French Dessert - Creme Brulee

What is creme brulee? It's simply soft and smooth baked egg custard with a burnt, crusty sugar topping. The French called it Creme Brulee. The British called it Cambridge Burnt Cream. The Spanish called it Crema Catalana. All three claimed they were the ones behind this sensuous creation. But I think the French made it famous as we normally associate creme brulee as a french dessert. The Chinese has a similar dessert too - the egg tart. Of course it doesn't have the burnt top but a baked crust pastry holding the egg custard.

Pandan Chiffon Cake II

Pandan chiffon cake is one of my forte. I would like to say that family and friends have given me the thumbs up for this cake. This time round, I experimented with taking out the pandan paste. I used pure pandan juice instead. Make it more concentrated by blending more pandan leaves to water, like about 10 leaves to 5 tbsp water. You can refer to my previous pandan chiffon cake post here for the recipe. Omit the pandan paste and change the pandan juice to 4-5 tbsp depending on the concentration. You would see from the pictures posted here that the color is lighter due to the absence of pandan paste. But they still look lovely and natural. Don't you agree? The taste is equally good, if not better, without the artificial pandan paste. Give it a try and share your comments with me.

The recipe is based on a 23cm tube pan. To use a 21cm tube pan, reduce the ingredients by 2/3.

Good Old Butter Cake with Prunes

In the mood to have some good old butter cake for coffee break. The kitchen was filled with the tantalizing aroma the good old butter cake and I just can't wait to sink my teeth into a slice of it when it's fresh out from the oven. So fragrant and so soft and moist to the touch. Have it with a cuppa with family and friends during leisurely afternoon break is such a wonderful, simple pleasure. I used the recipe from my Light Butter Cake and added prunes to it. Be sure to coat the prunes with some flour to lighten it before adding to the cake mixture. This is to ensure not all the prunes will sink to the bottom of the cake when baking. I love this lighter version. Using whole eggs instead of just egg yolks means there's lesser cholesterol and fat. A plus point, can indulge a little more. Haha ..... And I used the separate eggs method (whisk the yolks and beat the egg whites to stiff peaks separately) to create this lighter feel. To indulge, use brandy instead of vanilla extract. Delicious .... yummy .... 

Prune Yoghurt Cheese Cake

It's a cheese cake but not exactly like those heavy american cheese cake we know. I would say this is a healthier and lighter version. There's more yoghurt than cream cheese. Good news to those who love cheese cakes but are wary of the amount of calories that go into it. It has a tangier taste due to the introduction of yoghurt and lemon juice. I would have preferred it to be a little sweeter. Perhaps I should increase the cream cheese portion to make it 50% cream cheese and yoghurt next time.