Chocolate Collar

I made this sometime back for my aunt's 79th birthday.  It's just chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate ganache but what I wanted to showcase here was my 'innate' ability to make a chocolate collar :P

Close friends will know that from a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being Sylvia Weinstock (see http://www.sylviaweinstock.com/), my dexterity with cake frosting, decoration and such falls somewhat below 1, so what was I thinking when I thought of making a chocolate collar ... then again, how hard can the following steps be ?

1/ Melt chocolate
2/ Spread chocolate out on parchment paper (measured to fit the diameter of your cake)
3/ Let chocolate harden slightly but not too hard
4/ Wrap cake with it
5/ Carefully peel away parchment paper

Fast forward to a messy kitchen and a messier me ... ta-dah ! Chocolate collar it is ...

Salted gula melaka yoghurt cheesecake

Hey all

It's been awhile since I last wrote... or even visited this blog of mine :P

Thought I will start off again by showcasing last weekend bakes.  First up is this salted gula melaka yoghurt cheesecake that I chanced upon while trawling the internet.  Credit is given to https://themeatmen.sg/pandan-gula-melaka-yogurt-cheesecake/ for the delicious recipe.  I kinda changed the name of the cake from pandan gula melaka to salted gula melaka to give it a little twist.

The texture of the cake is light unlike normal cheesecake due to the use of yoghurt.  One colleague said the texture is like creme caramel, and another said its soft as tofu.  Try it -  it's sort of everything you want in a cheesecake - creamy but not too creamy, sweet but not too sweet.  As for me, heck, I like anything and everything cheese :)

Fruit flan

This is another something that I made over the weekend for a friend's birthday.  This is just a simple pâte sucrée with crème pâtissière.  Trying to show off my French :) but seriously, its just a simple sweet shortcrust pastry with pastry cream.

The trick however is to use the best butter you can find for your crust.  As for the pastry cream, please make your own, its very easy.  Sorry, but I detest those yellow powder custardy thing that comes out of a box or can.

Simple and rustic and yet it makes a big impact on the table.

Happy birthday Hock! Hope you had a swell one.

Cherry Cheesecake

This is another winner from Nigella Lawson.  She is a true domestic goddess - I just love her and her fuss-free ways!  Recipes like this are especially welcomed to satisfy the baking addiction on a weekday.  I timed myself, and it only took me less than 30 minutes to whip this up (excluding the time I scrambled around the kitchen looking for the ingredients, and the freezing time of course).

Durian in the news

The infamous durian recently caused a false alarm in Sydney when its pungent smell was mistaken for a gas leak :) Read more here.

In celebration of our nation's beloved fruit, I have baked several fresh durian cream cake for friends and family over the last few weeks. 

The duck pond cake was for my niece's full moon party.  Don't be fooled by the innocent looking pond, for there is an explosive amount of very pungent durian cream lurking beneath :)

Heavenly Lemon Cloud Cheesecake

This was a recent request made by my sis-in-law, who recently gave birth to a gorgeous little baby girl, Iris.

Apparently, cheesecake aids in the production of breast milk... I bet you didn't know that ! We learn something new each day...

Tiramisu Cake for a 75th B'day

Hi all.. Its been a long while since I last updated this blog... so much so that Blogger removed me momentarily for inactivity :(

So, here I am, back again with my overdue reports on some of the bakes I had undertaken recently, in no particular order.

First up is a Tiramisu Cake which I had baked recently for my aunt's 75th birthday.

Orange Chocolate Cake

This is another good way to utilise your leftover mandarin oranges.  I baked this cake recently for my aunt who celebrates her birthday each year on the 7^th day of the Chinese New Year.  Except that I didn’t actually manage to deliver the cake to her as I fell terribly ill after that and couldn’t bring myself out of bed.  And she left for a trip the day after.  So I got to keep (and eat) the (entire) cake.  I then made a mental note to send my aunt a virtual cake through the blog, but only remembered to post it up now.  I have the memory of a gnat these days (and I am not even that old… really, I’m not kidding you :P )

Anyway, this is a real keeper.  The fusion of orange and chocolate is a brilliant one.

Mandarin Orange Marmalade

Since the end of Chinese New Year, I have been thinking hard of ways to use those leftover mandarin oranges in the fridge.  I woke up one morning with a marmalade calling.  Boy, am I glad I tried this.  Who would have thought that homemade jam was so easy.  I will probably never buy store bought jams again.  Most importantly, homemade jam is fresh, all-natural, and you know exactly what is going into it.  Now that I have experienced my first jamming session, I look forward to my next. 

I'm back.. (for now)

The year 2011 has been an interesting one for me when it comes to baking.  I’ve swung wildly from being an almost frequent baker in 2010 to not baking for most of 2011. Work commitments, what can I say ?

Although I have taken a long hiatus from baking and blogging, I look forward to resume the baking journey, and I hope that you'll still be interested to read about it here.

To set things into motion, here's the sugee cake and fruit cake which I had recently baked for Chinese New Year. This time round, in addition to the family heirloom recipe for the fruit cake, I decided to try out another version from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2.  I'm glad to report that both versions were well received by family and friends.

Hot Cross Buns

I made this for Good Friday sometime back, and have meant to post this up much earlier, but my laziness got the better of me - Hot cross buns have long been a symbol of Good Friday. Each bun has an icing cross on top to signify the crucifixion. In England, they were once sold by street vendors who advertised their wares with cries of "Hot Cross Buns! "Hot Cross Buns!". Their street cries eventually became the nursery rhyme as we know it today.

Hot Cross Buns!

Hot Cross Buns!

One a penny, two a penny,

Hot Cross Buns.

Hot Cross Buns!

Hot Cross Buns!
If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.

This nursery rhyme is actually quite addictive..while posting this, I can't seem to get the tune out of my head.

These hot cross buns offer an irresistible mix of sweet, spicy and fruity flavours. My only grouse was the glaze, which looked and felt a little plasticky to me. This recipe is from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2.

Flour's Famous Banana Bread

I just realised that its been almost a whole month since my last post.  Time really flies when one is super busy at work.  Its not so much that I've stopped baking totally.  Its just that I've been feeling rather uninspired to write lately. My brain and mind blank out the moment I come back home from work each day.  Even my experimental baking is now limited to simple stuff like muffins...and...more muffins.

Anyway, taking off from my last banana post, let me return to my leftover bananas.  Being almost the kind of person that loathe tossing out any still edible food, I decided to try out Flour's Famous Banana Bread courtesy of Joanne Chang in her book, Flour.  The resulting cake is very moist with a deep banana flavor.  Definitely my go-to recipe for banana bread from now on.  By the way, I did not use a one-month old decomposed bananas for this - instead, this banana bread post is one month late :)

Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Cream & Sea Salt-Roasted Pecans

I'm not sure why, but this household has a super tendency to overstock on bananas.  But as with most banana eaters, we only like them at a certain time in their development, and particularly, when they are still aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.  So when the bananas pass their prime and go all spotty and black, what does one do ?  That's easy - recycle them into super yummy irresistible banana-ey desserts, be it the simple rustic Banana Bread, or the more elaborate and indulgent Banana Layer Cake with Caramel Cream & Sea-Salt Roasted Pecans, which I had stumbled upon in Bon Appetit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild, and adapted slightly.

Another Seventh Day Bake

This is the second installation of my seventh day bake.  Since its the Chinese New Year (CNY), I decided to balance the earlier Chocolate Layer Cake with something more colourful, as the Chinese has this taboo against wearing black or dark sombre colours during CNY, particularly so when the seventh day marks everyone's birthday.  I'm not sure if presenting a dark coloured cake falls under this category, but I'm not taking any chances, especially when gambling is involved, and all my aunts are so-called high rollers regular gamblers.  By the way, gambling is how we bond with family and friends especially during the CNY (or any time throughout the year !).

For this purpose, I decided to experiment with an orange layer cake, filled with mandarin oranges, peaches, blueberries and raspberries, and frosted inside and outside with lemon buttercream.  What a combo.  But it turned out to be such a refreshing cake, which is much welcomed after a full 9 course Chinese dinner.

The Seventh Day & A Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

The seventh day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) is traditionally known as ren ri 人日 (meaning "Birthday of Man", "Day of Man", "Day of Humanity" or "Everyman's Birthday”).  It signifies the day when everyone grows one year older. It is the day when people in Malaysia and Singapore toss a colourful raw fish salad, yusheng, and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity.  I remember when I was young, one eats yusheng only from the seventh day of the CNY.  These days, yusheng has become so commercialised, and profiteers will take advantage and start selling it weeks before CNY.

Anyway, as the seventh day of the CNY is "everyman’s birthday", everyone is considered one year older as of that date. In traditional China, individual birthdays were not considered as important as this date. Everyone adds a year to his age from this date rather than on his actual birthday.  Gosh, I rather defer for as long as I can.

Every year, my aunt celebrates her birthday (according to Chinese calendar) on this day.  This year, I had the good fortune of serving my homemade cakes at the family dinner (read: making everyone my guinea pigs).  I took this opportunity to experiment on 2 different layer cakes, a Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache, and a Fruity Orange Lemon Cream Cake.

Let’s start with the Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache.  No surprise here, I love this cake, although I could really improve on the aesthetics.  I wanted to decorate the cake with white chocolate rings, but they ended up looking like onions rings.  From afar, I even managed to fool everyone into thinking that there were indeed onion rings.  Seriously, I really need to hone my piping skills.

The recipe for this cake is from Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  The resultant cake is soft with moist tender crumbs, due to the  substitution of a little bit of oil for butter.  Yummy.  I did make a little boo boo though – I used mocha chocolate instead of the requisite unsweetened chocolate for the ganache, but no harm done, the ganache was still yummy.

Nián Gāo

Can you imagine it is already the last day of the Chinese New Year (CNY), and I have not updated my blog with a single entry.  I have been baking sporadically but too busy (and when I’m not busy, too lazy) to write.  Anyway, in the spirit of CNY (and before it ends at midnight today), I should at least blog about something traditional or CNY-related.

Nián gāo (or literally, Year cake) is a sticky cake prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine.  According to Wikipedia, it is good luck to eat nián gāo during the CNY, because "nian gao" is a homonym for "higher year." The Chinese word 粘 (nián), meaning "sticky", is identical in sound to 年, meaning "year", and the word 糕 (gāo), meaning "cake" is identical in sound to 高, meaning "high".  As such, eating nián gāo has the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng).  In my opinion ? Boring.  I much prefer the legendary tale of the nián gāo involving the Kitchen God. 

You see, according to legend, one week before CNY, the Kitchen God returns to heaven to report on a family's behavior during the previous year. A negative report by the Kitchen God means a family will suffer from bad luck during the year to come.  In order to ensure a favorable report from the Kitchen God, the custom evolved of feeding him sticky cake i.e. the nián gāo.  This was either a bribe, or simply a means of ensuring the Kitchen God’s mouth was too full of cake to pass on an unfavorable report.  Smart huh ?  One can always trust the Chinese to devise such a cunning plan. 

Naturally after each CNY, we would have leftovers nián gāo.  The common way to eat nián gāo here in Malaysia is to sandwich it between slices of yam and sweet potato and to have it deep fried.  However, my all-time favourite is simply to steam it and eat it warm with freshly grated coconut.  It is definitely lighter on the calories, and easier to prepare too !

All you have to do is to cut the nián gāo into small pieces, steam it until soft (about 10 minutes), and toss it with freshly grated coconut.  Oh yes, do add some salt into the grated coconut - the contrast of sweet and salty is divine. 

Gong Xi Gong Xi

It's time to ring in another Chinese New Year.  This year, the metal rabbit reigns.  So, metal rabbit, I implore you, may you bestow us with your resilience, good luck and joy for the new year. 

Gong xi fa cai everyone.  Eat, drink and be merry. I, for sure, will not fail and disappoint in that :P

Vanilla Cupcakes

Little Missy had a pre-Chinese New Year party at her kindy today.  Since cupcakes are almost an obligatory item at any children's party, I decided on a cupcake project with Little Missy.  The best part of making cupcakes for children is to let them do the decorating.  However, do be prepared of the mess - frosting on their face, hair, and any orifice known.

The resulting cupcakes were a tad too sweet (although I reduced the icing sugar by more than half the original recipe !).  Gosh, I hope my cupcakes did not trigger any hyperactive reactions at the kindy.

 This recipe is taken from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf.

World Peace Cookies

These sables were created by French pastry maestro, Pierre Herme and was first recorded under the name Korova Cookies in Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan.  In her subsequent book, Baking: From my Home to Yours, Greenspan renamed this World Peace Cookies, as her neighbour became convinced that a daily dose of these cookies was all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.  When I first read this, I remembered thinking, hmmm...let's see.

The verdict ?  Cookies are usually not my cup of tea, but these cookies are so incredibly and ridiculously good (and addictive too).  The combination of chocolate and fleur de sel (an exotic salt) makes these cookies so appealing.  I just love the salty burst of flavour and can't seem to get enough of them.  At the rate I am going, I may just be at risk of waging war with my skinny jeans.  Not so world peace after all.  On second thought, who needs skinny jeans when you have these cookies (and world peace, of course).  I am in deep trouble, aren't I ?

My First Bake Sale

Last week has been quite a lousy week for me.  Firstly, Little Missy tripped and fell while playing and chipped her two front teeth, and secondly, I've been a really busy bee at work, virtually working non-stop.  So, yup, lousy week may be an understatement.

However, all is not lost as the week also marks a historical milestone for cakes-et-al as I recorded my first bake sale.  My first bake sale ! How exciting.  And not one, but two ! *doing the victory dance*  Two fruit cakes.  Truth is, I kind of coerced my colleague into it when she made a passing comment of having to gift her relatives with some CNY goodies.  A hard sell, but hey, a baker's got to earn her keep :)  Its time to recoup the investment that I have expended so far on my baking equipment.  So, fruit cakes, anyone ?