks later, I went back for window shopping & this is what I saw:

$719! (till end of GSS)

Well, I am satisfied with my purchase though I didn't get a 10% rebate (if I had gotten that Citibank Tangs earlier). It was a window opportunity not to be missed.

PS: Other considerations to get KitchenAid prior GSS:

1. By shipment, which I calculated that it would cost me SGD718.34, inclusive of shipment & taxes.

2. By applying for Citibank Tangs card (12% rebates on special days) and getting a $20 voucher & wait for special promo to get $10 voucher per $100 purchase, it will cost me SGD671.12

I think, if I'm not wrong, KitchenAid used to cost $699 in 2003.

An eventful 2008

2008-05-15T16:40:00.002+08:00

It is not even mid-year and yet there are already a lot of events that have happened and going to happen.

Ok, the big news is:
1. I'm getting married in July 08.
2. My sis got her HDB flat
3. My sis ROM-ed this year.
4. My uncle passed away
5. My cousin (male) is also getting married. In Nov 08.
6. My brother is getting married in Dec 08.
7. Another of my cousin (female) is getting married on Vesak Day.
8. Another of my uncle passed away.
9. 6 of my colleagues are getting married in 2008.
10. 1 of my colleagues are getting married in 2009.
11. 1 of my classmates is getting married in 2008.
12. 3 of my church friends are getting married in 2008.

So many events.. a bit too much for me to take.

And I am considering getting a cake-mixer for the new place that I am going to move in, my in-laws house. Should I get my dream cake-mixer, the KitchenAid? Or, settle her 'perhaps equally capable' competitor, Kenwood Patisser? I heard Kenwood is good too. But I do not understand why KitchenAid costs $899, which is double of Kenwood, selling at $438. KitchenAid costs only at most USD350. Why is it so expensive in Singapore? I am even considering buying online from Australia, although most probably there is no international warranty.

I thought to myself, why do I need a KitchenAid? Maybe a $100+ hand-mixer is good enough for all my baking now. I only need a table-mixer when I do bread. Or, if my business ever takes off. When?

What a Peaceful Day

2008-03-21T13:50:00.002+08:00

Today is such a peaceful day. It's Good Friday & a holiday for us. I am now typing away in the tranquilty where insects hum, birds chirp, garang guni man honk. (I realise how bad my composition writing is after 12 years). The sky looks cloudy & in some areas of Singapore, it has started to pour.

Just as I waited for the computer to get to the ready mode, I read the bills & pamphlets. What a coincidence, a promotion from UOB on Wedding! Let's see what they have. Overseas photography by White Link, $2588 per person. Not sure if it is really a good deal. Some big shot hotels offered some perks. Oh that's the Carlton Hotel! $28nett discount per table! I hope Adrian (my colleague) has not signed the contract with them. But anyway, I think he has signed it.

Hmm... Stamford Catering.. 5% off wedding packages. Are their food nice? I'm going for Angelis. No special reason except that it's the same caterer as his brother's. Oh by the way, I am getting married on 26th July 2008. Thank you for all your best wishes.

Goldheart Jewelery. 10% off Celestial & Elegant Bridal Jewellery. Does that apply to wedding bands? I'm gonna paste this promo leaftlet into my wedding planner book man!

Some other tasks that I plan to do in this wonderful rest day:
1. Play facebook - you see, I only get 10 races for every 12 hours. And my last race is way overdue.
2. Maybe play staries? It's a nice game but very addictive.
3. Take out photos for photo montage.
4. Call up UOB to waive the card fee
5. Pay SingTel bills.
6. Browse for Evening Gowns
7. Organise my wedding planner book. :)

It is a wonderful day.

Japanese CheeseCake and Spongecake

2008-01-05T18:31:00.002+08:00

My Philadelphia cream cheese has been lying in my fridge for a few months. Sometime in the Christmas week, I discovered that it is expiring on 26Dec07. So, I had to bake the Japanese cheesecake before 26Dec07.

Above is the Japanese Cheesecake that I baked. It is 7 inch and about 1.5inch tall. It is baked using bain-marie. My boyfriend likes the taste, although I find it sourish.

Since I am baking and need to shift my oven and take out all utensils and tools, I might as well bake more. So, I baked a sponge cake to make mango mirror cake. I made a nice mango cake last time (see previous post) but did not succeed in making the mirror! So..

Look at the mess (below) and cleaning up I have to do after all the wonderful baking. I guess all bakers have to do this.

Stay tuned to my mango mirror cake.

Holiday Time

2007-12-27T12:57:00.000+08:00

I am on 1 week break this Christmas week. So far, it has been enjoyable. I had accomplish some activities and ample rests in between. I like to 'nua' (do nothing) at home. I like the 12noon Martha Stewart's show. She has interesting creations of recipes. It is amazing that she is into home management stuff too. Her webpage is here. And there is a molten cake recipe which I am eager to try out. Anyway, I have a bar of Hersheys unsweetened chocolate which I accidentally bought it.... oops but she calls for bittersweet..??

Molten Cake Recipe - Martha Stewart
Serves 4
4 tablespoons plus 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for muffin tins
3 large eggs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)
Whipped cream, for serving (optional

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter 4 cups of a standard muffin tin. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and tap out excess. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour and salt until just combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Fold in chocolate. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
Bake just until tops of cakes are set, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.
To serve, turn out cakes, and place on serving plates. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, and add a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

Mango Cake

2007-12-17T21:04:00.001+08:00

I did this mango cake after being inspired by my friend. Too bad I did not manage to get the jelly on top of the cake. Nevertheless, I learnt how to make mousse using gelatine and cream. The sponge cake was bought from Giant. I only quickly cream it up and add some sponge fingers.... no time.. The sponge fingers are expensive, bought from marketplace.

Savoury tarts

2007-12-09T20:31:00.000+08:00

These are the savoury quiche tarts I made @home after learning in BITC. It consists of eggs, mushroom and cheese. It is a relatively good project to do as the process can be easily broken down into many steps.

In my case, I did the tart casings on 2 nights and store it in the freezer. There were 34 cases altogther. Singapore's weather is pretty cool and humid @night than in the day. However, the buttery tarts would still melt if left @ambient for as short as 15mins. So, I was shuttling between the working table and fridge to transfer the dough. The cases are quite shallow but I couldn't find better ones @phoon huat. I would try SKP the next time.

The egg filling is easily done too on a Sun. And the tarts were quickly baked within 2-3 hours. To eat the tarts, I had to heat up in a pot. Tasty. Would do it again next time.

It has been a long time

2007-12-08T01:02:00.002+08:00

It has been a long time since I posted anything, about 1 month plus. I did some home baking, to try out the recipes I learnt in BITC. Then, I fell sick for 2 weeks and I couldn't do any baking at all. My family members are getting suspicious that the baking made me sick, like making me exhausted, heaty etc.

The last I baked was profiteroles. Wasn't as good as I did in school. The piping nozzle I had @home was smaller, so I can only make small puffs. I wanted to make big puffs so that I can quickly finish the choux. The choux was also too runny and didn't hold its shape well. Next time, I would stick to my good old choux pastry recipe since I am more comfortable with it.

My oven was small, as compared to the school. So I could at most bake 20 puffs at 1 go. For this amount of choux, I had to bake 3 times!! Not that productive. In school, I could bake everything in one go.

The custard cream was slightly sweeter. Will take note of it next time. The assembly of the entire puffs were easy, except for the chocolate dip part. I melted some Hershey's chocolate chips and it was a bit too viscous. The puffs picked up too much chocolate. Anyway, my 'food-tasters' didn't like chocolate and they love the plain old cream puffs a lot. So much for the effort, but it was good experience with melting chocolate.

My parents just love the ko-song puffs. There were some tiny eclairs which just can't be filled much. So they look like mini dog bones. Wanted to give to my neighbours. Hee...

$1200

2007-10-23T20:11:00.001+08:00

This cake was auctioned off for $1200 at a recent charity event by a banking firm. I sponsored 12 pieces of green tea cake for this event...

It started with my JC ex-classmate calling me, wanting to buy a cake from me for charity event. I was too paisei to sell to my friend, so I complimented 12 pieces of green tea cake for them to try.

I am pleased with the results. :)

Enjoy the precious cake.

Kursqs

2007-10-23T19:58:00.000+08:00

Kursqs... that's the crispy sound of my puff pastry when I cut it with a knife.

That's my crispy Peach Custard Puffs. They looked real pretty man.. and tasty too.. except a little bit burnt on the ages as my baking partner didn't rotate the tray around. His colour was just nice.

Anyway, we also baked Tuna Puffs.

It expanded very well. We were all amazed at how big it can expand. And the pretty fan shape. So that is how those curry puffs are made at the stores outside. We know the 'secret' now!

Nothing beats having a cup of kopi-o to go with the savoury puffs on a Sunday afternoon! Yeh!

And this is the cream horn. Very beautiful, baked to a shiny golden brown, and stuffed with custard or cream. I piped 2 horns with cream and 3 with custard. My parents finished up the cream horn within seconds. I didn't know they loved cream this much. The custards are shared among my family and given to my boyfriend. He loves custard a lot. And I love fresh cream.

French Almond Macaroons Recipe

2007-10-05T23:15:00.000+08:00

http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/3355/Recipe.cfm

Egg Tarts and Apple Crumble

2007-10-05T20:25:00.000+08:00

Last week, we made Egg Custard Tarts and Apple Crumble. Finally,.... I know how to make egg tarts liao. Usually, my egg volume will shrink in volume after baking... maybe I added too much water. This Egg Custard does not lose too much water and I am happy about this.

The crusts turn softer the next day. Which, if anyone has the remedy for it, I welcome all suggestions. The apple dices in the apple crumble is half marshy and half crunchy, not as crunchy as the apple pie from MacDonald's though. I like the Streusel toppings on the apple crumble.

Overall, 4 stars for Egg Tarts and 3 stars for Apple Crumble. (Full marks 5 stars)

Antique

2007-09-24T21:29:00.004+08:00

Watching a Japanese drama serial now, called Antique. The drama is about 4 guys who work in a cake store. In it, they help the customers realise their dreams and unlock their past. The show ended with them preparing for Christmas. This reminds me to practise some cakes or pastry for Christmas too. Like chocolate log cakes and profiteroles. I made profiteroles last year for a few Christmas get-together. I used fresh cream but it melts very easily. I think this year, I should learn to make mousse or custard cream so that it can be piped into the profiteroles. I also saw, in the vcd, that they made a cone of cream puffs. Wonder when can I reach that level?

2007-09-23T22:12:00.002+08:00

During the past 3 weeks, I tried making a Green Tea Cake, Pandan Swiss Roll and Fruit Tarts. Recently, I also signed up a Pastry Principle I with Baking Industry Training Centre.

Now for the pictures...

Green Tea Cake

Pandan Swiss Roll

and Yummy Fruit Tarts!!

Hong Kong Pork Chop Bun

2007-09-23T21:48:00.000+08:00

Alright, I have searched almost the entire for the duplicate of the Tsui Wah Crispy Pork Chop Bun in Singapore... still couldn't find one that is on par with it. Out of Central, Xin Wang, C-Nai and Crystal Jade Macau, Xin Wang's Pork Chop Bun is the best. Looks like I can only savour the Tsui Wah Crispy Pork Chop Bun in my dreams...

HongKong Foodies

2007-09-02T16:44:00.000+08:00

Alright, I haven't been posting any messages for a long while. Attached are the glorious foods that I ate in Hongkong. Of all my favourites, I like Tsui Wah's food the best!! Enjoy.

Breakfast - instant macoroni, 2 eggs, 1 modified boluo bun and milk tea - HK18

Mango Pudding with Sago and Pomelo - Xu Liu Shan

French Toast @Tsui Wah - HK20

Wonton Noodle @Jardine Bazaar - HK25

Crispy Pork Chop Bun @ Tsui Wah - HK20

Hot Milk Tea costs HK13 and Cold Milk Tea costs HK15.

Pandan, Pandan, Pandan!

2007-07-28T21:47:00.002+08:00

Yes, it is a night of pandan. I specially rush back after work to make corn cake. When I reached home, I found out that my sis made, not one, but 2 pandan sponge cakes!! OMG, I think to myself, should I continue to make corn cake? Who is going to finish up? The only good thing is all the tools and equipment are all taken out already, I don't have prepare the logistics.

Well, I should persevere my original plan. If I don't bake tonight, where else will I get the time to practise my skills? Alright, I will bake pandan cake instead, anyway all the ingredients are there.

The pandan is really nice and soft. My family ate 1/4 of it and the remaining was finished up by my colleagues.

New Equipment!!

2007-07-25T21:47:00.001+08:00

By the way, below are the 2 latest addition to the baking equipment. Tadadadada! Voila.

Hand-whisk-I love the hand-whisk. $6.93

Kitchen Scale
Took me 3 hours searching in Orchard Road to get the cheapest I could find. Cheap things may not be reliable but I'll just try my luck.
This is a CAMRY brand weighing scale, from Hong Kong. I bought it in Carrefour @ Plaza Singapura. Originally priced at $39.90, Carrefour had a sale, and I managed to buy it at $23.90!!.
Takashimaya sells it for $49.90, I think.
At first I was thinking of buying Tanita, but too expensive!! The cheapest I could buy is a $49.90 after discount.

Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

2007-07-25T19:50:00.001+08:00

Following the failure of my first attempt to re-create the chocolate cupcake that I learnt in course, me and my sis bake the chocolate butter cupcakes together. It was a success. Except my sis accidentally spilled 4 cupcakes while transferring it into the oven! We had to make a 2nd batch to compensate for the spilled ones...

The cooked version:

Next time, I will put 3/4 full.

Buck up on Buttercream!

2007-07-22T22:12:00.002+08:00

After browsing at all the wonderful creative decorations on the cupcakes, I have an irresistable urge to do cupcake too. The only stumbling block is the stale smell of buttercream that is widely used as frosting on cupcakes.

The challenge here is to
- find or experiment ways to remove the stale smell
- use other alternatives like fresh cream (?). But fresh cream is inappropriate for this hot and humid climate. It just melts too easily.

So, the only way out is to try out different recipes of buttercream, and hopefully no smell. I have tried using real butter for buttercream and it gives the stale smell lor. I will try using shortening, hopefully there is no lard smell.

Sigh... as I ponder about my baking interest and the level of skills I have.. there is a mismatch. I need to train myself intensively. Really wished that I can bake every week, but washing up takes up lotsa energy.

Do you know that the preparation for baking takes me 1 hour? The mixing takes 15min. The washing is another 20min. And packing up the stuff back to the storeroom once it is dry? Each time I need to use the oven, I need to remove the bottles of dark soy sauce, cooking oil, cups, hot water flask, pepper etc.. to another place. Not to forget, I am not allowed to bake when mum is cooking.

I am looking forward to my next baking session.. maybe it's a sponge cake. :)

Post-mortem from the baking class

2007-07-18T22:37:00.000+08:00

After attending 4 classes of baking, I like to do Chiffon cake and Sponge cake the best. Because they are easy, soft, porous and taste good. I like to use the chiffon method. I hate to cream butter. I am thinking of using sponge cake mixture to use as cupcake. I like sponge cake. It is bouncy and taste good.

If possible, I would like to practise my skills by baking a birthday cake every month for cell group. Already, I have some ideas on what cake to do. :)

Also, I am interested to buy some baking equipment.

Baking Equipment:
1. Electronic weighing scale *
2. Hand whisk *
3. Serrated knife
4. Merry-go-round table
5. Knife for spreading cream

* denotes essential

Some imaginary items for cake decoration:
1. Peach
2. Strawberry
3. Kiwi
4. Longan?
5. Chocolate coated crispies

Ok, got to sleep now for work tomorrow....

Lesson 4: Sponge Cake

2007-07-18T22:22:00.002+08:00

We finally completed our baking course with the sponge cake. Below are the pictures of the sliced sponge cake that we made. It was delicious and I have more confidence in decorating cakes and making sponge cake too. More pictures will be coming once I got hold of those stored in my sis' mobile phone.

The Sponge Cakes:

1. Black Forest Cake

2. Corn Cake

3. Pandan Cake

Black Forest Cake (above)

I can never forget that the teacher praised me and my sister for the good decoration skills we had for the black forest cake. All of us in the class decorated the same way. I don't find anything different from our cake from other students. Maybe our chocolate coating was very well done? And the cherry-spacing was very good? She took 2 serious looks at it some more. :)

Corn Cake (above)

The corn cake was not decorated as pretty as the other cakes. But I think the corn cake was the most well-baked. It is spongy, height is quite high. I am very pleased with the corn cake.

Pandan Cake (above)

Most fragrant cake. I like the pandan sponge cake without the super-sweet custard.

Angry! Angry!

2007-07-01T20:07:00.000+08:00

Today I made the cupcakes using back the same recipe I used in school. It was a failure!!

1. The cake was uncooked
2. The colour was wrong
3. The batter was more grainy than usual
4. The volume was lesser
5. The casing didn't open up because I put the casing into muffin tins. So the side-shape was straighter, not slanted.

I suspect it is because:
1. Wrong amount of ingredients used. I used volume-measurement while the recipe's ingredients were in grams. So I made some assumptions while measuring it.
2. Milk? I use the usual milk which has low fat content. But in class, we use milk that is used to make cream. The low fat milk is more watery.
3. Used muffin tray
4. AA grade egg used. In class, we use B grade eggs.....

Anyway, I doubt the recipe is so sensitive to eggs... I think the main thing is the amount of ingredients.

Findings on Tempering Chocolate

2007-06-29T17:38:00.000+08:00

Below are some links about Tempering Chocolate:

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Tempering-Chocolate/detail.aspx
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/activity.html
http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm

I am not sure whether to use Block Chocolate or Chocolate Chips. Some pages say it is ok to use chips, some say no. "Be sure that your chocolate is in block or bar form, not chocolate chips. The chips have additives that allow them to retain their shape at higher temperatures, and so they will not temper properly."

Anyway, I bought chocolate in bar form.

Shopping List for Weekend - Cupcake

2007-06-27T21:06:00.000+08:00

I intend to bake the chocolate cupcakes this Sunday. I still cannot forget how pretty and tasty it is.

Shopping List:
1. Cupcake paper casing (black, medium-size)
2. Piping bag (to pipe batter. I can use it to pipe cream and profiteroles in future too)
3. Hersheys Chocolate (bar or chips?) for coating

Very excited. Hope I can make it rounded, like the last time.

3rd Lesson: Swiss Rolls

2007-06-25T19:44:00.000+08:00

We made 3 types of Swiss Rolls this Saturday. It was easy. I have more confidence in beating egg whites and egg yolks at high speed without over-beating it. :) We finished the class earlier than usual too. I can see that the swiss roll cakes are softer than the previous ones we made because we had improve our skills. :)

What we made:

1. Feather Roll (Chocolate cream)

2. Rainbow Roll (Strawberry cream, tastes the best!!)

3. Tiger Roll (Chocolate and strawberry cream)

We use fresh cream for the spreading. I think the cream is a non-dairy cream... this one not too sure... I need to check it out. After putting the swiss roll at room temperature, only a thin layer of cream is left. My boyfriend kept it in the fridge and the swiss roll shape is still good. The cream is still thick too. The teacher says it can be kept in air-con for 1 whole day.

Rainbow Roll (on the left) and Feather Roll (on the right).

I had a lot of fun piping the design out and creating the feather-look.

Rainbow Roll is rolled by my sister and Feather Roll is rolled by me. Quite difficult to roll!

This is the Tiger Roll (on the right). It is really huge and gets a bit messy to eat. It is called Tiger Roll because its outer skin looks like tiger skin.

I have another recipe to create the Furry Rabbit Swiss Roll and the Cartoon Tiger Swiss Roll. Would love to try it out one of these days when I "graduate" from the course!

By the way, me and my sister are really lucky. We both have a wedding dinner and DND next saturday, which coincides with the 4th lesson of the course. Since the class usually end at 6:30pm, how are we going to get home and get ready fresh-and-smelling-sweet for the dinners?

Maybe God came to our rescue. It so happened that the teacher would be away next week and only come back on Thurs. She requested the class to be postponed to the following week. Of course, we nodded furiously. :) This is the best arrangement we can ever get, without missing a class and without doing a make-up class.

Lesson 2: Chiffon Cake

2007-06-17T11:39:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, we baked 3 variations of Chiffon Cake. The procedure is very standardised for Chiffon Cake. The crux lies in beating the egg whites to the right stage and folding it lightly.

Techniques are really important in cake-making. Given the same teacher, same baking environment, same recipes, some students' cakes turn out better than others, in terms of height, softness, lightness, distribution. I learnt that practise will make things perfect.

Going to a baking school can clarify some myths and learn some science. For eg, sugar can never dissolve in butter. I thought it can dissolve in butter. I remembered once I was learning butter cake from my friend. I brought fine sugar, instead of caster sugar. She was unhappy. Her mum says "its alright, just dissolve the sugar in the egg mixture." So, I thought it was because fine sugar will be harder to melt than caster sugar in the creaming process, and therefore we dissolve it into the egg mixture.

Below are some picture(not very sharp; used Samsung E720, in VGA mode) I took:
1. Orange and Lemon Chiffon
2. Banana Chiffon
3. Pandan Chiffon

Although the pictures do not look appetizing, the cakes taste good. Next time I do again, will take pictures with sunlight.

1. Orange and Lemon Chiffon

2. Banana Chiffon

3. Pandan Chiffon

Tempering and Melting Chocolate

2007-06-15T21:12:00.001+08:00

Did some research on tempering chocolate. The chocolate coating used in the cupcakes is compound chocolate, which means it can set at room temperature. For other chocolate, we need to temper it. Some interesting findings from http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/155/Tempering-Chocolate

In Summary
If the chocolate is allowed to cool on its own, the crystals of fat will be loose, resulting in a chocolate that is dull in appearance, soft & malleable, and greasy to the touch. This loose crystalline structure has a slightly lower melting point than tempered chocolate crystals.

If, instead, while cooling, the chocolate is kept at 88°F (31°C), the loose crystal structure will not form (88°F is above the formation point of the loose crystals). At this temperature the cocoa butter actually forms a dense crystalline structure. Holding the chocolate at this temperature and stirring will allow a whole bunch of these stable crystal structures to form providing a lot of seed crystals to form in the chocolate. When the chocolate is finally allowed to fully cool, if there are enough stable seed crystals, then the chocolate will harden into a very stable hard chocolate with a slight sheen, snap when broken, and will keep for months at cool room temperature.

The Seed Method (Tempering)
1. Melt chocolate using double boiler
2. Once temperature reached 41°C, all chocolate should have melted.
3. Add a piece of unmelted chocolate to provide the seeding.
4. Stir until temperature reaches 31°C. Keep chocolate at 31°C until ready to use.

Melting Chocolate
1. Microwave method

Works best with less than 1 pound chocolate.
Microwave in short bursts, about 30 seconds at a time, and stir between each microwave session to provide even heating.
At some point, the chocolate will be warm and the pieces will hold their shape as you pull it out of the microwave oven, but they will be slightly shiny and mush as you stir it.
Keep stirring and allow the residual heat to melt the rest of the chocolate.
If done properly and gently enough on high quality tempered chocolate, this method can result in melted chocolate that is still tempered

2. Double Boiler method

You can remove the bowl from the pan whenever you need to slow down the heating process and place it back on to introduce more heat. This will prove vital while tempering.

The methods are so difficult.
Qn: Where can I find compound chocolate??

Chiffon Cake.. tomorrow

2007-06-15T20:51:00.002+08:00

Tomorrow, we are going to learn chiffon cake. This time round, I will do the folding. Hope the cake turns out light and soft.

1st Lesson - Butter cake

2007-06-14T22:01:00.001+08:00

I just attended the first lesson at a culinary school. The chef taught us Butter Cake and 3 variations of it. Below are the items we bake:

1. Walnut Cake
2. Cupcake
3. Marble cake

As you can see, the center of the walnut cake was not very good.

These are the cupcakes. I love the chocolate cupcakes. Easy to do, and taste the best! I am thinking of doing it again in my home. Yum yum!

The marble cake, a bit salty....

Cake Baking Fundamentals

2007-06-07T17:45:00.001+08:00

I am going for a 4-day course, spread over 1 month, to learn 4 different types of cake-making. Butter, swiss roll, chiffon and sponge. I am very excited about it. It is starting this Sat. Need to wear apron. All cakes will be made from scratch. My sister is my partner in this hands-on course in Creative Culinarie.

Hope to post pictures of good cakes next time!

Almond Honey Cookies

2007-06-04T20:56:00.002+08:00

Came across this recipe from FEMALE July dated one year back. Would like to try one day.

Ingredients:

300g plain flour
2 tbsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter, cubed
50g blanched ground almonds
4 tbsp raw cane sugar
2 tbsp honey
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 sliced almonds

Method:
1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add butter, almonds and sugar.
2. Use your fingers, mix all ingredients until crumbly.
3. Add honey, milk and essence, then stir mixture with a wooden spoon.
4. Roll dough into balls, arrange on ungreased baking sheet.
5. Flatten each ball with a fork, then top with almonds.
6. Bake at 180degree Celsius for 15-20min. Serve.

Hands-on baking class

2007-05-28T22:57:00.000+08:00

The next baking class @ Creative Culinarie seems to be on 9th Jun, Sat, 1-5pm.. It will clash with my favourite Body Combat class 2:30-3:30pm.
I think I need to sacrifice my Body Combat coz I really really want to learn baking asap.

Baking Lessons!

2007-05-20T20:03:00.000+08:00

I was excited! Called up Creative Culinarie School to ask about the baking lessons. They have hands-on lessons, 2 to a team. Me and my sister are eager for the next baking schedule We sure can learn how to bake different kinds of cakes!

More sugee cake

2007-04-26T22:03:00.000+08:00

The sugee making process ---> my coffee and cake

Rest day

2007-04-22T14:46:00.000+08:00

The weather has turned from a sunny morning to a stormy afternoon. My shoulder blades has recovered quite well, slight pain still. So, I'll refrain from handling any heavy machinery today in order to have a complete recovery. ==> no baking today.

Even typing the keyboard is risky, ok? Have adjusted my chair and keep my hands floating while typing this msg. Making a conscious effort is soooo impt, esp for the keyboard-workers.

Anyway, I will look out for tips on making swiss roll. I think swiss roll is quite nice to eat. Yummy. Wait for good news on my tiny 'research'. ;)