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.