Chocolate Symphony

I had some leftover of the chocolate ganache from the Devil's Food Cake. I did not want to waste it and was thinking of what new cake creation can I come up with. Finally decided to bake the chocolate sponge cake first while squeezing some creative juices out of my brain. I normally do not manage to bake a very soft and spongy chocolate sponge. It usually turns out the the bottom is denser and harder than the top and I have to cut the bottom away. It's a lot of wastage. This time round, I tried to be a little more courageous by folding the the chocolate and cooled butter mixture more thoroughly into the fluffy egg and flour mixture. Pop it went into the oven. After waiting anxiously for about 30 minutes, I got a beautiful tall, soft and spongy chocolate sponge cake. No more denser and tougher base and wastage. Hooray! It's a success. Here's a picture of it.

Devil's Food Cake

It's my mum's birthday. I have actually wanted to bake a mango mousse cake. However, I could not find any nice and good mangoes around this time. In the end, I settled on a devil's food cake taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Roses's Heavenly Cakes book. It's extremely chocolatey and moise because it contained 99% cocoa chocolate and cocoa powder and sour cream. Can you taste it with your imagination?

The cake is sliced horizontally into 3 layers and sandwiched with chocolate ganache. I used Valrhona 64% Manjari chocolate for the ganache. I love this Manjari chocolate as it's not as bitter as the 70% Guanjana chocolate I used to use. It's quite well balanced and kids will not find it too bitter. This cake is eventually dressed with a layer of Valrhona chocolate glaze. The only bug I have with this cake is that I couldn't make a beautiful glaze. The temperature of the chocolate mixture is very important towards making a beautiful glaze. Too high a temperature, the chocolate will be too thin and runny. A little lower than 32 degree celsius, it will become a little too thick for a smooth glaze, like what happened here.

This cake will definitely appeal to all chocoholics. For a lighter texture, you can actually replace the chocolate butter cake base with a chocolate sponge cake soaked with syryp, like the Awfully Chocolate Cake I posted sometime back.

Black forest cake III

Another blackforest cake but with a different decoration. This one is for my third aunt's birthday. She requested for this cake after she tried the one I baked for my cousin's baby's full month birthday. This is definitely a popular cake among my relatives.
Chocolate sponge cake and whipped cream recipes are taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum Cake Bible book and the chocolate whipped cream recipe is taken from Pierre Herme Chocolate Desserts book. I love to use fruits to decorate cakes. It's much easier than using cream to pipe borders and patterns on the cake. And fruits are much more appealing and healthier than loads of cream. Maybe that's an excuse as I'm not good at piping yet.

Chinese Reunion Dinner 2011

Bunny hop, hop to the lunar year of the Rabbit. It's feasting time again with my parents and brother, my sister and her family and my family. This year, I decided not to prepare steamboat. Instead, I whipped up a feast. On the menu were coffee pork, my mum's speciality - "ngoh hiang", braised mushroom (got this recipe from my friend Christine) with broccoli, steam pomfret, steam prawns and stir-fried leek with beancurd and button mushroom. Preparation work started the night before and ended just before dinner started. What a long day! But it's all worth it. This is the first time I have cooked so many dishes at one go. Must give myself a pat on the shoulder for a job well done. Haha .....



Coffee Pork

Got this coffee pork recipe from watching the Chinese 三菜一汤 cooking show. It's pretty simple to prepare and yummy ..... 


Braised mushroom with broccoli

What is Chinese New Year feast without abalone and fatt choy? Got this scrumptious recipe from my golfing buddy, Christine. However, I omitted the dried oyster as I don't like the taste. This dish can be cooked earlier as it takes two hours to simmer the braised mushroom, dried scallop and pork belly.


Teochew steam pomfret



Stir fried leek with beancurd and button mushrooms

My mum told me I have to include leek as a dish as eating leek during lunar new year means having lots of money to count that year. I don't eat leek and have never cooked one. So it's a challenge for me. In the end, I decided to just stir fry it with panfried firm beancurd. I happen to have lots of button mushrooms which are going to rot soon if I don't cook it. So I just added them to the dish. This simple dish turned out to be yummy and I love it. Everyone, including my mum, gives me the thumbs up.

My brother, nephew and niece, and my son Ryan

My parents and hubby enjoying the feast



Chinese New Year Baking Adventure

It's Chinese New Year again and I get a little ambitious this year. For the past few years, I just baked the open-faced pineapple tarts and almond cookies for my mum, sister and my family only. I tried baking the closed pineapple tarts (with modifications to the open-faced tarts) last year after all the CNY frenzy frizzled. It turned out to be good (approved by my daughter). Haha .... It has a buttery texture that just melts in the mouth. Are you drooling already? So I decided to bake the closed version this year, with a few open-faced ones for my son. Can guess the number of pineapples I cooked this time? TWENTY EIGHT. Of course, I did not cook all at one go. I think I cooked them over 4 separate sessions. It's real hard work. No wonder homemade pineapple tarts are so expensive. Since I baked more this year, thus have more to give out to friends and relatives.

Next comes the kueh bangkit. This small, white little biscuit is a little temperamental. Not easy to manage. But I still manage to bake two successful batches of these little morsels that melt in the mouth. I tried with both fresh coconut milk bought from the market and the one bought from the supermarket. The verdict : fresh coconut milk won.

What did I do with those that do not have the melt in the mouth texture? Still eat them and treat them like eating biscuits ...........

Almond cookies. This is the easiest one to make and the healthiest. No butter and eggs. Just toasted almonds with skin on ground coarsely, flour, icing sugar and corn oil. Easy. Isn't it?

Here's all that I have.

Marble cake in coffee buttercream frosting

It's my cell group Christmas get-together on 8 Jan 2011. Decided to bake a marble cake with silk meringue coffee buttercream frosting. The texture is lighter than just pure buttercream due to the addition of stiffly beaten egg whites. It is worth the extra effort put in as it definitely tasted better. I also thought that buttercream will be easier to frost and decorate than fresh cream.  But not really due to our hot weather. So you can see the imperfections in my frosting in the pictures below. Need more practice in a cool room next time. Didn't have the chance to take a picture of a slice to see the marbled pattern in the cake.

Ingredients:

12g cocoa powder
24g hot water
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
45g milk
55g heavy cream
¾ tsp vanilla essence
150g cake flour, sifted
113g sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
134g unsalted butter, softened


Preparation:
Preheat oven at 170°C.
Grease and flour a 7” x 3” round cake tin. Line the base with parchment paper.

Method:
1. Dissolve the cocoa powder into the hot water and mix well. Leave it aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly combine all the eggs, ¼ cup each of the milk and heavy cream and vanilla essence.
3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.
4. Add the butter and ¾ cup each of the remaining milk and heavy cream into the above mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Increase speed to medium (high speed if using hand mixer) and beat for 1.5 minutes to aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches into the mixing bowl, beating for 20 seconds after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure. Scrap down the sides.
7. Remove about 1/3 cup of the batter above and mix into the cooled chocolate mixture. Blend well.
8. Pour ½ of the non-chocolate mixture into the cake tin followed by all the chocolate mixture and lastly, followed by the remaining non-chocolate mixture. The pan will be about half full.
9. Smooth the surface with a spatula. Use a tablespoon to gently swirl the batter to create the marble pattern.
10. Bake for 25-35min or until a tester inserted near the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back slightly when pressed lightly in the centre.
11. Remove from oven and rest the cake in the cake tin in a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmoulding.



Chocolate Mousse Cake

Made this cake for a family New Year Eve's party at my brother-in-law's house. This cake comprises a layer of praline feuilletine at the bottom, followed by two alternating layers of chocolate sponge cake and chocolate mousse and topped up with a layer of chocolate ganache. The praline feuillentine gives the cake a crunchy bite, which goes very well with the chocolate sponge and mousse.
Glad that everybody loves it. But I need more practice and finesse in putting them together. Will try again next time.