Chocolate Strawberry Mousse Delight

This cake is for a friend of my cousin, Florence. This friend likes chocolate and strawberry. I thought of a chocolate filled and frosted cake immediately and decorate it with strawberries. But I wanted to do something different instead of all chocolate sponge layers, filling and frosting. Strawberry mousse sandwiched in between the chocolate cake layers came to my mind. The tartness and lightness of strawberry mousse with the chocolate frosting seem like the best combination to me.

Petit Gateau : Cafe, Chocolat Caramel, Peanut Butter

Hubby's birthday is just round the corner. What should I bake? I actually thought of baking a simple cake after spending some time and effort in making the wedding cupcakes. Making fanciful cakes with different components can be tiring at times, not just time consuming. But passion, love and interest will triumph eventually.

Wedding Cupcakes

It was a pleasant surprise to me when the bride, Jia Ying, daughter of Janet, my golf "kaki", asked me if I could bake cupcakes for her wedding cocktail reception. I was both excited and a little anxious as this was my first time baking cupcakes for such an important occasion - a wedding.I started trawling the internet and books for ideas on how to frost and decorate the cupcakes. Pink is the favourite color of the bride. Thus I decided on a white and pink theme. Next, what cupcake flavours should I bake? That's any easy one - good old vanilla and chocolate cupcakes to go with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. The recipes are taken from Rose Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes book. The cupcakes turned out to be soft, moist and flavourful, especially the vanilla ones.

Coffee Swiss Roll

Does the frosting look like a caterpillar? It looks like one to me, except it is not a green caterpillar. Haha ...........

How about a cup of freshly brewed coffee with a slice of coffee swiss roll on a lazy afternoon? This coffee roll is frosted and filled with coffee-flavoured swiss meringue butter cream. Definitely for coffee addicts. 

Light Butter Cake

The year-end final exam for my son, Ryan, is finally over. What a relief! I can bake again and update my blog. What to bake? I wanted something simple that we can eat during tea time or any time of the day. Classic butter cake comes to mind. I've baked a rich yellow butter cake before. It's rich and sinful because only egg yolks are used. Too much saturated fats and cholesterol from egg yolks and butter. No good for the arteries and heart. This time, I wanted to try a lighter version of butter cake. To do this, I used whole eggs and separated them. I whipped up the egg whites chiffon style to lighten the batter and thus created a lighter cake. The texture is fine and light and that's what I wanted. I'm going to stick to this recipe now.

"King of Fruits" - Durian Cake

Durian - the king of fruits in tropical Asia. Most people will either love it or stay miles away away from it. It has a very strong, fragrant (to durian lovers) or pungent (anti-durianers) smell that seems to linger on forever. It's bizzare food for those who hate it. Lucky for me that my family are durian lovers. There's no "No durian in the house" rules.

Classic Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

I believe the majority of people from young to old love chocolate. Chocolate is such a versatile ingredient. It can be used to make wonderful desserts from the simple chocolate icecream and brownies to the decadent chocolate cakes and pies. We can have a cup of piping-hot chocolatey drink on a nice, rainy, cold day. The best chocolate drink I had was when I was at Stanley Park in Vancouver many, many years ago. It was cold and wintry. The cup of hot chocolate in my hands then was simply heavenly.

Angry Birds Chocolate Cake

Angry birds seem to be the rage now. Games, soft toys, thumb drives, etc. You see them everywhere. When I suggested angry birds theme for Ryan's 11th birthday cake, he said YES. I've never tried fondant or sugar paste and have never really wanted to try because they are just all made out of sugar. It's all too sweet .............. But I decided to them out anyway because I do not know what cake design to bake for a boy. 

Japanese Cream Puff

When I first tried the cream puff at Tampopo Deli in Liang Court, I fell in love with it. It's even better than the famous Beard Papa that attracted long queuesvwhen it first made its entrance many years ago. The Tampopo puff was so good that each customer can only buy 4 at any one time. These puffs were only available on every hour due to the small kitchen. Queues will start forming before the puffs were out from the oven. Don't worry. The kitchen and deli has been expanded and you now no longer have to wait in long lines anymore. Puffs are available most of the time and there's no more quantity restriction. Great! Isn't it?

Dora Awfully Chocolate Cake

This cake is especially for my cell group friend, Agnes's darling, Alaina's fourth birthday. Alaina loves everything about Dora. Agnes passed me her favourite Dora figurines to be put onto the cake. They are so cute, aren't they? I have actually planned to pipe a Dora face onto the cake and have downloaded the picture from the internet. Alas, my plan didn't come true as I had a very busy national day week starting from baking cookies for my son's class party to preparing "popiah" feast on National Day itself.

National Day Cookies Party

It's Singapore's 46th birthday. I made two batches of cookies for Ryan to bring to his class party. On top of these cookies, Ryan included two packets of corn chips. He wanted me to melt some cheddar cheese to go with the chips. Unfortunately, the melted cheese hardened into one big lump upon cooling. So how? Forget about the cheese. The boys just have to eat the chips without the cheese dip. After dropping him off at school in the morning, some of the other mummies and I had our very own breakfast party at Bishan Park MacDonald. We had a wonderful time catching up on what our boys were doing in class. 

Coffee Chiffon Cake

This cake is extremely light, healthy and bursting with coffee. It uses only corn oil, no butter. Great for those who want to cut down on saturated fat and yet still able to have his/her cake. I use Nescafe instant coffee granules dissolved in hot water. You can choose the amount of coffee granules or replace with your favourite cup of espresso. This recipe uses 3 tbsp of instant coffee granules and it's just right for me, a coffee lover. Recipe is posted here. Try baking it and share your comments with me. Or you can always ask me to bake one for you to try ................ 

Cranberry Chocolate Nuts Cookies

It's been a long, long time since I last baked cookies, not counting those Chinese New Year goodies. I have been baking mainly cakes and it's nice to get back to baking cookies. I have only baked double chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and coffee crunch cookies so far. Not so many varieties compared to my cakes galore.

Yam Fried Rice

Yam is a root vegetable. There are so many ways to use yam in our cooking. Teochew yam paste (or-nee), yam mooncake, chinese yam cake, baked yam cake, fried yam batter, ........ Last but not all, yam fried rice. This is a very simple and delicious one-pot dish, good for bringing to potluck party. I found this recipe from Kitchen Snippets and modified it a little to suit my taste. I added dried shrimp, chinese sausage and a portion of the fried shallots to bring out more frangrance from the rice. My family loves mushroom and I added more too. Make sure you get very fresh yam too, one that is fluffy and melts in your mouth when you eat it. Serve the rice with a sprinkling of the fried shallots, spring onion and parsley. It's yummylicious.

Recipe

2 cups rice, washed and drained

250g yam, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

8 pcs dried mushrooms - soaked and diced into cubes (reserve water)
1 Chinese sausage, sliced thinly
2 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in water (reserve water)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5 shallots, sliced thinly
3 spring onions, cut small

Seasoning:
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil or shallot oil
½ tsp sugar or to taste
3 cups chicken stock/water from soaking dried mushroom and dried shrimp
1 tsp of black soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat about 1/4 cup of oil and fry shallots till golden and fragrant. Remove shallot crisps and set aside. Using the same oil, fry the yam cubes until lightly brown. Remove and set aside.

2. Sauté garlic and dried shrimps until fragrant and lightly brown. Add in the mushrooms and chinese sausage, and stir-fry for a minute. Add rice and seasoning. Stir-fry well.

3. Dish rice mixture into an electric rice cooker. Add water chicken stock/water and yam and cook rice as usual. Stand rice in cooker for 10 to 15 minutes before dishing out to serve.

4. Serve rice with a sprinkling of shallot crisps, parsley and spring onion.

Durian Puff

Can you smell the aromatic and yet pungent durian in the air? Durian season is here again. I love the creamy and buttery 猫山王 aka Cat Mountain species. I love my durian bitter with a little sweetness. When you get to eat a really good durian, a few is enough to make you euphoric and satisfy your insatiable craving. I like to patronize this stall called Combat Durian at Balestier. Though it may be a little more expensive, you never get disappointed. I also realize that not all D24 durians are the same. The taste and texture of the cheaper ones are not as good as the more expensive ones. I guess there's different grades for D24.

Faubourg Pave

This fanciful french name, Faubourg, is named after Faubourg Saint-Honore, the exclusive neighbourhood surrounding the original Lauduree, and its shape is that of a pave, or paving stone, usually baked in a loaf pan. This was the first cake Pierre Herme baked when he took over the kitchens of the legendary Lauduree in 1997, Paris's oldest patisserie. 

端五节 Chinese Dumpling Festival

Time really flies. It's the Chinese Dumpling Festival again. But the festive mood is not like what I used to experience when I was a child. During that time, we only get to eat 'bak zhang' when the festival is round the corner and my mum would start making them. As a child, my sister and I would watch my mum make them. Unlike now, you can eat 'bak zhang' any time and the festival has lost its touch and meaning. 

Sugar Roll

I bet most of us know about the famous Polar sugar rolls. How about the ones from Dino? I love those from Dino. The combination of the soft sponge and the delicious vanilla buttercream is hard to resist. You can have it anytime. It is so light you can easily have two at one go.

Fallen Chocolate Souffle with Berries

This cake is for my nephew, Sean's 13th birthday. He wanted a cake that is not airy and with strawberries. When I asked him what he meant, he couldn't actually describe it to me. So I asked him is it like brownie that is dense and fudgy, he said yes. Thus began my search for a cake with this texture. I do not want it to be a brownie but a cake that can be adorned with lots of berries. Took out my Bittersweet book by Alice Medrich. This  

Chocolate Genoise

Genoise is a French sponge cake, very light and airy with no chemical ingredients such as baking powder in it. It's totally healthy. Genoise cake uses eggs as the leavening agent. Because of this and the absence of baking powder, you need skills in folding the flour into the egg mixture. If you overfold, the egg mixture will deflate and you will end up with a tough and deflated cake. This is a very basic cake which can be eaten on its own with some whipped cream and fruits and also as a base for all types of layer cakes. To use it for layer cakes, we need to infuse the cake with some sugar syrup with the optional liqueur to make it soft and moist.

Mocha Muffin

I love the fragrance of coffee and I'm a coffee drinker. After having perfected the chocolate muffins (according to my preference, haha ...), I want to create a mocha flavoured muffin. Imagine the flavour of chocolate and coffee blended into one and having it with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Heavenly, isn't it? I used a little cocoa powder dissolved into some boiling water to create a hint of chocolate flavour. For the coffee flavour, I used instant coffee granules dissolved in boiling water and a small cup of freshly brewed espresso. No butter can be found in this muffin. Only corn oil. Healthy and delicious, isn't it? 

All Downy Yellow Butter Cake

All I want to bake today is a simple yellow butter cake. Back to basics time. I took this recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum Cake Bible book. It uses all egg yolks instead of whole eggs to give it the more "yellow" colour and moister and denser texture. I reduced the sugar by 15% and it still is a little too sweet for me. For those who have a sweet tooth, it is just right. For me, I will reduce by another further 5% the next time I bake it. This cake is easy to bake. It rose very nicely and it is very moist and soft, full of the butter and vanilla fragrance. If you find the cake a little too rich for you, you can try substituting egg yolks for whole eggs. I will try this the next time. 

Strawberry Marshmallow Jelly Cake

Does it look like cheese cake to you? But it's not cheese cake. It is marshmallow cake. I first had a taste of this cake from my hubby's friend. It's finger-licking good. It doesn't have the heaviness of a cheesecake and you can eat a few at one go. I love the contrasting flavour of the fragrant and butter biscuit base, the creaminess of the marshmallow filling and the tartness of the strawberry jello. Thus begins my search for a recipe to make this cake. After trawling the web, I came upon the recipe from Baking Mum (http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/11/strawberry-marshmallow-cake.html)

I tweaked the marshmallow filling and jello topping in the recipe to my preference. It's a hit. Young and old love this cake.

Mango Mousse Cake

Have been thinking about what type of cake can I bake to celebrate my dad's birthday. I realised I have been baking lots of cakes with chocolate as the main ingredient. It's time for a change and explore new ingredients and techniques. Finally settled on a mango mousse cake since it is mango season and I see lots of Thai honey mango around. Bought some of them and they were real sweet. Used up 2 mangoes to make the mango puree and another 2 more to cut into cubes to be added to the mousse layer and as a decoration for the top of the cake.

Cendol Mousse Cake

Have been thinking about creating a cendol mousse cake after trying out a cendol ice shaving dessert at one of the chinese dessert shop at Ion basement foodcourt. But I was too lazy to get started until now. First, I have to think about the coconut milk to the whipping cream ratio. After searching around the web for some ideas, I came upon the Cendol Mousse recipe from Yochana's Cake Delight (Cendol Mousse @ Yochana's Cake Delight). But I did not follow the whole recipe, only the coconut milk to whipping cream proportion.

Next, I want to make my own cendol and found the recipe at My Kitchen Snippets (http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2007/10/cendol.html). It's very simple to make and it tastes good compared to those you buy from the supermarket. Here it is:

Vanilla Chiffon Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
90g cake flour
30g corn flour
¾ tsp baking powder

4 egg yolks
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp vanilla essence
30g sugar
70g corn oil
80g fresh milk

4 egg white
80g sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar

Preparation:
Line a 7” x 7” x 3" or two 7" x 7" x 1.5" square tin with greaseproof paper.
Preheat oven at 180°C.

Method:
1. Sift the cake flour, corn flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, salt, sugar and vanilla essence until slightly creamy.
3. Add in the corn oil and fresh milk and whisk until mixture is blended.
4. Fold in the sifted flour into the egg yolk mixture until well blended.
5. Using a stand mixer, add the egg white into a clean mixing bowl.
6. Start on low speed and add in the cream of tarter when the egg white mixture turns foamy.
7. Increase speed gradually to maximum. When soft peak forms, start add the sugar in a steady stream.
8. Beat until egg white mixture is shiny and stiff peak forms. Do not over beat. Gradually reduce the speed until low to relax the egg white mixture.
9. Spoon a third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and fold gently to lighten and incorporate the two mixtures together.
10. Add in the balance egg white mixture into the above mixture and fold gently using the scoop, turn and fold method. Stop when it is well blended. Do not overfold or the egg white will deflate.
11. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and put into the oven.
12. Bake at 180°C for about 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
13. Remove from oven to cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before removing the cake from the tin to continue cooling, top side up.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffin

If you love peanut butter banana sandwich, you will love this muffin. This muffin has a dollop of creamy peanut butter in the centre and with a few slices of banana added to it. I love peanut butter banana sandwich. I thought, why not create a peanut butter banana muffin? I got down to working out the recipe and baked. Ummm .... it's yummy. Soft and moist with the taste of fragrant peanut butter and sweetness of the banana slices. How about a cup of freshly brewed coffee and a peanut butter banana muffin for breakfast to kickstart your morning?

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.