Up Side Down Persimmon Cake

I hope it is not too late to wish you a very happy New 2013!

I had been quite busy with my work during 2012, though working from home mostly, it really eaten up times, on top of that, I had been travelling for projects often too.

I have been craving for desserts or something sweet lately, with a few almost overiping persimmons in the fridge, I alter the recipe of up side down pineapple cake to this :)

I gotta the original recipe from here.

Ingredients

Fruit layer:
45g salted butter
120g brown sugar
2 persimmons, thickly sliced
some dried cranberries

Cake layer:
120g unsalted butter
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
130ml milk

1. for fruit layer: melt salted butter in cake pan, add brown sugar and cook til sugar is metled and begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Once cool, arrange sliced persimmon and add cranberries to add more taste.  Set aside
2. Whisk butter and sugar until fluffy, add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, until smooth
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt
4. Stir in 1/3 portion of dry ingredients, then 1/2 portion of milk into batter, fold well, then continue with same portion of dry ingredient and milk until the flour is just incorporated into the batter
5. Pour batter over fruit, bake for 45 minutes at 180C in preheated oven
6. Remove from oven, let cool about 20 minutes, then place a plate on top, flip the cake out from the tin, becareful of the spilling hot caramel :) 
7. Best serve while warm

You may find the caramel a bit too dark on the cake, no, I didn't burn it, as I used the Gula Merah 冰花糖 instead of brown sugar :p

Also, since I reduced the sugar in the cake (compare with original recipe), the caramel helped enhance the flavor of the cake very much, love the buttery flavor too!

Strawberry Cake

I bought 3kg of strawberries back from Cameron Highland last weekend, we ate some of it, gave some to neighbor & friend, froze some in the freezer but there are still many more in the fridge.  Thus, I better think of something before they turn rotten in another day or 2.

I googled and found this recipe from Martha Stewart's website.

Ingredients

90g unsalted butter, softened
180g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
180g sugar + 2 tbsp
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
400g strawberries, hulled and halved

You may find the method in the link above.

The cake is fluffy, moist but not wet,

very sweet but with a hint of sourness from the strawberries

Having big pieces with a mug of coffee really made me satisfying

Chocolate Cake Balls

Cake pops and cake balls

Cake balls

My 1st cake pop

Cappuccino Squares

Ingredients
225g butter, softened
225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
225 golden caster sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp instant coffee powder, dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water

1. Grease and line the bottom of a baking tin
2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a bowl
3. In another bowl, beat together butter, caster sugar, eggs and coffee with hand or electric whisk, until smooth
4. Mix flour into egg mixture, mix until just combined
5. Spoon into the baking tin and smooth the top
6. Bake in preheated oven, 180C for 35-40 minutes or until risen and firm
7. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the lining paper and cool completely

White chocolate frosting

115g white chocolate, broken into pieces

55g butter, softened

3 tbsp milk

175 icing sugar

1. Place the chocolate, butter and milk in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted
2. Remove the bowl from the pan and sift in the icing sugar
3. Beat until smooth, then spread over cake
4. Dust the top of the cake with sifted cocoa, then cut into squares

Osmanthus Flower Chiffon

I bought a small packet of dried osmanthus flowers 桂花 from Seremban night market sometimes ago, I love the sweet fragrant and had used it in chiffon cake once, I didn't post up the last time cos I didn't bring my camera along to mum's place.

It is said that a cup of osmanthus flower tea promotes beautiful skin, tightening pores and reduces wrinkles.  Here is a little note about benefits of consuming osmanthus flower tea (which was given by the herbal tea seller from the night market):

香气迷人，除臭解毒，用于口臭，风火热牙痛，胃热缓和肠胃胀气，紧实肌肤，调理皮肤毛细孔粗大，减少皱纹。

I mixed 2 tbsp of dried osmanthus flower into 3 tbsp of honey, let them sat in the fridge for more than a week before I baked the chiffon cake.

Ingredients

90ml water
120g self raising flour
5 egg yolks
2 - 3 tbsp osmanthus flower honey
60g oil

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

Outer look of the chiffon cake

I had the cake baked on Mon, 31st Jan, baked it in a hurry (b4 heading back to Seremban) as little girl demanded a cake for her & all cousins to cut during CNY (cos she remembered this).

Inner look of the chiffon cake

However, I managed to ice & decorate it only on Wed morning, which was the eve of CNY.  Hubby complained that the cake turned dry but the kids didn't seem to mind at all :b

The decorated osmanthus flower chiffon cake

Final Day of Standard 1 Bento (308) and A Cupcake Party

Hurray!  Finally it comes to the end of the school year and little girl will start her long holiday 2moro, yippee :)  I don have to wake up early to prepare bento for 1 and a half months \ (^_^) /

It is a final bento for her standard 1 and I made her a simple one, which combined cheese and mushroom frankfurters and kiwifruits.  It took me only about 10 minutes to have it ready.

Actually the reason I made a small bento was little girl has requested me to bake her a batch of cupcakes so that she able to have an early birthday celebration with her classmates.

Vanilla cupcakes with glaze icing 

(it was so diluted that the cakes absorbed the icing, thus it was not visible on the cake),

purple colored sugar and lots of sprinkles

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake

Little girl is ill with fever since last night, luckily I managed to catch enough sleep yesterday due to the Deepavali holiday here. Thus, I was feeling bored while she was taking her nap this afternoon, after hopping thru from blogs to blogs, I settled with Hokkaido chiffon cupcake which was highly rated by most of the bloggers.

I used the recipe from 周老师的美食教室, she suggested a recipe which produced the softest cake, and it is similar to those famous Hokkaido chiffon cupcake.

Hokkaido chiffon cupcake
Yield 15
Ingredients
(A)
100g / 5 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
40g corn oil
40g milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
50g superfine flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

(B)
210g / 5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
105g sugar (I used 90g only)

I adapted Carol's vanilla custard recipe this time, the portion is bigger comparing to the one I tried previously, however, both recipes are providing equally delicious vanilla custard.

Vanilla custard
Ingredients
(A)
200g milk
20g sugar
1/3 stalk vanilla bean

(B)
1 egg yolk (I used the whole egg)
20g sugar

(C)
50g milk
10g corn starch
15g superfine flour

(D)
10g unsalted butter (used salted butter)


(E)
200g non-dairy cream

1. Split vanilla bean, remove vanilla seed and mix into (A), simmer with low flame
2. In a bowl, mix (B) til even
3. Mix (C) with a hand whisk til well combine and with no lumps
4. Combine (3) into (2), mix til even
5. Slowly pour in (1) through a sieve, stir continuously while pouring
6. Cook mixture with low flame, do not stop stirring while cooking
7. Cook until mixture turn thick, off heat, add in (D), stir until combine evenly
8. Cover with sling film while hot and leave to cool off
9. Whisk non-dairy cream til stiff peak, fold in cool vanilla custard, fold til even, ready to squeeze into cupcake

Believe me, this combination (the chiffon cake and vanilla custard cream) is really superb, even baby J asked for 2nd helping (actually, he ate the cream more than the cake :p )

Fruit Pastry Cake - Orange & Poppyseed

As we didn't eat much on the previous cake, I baked it again yesterday, and doubled the recipe this time. I changed the recipe slightly as I didn't have yogurt.

Ingredients
200g butter
300g sugar
100ml orange juice
2 tsp orange zest
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
420g flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 oranges
2 tsp blue poppyseed

U may refer the method of baking the cake on previous posting, but the time I baked in the oven was changed to 60 minutes as I baked it in 2 loaf tins.

From the 2 cakes I baked, gave 1 to my uncle, 1/2 to mum and kept 1/2 to myself.  The cake tasted good, a bit on the sweet side, but I like the taste of orange and the little 'pop' of poppyseed in the mouth.

Fruit Pastry Cake - Peach & Grapes

There were lots of bloggers commenting that this fruit pastry cake is not only easy to bake and very delicious too, u may check out here and here.  I managed to give it a try on Sat as we were meeting our friends at the evening.  Instead of baking it in the cake pan, I used muffin paper cups.

Ingredients
100g butter, soften at room temperature
180 caster sugar
50g yogurt
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lime zest
210g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Fruits of ur choice (I used peach and champagne grapes)

1. Wash, cut (chunks or slices, as desired) and drain fruits, set aside
2. Cream butter, sugar and yogurt with an electric mixer til light and fluffy
3. Dribble in the lightly beaten eggs gradually and beat til incorporated in the batter
4. Add vanilla extract and zest, mix til combine
5. Mix a portion of fruits into batter (if desired), mix til combine
6. Sieve over flour and baking powder and blend with a spatula til smooth
7. Pour batter into muffin paper cups, arrange fruits on top, remember not to press the fruits down into the batter
8. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake

I ate 1 at my friend's hse, it tasted just like what other bloggers mentioned, it is not greasy, moist and very addictive, yummy.

Nestum Family Cake

Plan to visit a friend 2moro, as I don wanna go there empty handed, plan to bake her something.  Then I remember having a tiny bag of Nestum cereal left in the pantry, as I'd started on eating oat cereal for breakfast now, I better use the nestum for some baking, and ta da... found the recipe here.

Ingredients

240g butter
200g sugar (cut it to 150g only)
1 tbsp honey
4 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
50g Nestum cereal

For topping (optional, I didn't add in as the Nestum cereal I had was just enough for the cake)

1 tbsp almond flakes
1 tbsp Nestum cereal

1. Beat butter, sugar and honey til creamy and pale
2. Mix flour, salt, nestum and baking powder together.  Add into creamed mixture alternately with the milk
3. Beat til smooth
4. Greased a 9" cake tin (I used 2 loaf tin), pour batter into it and sprinkle almond flakes and nestum over the top and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 45 mins or til cake is done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool and serve.

Very buttery, fragrant and moist cake

Little girl loves this cake, ate 2 pieces b4 dinner and kept begging for 1 right after dinner!

And so, Meng Yeng, this cake will b yours 2moro :p

Matcha/Green Tea Kasutera Japanese Honey Sponge Cake

When I set my eyes on the previous Kasutera Cake, I oledi put this green tea kasutera cake into my must-bake list too.

The recipe was adapted from Angie's Recipes, I followed all ingredients to the dot, only cut down slightly on the sugar.

Ingredients

125g bread flour
10g matcha tea powder
50g honey
50g green tea drink
5 eggs
140g caster sugar (used only 120g)

1. Line a 44x12x6cm wood box or an 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper (I used the loaf pan)
2. Fill half of a large pot with water and bring it to a boil
3. Stir together the honey and green tea drink in a small bowl
4. Combine the flour, matcha tea powder and sift twice and set aside
5. Preheat the oven to 175C/350F
6. Place the eggs and the sugar into the bowl of mixer.  Set the bowl over the pot of hot water and whisk the mixture until lukewarm and the sugar is dissolved
7. Remove and beat over medium speed until the mixture starts to thicken
8. Lower the speed and continue whisking until it is thick and smooth.  When you lift the whisk, the peaks drops slightly
9. Beat in honey water mixture in a few additions until incorporated
10. Sift in the flour in a few additions and whisk on low speed until fully incorporated
11. Pour the batter into the prepared wood box or the pan.  Place in the hot oven and bake until the cake is golden brown and it feels spongy not tacky to the touch, about 50 minutes.
12. Cool on the rack for 10 minutes, and remove from the pan

The kitchen smell pretty good while the cake was baking in the oven, a mixture of honey & matcha :p  I able to stop myself from stuffing the cake into my mouth right after it just cool off this time.  I wrapped it in sling film, kept it in a container and waited patiently til this morning.  Slicing it nicely with the help of a very sharp knife and wet towel, I managed to get a perfect cut matcha kasutera cake :D  * clap clap clap to myself *

Verdict:  The taste of matcha is strong but not too overly, it blend pretty well with the taste of honey, yum!  Great with a cup of green tea latte or just plain green tea.

Note:  If you put the batter into muffin cups, bake them for 20 minutes with the same temperature.

Failed Banana Cake :(

I bought a bunch of bananas last Tue, and don know what happened on Wed, the bunch of bananas dropped on the floor by themselves and I'd to keep them in the fridge.  As we gotta finish up those bananas fast, thus use the remaining bananas to bake this banana cake.

I adapted recipe from Joy of baking, with some adjustments which resulted a failure :p

Ingredients
230g all purpose flour
150g granulated white sugar (used brown sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas (approximately 454g), mashed well (used about 4, and additional 1 for garnish)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C and place oven rack to middle position
2. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.  Set aside
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside
4. In a medium sized bowl, combine the mashed bananas (mash with salt), eggs, melted butter and vanilla
5. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky.
6. Scrape batter into prepared pan.  Bake until bread is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 - 60 minutes.
7. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature

I followed most ingredients and every steps accordingly until folding the banana mixture to the dry ingredients, I found the batter very dry and trying to be creative, I added 1/2 cup of milk, should go for 1/4 cup, just don know what I was thinking that day... sigh....  thus the ending result of the cake:

Instead of a buttery, fluffy type of banana cake, I got a oily and kuih type banana cake

Luckily, though the texture is funny, the taste is still good.   Lesson learned, do not simply add in too much milk :p

Mille Crepe Cake 法式千層蛋糕

Pls excuse me of the ugly decoration :p

It is hubby's birthday today, I made this Mille Crepe Cake yesterday quietly, both hubby & little girl didn't get to see it til this morning :p

I googled the recipe, found one not too complicated and small portion here (it is in Chinese), seriously this cake is quite easy and fast to made, the only time consuming part is to assemble the cake.

Ingredients - Crepes

15g unsalted butter
20g sugar
100g flour
2 eggs
90g milk (used about 100g)
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Melt the butter
2. Shift flour, add in sugar and salt, mix well
3. Beat in eggs into flour mixture one at a time, mix til well combine
4. Pour in melted butter, mix well then pour in milk til well combine
5. Let rest for 15 minutes
6. Strain batter
7. Heat pan, pour in batter into pan to form a thin crepe
8. Fry crepe for 1-2 minutes (just fry one side)

Ingredients - Custard Cream

(A)

30g sugar

1 tsp flour

1 tsp corn flour

1 tsp vanilla essence (used a small stick of vanilla bean)

1 egg

50g milk

(B)

15g unsalted butter

150g milk

100g cream (used non-dairy cream)

1. Mix ingredients in (A) in a bowl
2. Simmer milk (in B) with vanilla bean til reaching boiling point, strain milk
3. Pour (2) to (1) in 2 times, mix til well combine
4. Simmer (3) til turning thick.  Off heat
5. Mix in butter
6. Cover with sling film, let cool
7. Beat cream til soft peak, fold into (6), til combine

To assemble:

1. Spread a thin layer of custard cream evenly onto crepe, repeating the cream and crepe layering steps
2. Let the crepe cake set in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving

I tell u, this custard cream is so so so wonderful, I couldn't stop myself from licking it after cooking and while assembling the cake, yummy!

Can u see those tiny vanilla seeds?

My piece of Mille Crepe Cake

Lastly, wishing u a happy birthday, darling!  Also, wish u having a successful career (just like the cake, stepping higher & higher), love u...

Kasutera / Castella Japanese Sponge Cake

I first learned about this kasutera Japanese sponge cake from Carol's, then Angie's, after googled for more related recipes, I found it quite interesting & the ingredients are very simple too.

Top view

I'd followed Carol's recipe as she has every steps in detail, however, I didn't follow her part of DIYing the cake mold, I used loaf pan & some paper cups instead.

Ingredients

6 eggs, at room temperature

150g high protein flour

150g caster sugar (used 120g)

2 tbsp/30cc milk

60g honey (used 4 tbsp)

As for the method, u may refer to Justhungry's, I am a bit lazy to do the translation today :p

My cutting skill is so terrible...

The muffin size kasutera

If u can't resist urself from popping one into ur mouth right after this muffins turning cold, u'll be disappointed, as they r very very dry... they need time to rest and moisten up, so eat at ur own risk ;)

Closer view

Sure enough, the cake turn soft the next day, not as dry like before, taste really good with a cup of tea or coffee, yum!

Strawberry & Grape Mochi Cake

I was trying to find a mochi bread recipe which do not require any premix, I did not find it, however I stumbled upon this blog - Kirbie's Cravings (what a lovely name) with this wonderful strawberry mochi cake recipe.

I halved the recipe as I have a small cake pan at home, also since never try a mochi cake b4, it'll be safer to bake a small cake just in case those at home do not enjoy it :p

I'll list the ingredients as the original and those I used in color & bracket.

Ingredients

450g Mochiko rice flour (225 g local glutinous rice flour)

240g butter (120g)

2 cups / 480g sugar (3/4 cup)

1 can / 340g evaporated milk (170 ml)

4 eggs (2 eggs)

2 tsp baking powder (1 tsp)

2 tsp vanilla (1 tsp)

2 cups fresh strawberries, cut into small cubes (1 cup fresh strawberries and green grapes)

1. Cream the butter with sugar
2. Mix in the evaporated milk to the butter/sugar mixture
3. Mix eggs into mixture
4. Mix in the rice flour, baking powder and vanilla
5. Stir in the strawberries
6. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan
7. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 180 (I bake for 45 minutes only)
8. Let cake completely cool, allowing the mochi to set, before cutting and serving

This cake is soft and chewy (very Q as Taiwanese says :p) even after the next day, tasted milky too, the hint of strawberries & grapes really enhance the flavor, yum, definitely a keep recipe.

Yogurt Peach Cake

My 1st bake of year 2010, baked this on new year's day, for MIL's birthday. I adapted the recipe from Alex Goh's 'Creative making of cakes'.

Ingredients

(A)

2 egg yolks

30g sugar

(B)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

50g peaches

zest of 1/2 lemon

(C)

2 tsps gelatine powder

25ml water

(D)

100g yogurt

(E)

130g whipped cream

(F)

80g peaches, cut into cube

(G)

peaches, cut into thin slices

1. Prepare a 9" round vanilla sponge cake
2. Whip (A) til light and thick
3. Mash the peaches from (B) and then sieve the mixture. Mix with the rest of ingredients in (B)
4. Premix (C) and melt it over a hot water bath
5. Add (B), mix (C) into (A) then blend all ingredients in (A), (B) and (C) together
6. Add (D) and (E) and mix well
7. Add (F) til evenly blended
8. Cut the sponge cake into 2 horizontal layers
9. use the above filling to sandwich the cake layer
10. Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of whipped cream
11. Arrange the peach slices on top
12. Refrigerated for 1/2 hour to let it set
13. Glaze the peaches by brushing instant jelly topping glaze onto them. Serve.

The yogurt mixture was so yummy...

BIL made this beautiful jelly.

It was so coincidence that our theme colors were so similar

BIL made this soya jelly too