Wishing Everyone Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

Hazelnut Chocolate Log Cake

X'mas Fondant Cupcakes

Vanilla Sponge Cake

This is my last minutes bakes for my sister and her sweet princess visit. I baked a simple sponge cake and sandwich it with strawberry jam. So glad that she love it. :) You can find the orginial recipe from 'Kitchen Corner' blog here or from Ytower.

Recipe

Ingredients
3 egg
125g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
100g cake flour
22g veg. oil
22g milk
1/4tsp vanilla paste

strawberry jam

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Lined base of a 7inches round tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
3. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt and sugar until thick and fluffy.
4. Sift the cake flour into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in. (I used hand whisk to fold in.)
5. Mix milk, vanilla paste and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined. (You can mix some batter into the oil mixture then fold into the remaining batter but you have to make sure that the oil batter is fold in properly into the egg batter.)
6. Pour batter into the cake tin.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30mins.
8. Remove cake from tin and cool on a wire rack.
9. Slice cake into 2 pieces and sandwich it with strawberry jam.

X'mas Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Swiss Roll with Hazelnut Chocolate Cream

Pokemon Character Birthday Cake

This year my elder son requested to have his favorite Pokemon character 'Lucario' on his birthday cake. :)

Happy Mama Blogger Award

Warmest thanks to 'Javapot' for sharing this award with me. :)

Honey Cake

It so nice of 'Kitchen Corner' to post a Ytower video clip on her blog. From the video clip I learned some interesting baking techniques and recipes.
You may visit Ytower You Tube video clip to view this Honey Cake demonstration. I baked half portion from the original recipe and also made some adjustment to it.

Recipe

Ingredients
5 egg (294g)
85g caster sugar
1tsp salt
24g glucose
50g honey
175g cake flour
70g veg. oil
60g milk

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Lined base and side of an 8inches square tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
3. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt, sugar, honey and glucose until light and fluffy. (Do the ribbon test: Use the whisk to spoon some batter, drip some into the mixing bowl. If it stay visible for a while then this is the right stage.)
4. Shift the cake flour into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in. (I used hand whisk to fold in.)
5. Mix milk and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined. (You also can mix some batter into the oil mixture then fold into the remaining batter, you have to make sure that the oil batter is fold in properly into the egg batter.)
6. Pour batter into the square tin.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40mins.
8. Remove cakes from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Mini Tea Cake

Recipe

Ingredients
88g egg white
70g caster sugar
85g cake flour
1/8tsp baking soda
1/4tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
30g ground almond
1tsp tea powder (any tea powder of your choice)
20g milk
80g veg. oil

Steps:
1. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground almond and tea powder together and set aside.
2. Use a cake mixer and whisk the egg whites till frothy.
3. Gradually add in the sugar and whisk till soft peaks form.
4. Fold in the sifted ingredients and milk lightly into the meringue.
5. Lastly fold in the oil.
6. Pour batter into a piping bag.
7. Pipe batter into greased mould.
8. Bake in a preheated oven 175C for 10-12mins.

Note: If you don't have tea powder, you can omit it and add 1/2tsp of vanilla essence instead.

Pooh Bear Cream Cake

Guess what is the picture made of? It edible. :p


Answer:
I tried out another way for transferring picture onto cake, 'Chocolate Picture Transfer'.

It is the same method as 'Picture Outlines Transfer', just that for this you have to cover the whole picture with coloured chocolate(add colouring into melted white chocolate). Leave it to set. Then flip the 'Chocolate Picture Transfer' sheet onto the icing cake and peel off the plastic sheet. If you have a good patient, you may even add in some colour tone to the picture and it will appear more lively.

Don't you think that the chocolate picture look like 'Rice Paper Transfer Sheet'? My hubby even commented that this look nicer than the jelly picture. :) So now there is another alternative for me when making a birthday cake for my two boys. :)

Chocolate Chips Cookies

I loved to visit Kitchen Capers Store. They not only sell interesting baking gadgets, they also have free cookies samples for customers to crunch on and provide recipes for them to try it out at home as well. This is a recipe which I get from their store. The recipe is a no hassle and easy to prepare eggless Chocolate Chips Cookies. Yummy... :)

Appreciation Awads

Warmest thanks to 'Anncoo's Hobby' for dedicating this award to my blog. :)

Caramel Macarons

Caramel Sauce recipe from 'Dailydelicious'.

Message Press Set

I bought this Message Press Set from Phoon Huat. Hoping this could help my piping skill. It easy to assemble and use but I felt that the wordings are too big for cake which has picture on it.

Hello Kitty Chocolate Cream Cake

I saw a lot of blog making this Picture Outline Transfer and was interested to try it. Thanks to 'Anncoo Hobby' tips and advice, and I finally give it a try. For those who are interested, you can visit 'Christine's Recipe Blog' for a clearer details.

At the same time, I even tried out the Message Press Set which I bought from Phoon Huat. I thought this will be easy for my ugly writing skill but it turn out worst, my hand kept shaking and the wordings were so ugly. :(

Overall, I'm happy with my first tried of the Picture Outline Transfer. :) However, there are rooms for improvement.

Red Bean Paste Chiffon Cake

Recipe

Ingredients
3 egg yolk
20g caster sugar
2tbsp cooking oil
1/8tsp salt
75g cake flour
65g red bean paste
70g thick coconut milk

3 egg white
1/4tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Step:
1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Cook red bean paste and coconut milk together over low fire.
3. Set aside to cool.
4. Sift flour and salt together.
5. Use a hand whisk mix egg yolk, sugar, oil, red bean mixture and flour together.
6. Whisk until well combined. (If batter is too thick, add 1/2-1tbsp of water.)
7. Use a cake mixer and whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
8. Gradually add in the sugar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
9. Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture until combined.
10.Then fold in the rest of the meringue lightly in 3 portions until well combined.
11.Pour batter into a 20cm tube pan.
12.Put into a preheated oven and bake for 40mins.
13.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cool.
14.Remove from pan and serve.

Lemon Sponge Cake

Recipe

Ingredients
135g cake flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1/8tsp salt
1tsp milk powder
200g egg
95g sugar
3/4tsp ovalette
35g milk/ water
1/2tsp lemon essence
1/2tsp grated lemon zest
40g veg. oil

melon seeds/ almond flake

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together into a cake mixer bowl.
3. Add in milk powder, egg, sugar and milk.
4. Whisk at low speed until well blended.
5. Add in ovalette, lemon essence and lemon zest and whisk until thick and glossy.
6. Lastly fold in the oil .
7. Pipe batter into a greased mould until 80% full.
8. Sprinkle some melon seeds on the surface.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20mins.
10.Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Steamed Sponge Cake

Recipe

Ingredients
3 eggs
85g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
85g self-raising flour
10g custard powder
25g veg. oil

Steps:
1. Sift flour and custard powder together and set aside.
2. Whisk the eggs, salt and sugar together until light and fluffy.(Do the ribbon test: Use the whisk to spoon some batter, drip some into the mixing bowl. If it stay visible for a while then this is the right stage.)
3. Lightly fold in the flour into the egg batter.
4. Lastly fold in the oil.
5. Pour into a lined and greased 7inches cake pan.
6. Cover with foil and steam at high heat for 25mins.
7. Remove cake and cool on a wire rack.

Two-Tone Coconut Bread

This recipe which I tried out is by Alex Goh 'Magic Bread'. All the recipes in this book used gelatinized dough (烫种面团) to make breads. It was easy to prepare the gelatinized dough and I was amazed by the softness and springy texture of the bread. :)

Recipe

Ingredients
Gelatinized Dough(烫种面团):
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

Bread Dough:
(A)
400g bread flour
10g milk powder
25g coconut milk powder
75g sugar
7g salt
8g instant yeast

(B)
165g water
1 egg

(C)
75g butter

(D)
few drops of green food colouring
80g raisins

Steps:
Gelatinized Dough:
1. Add boiling water into the bread flour, mix until it form a soft dough.
2. Cover and set aside to cool.
3. Keep it in the fridge to rest for at least 12 hours.

Bread dough:
1. Leave the gelatinized dough aside to thaw for 10-15mins.
2. Mix (A) in a cake mixer with a dough hook attracted until well-blended.
3. Add (B) into the dry ingredients, beat at medium speed until it form a rough dough.
4. Add in the gelatinized dough and continue to beat until well-blended.
5. Lastly, add in (C) continue to beat until it form a smooth and elastic dough.
6. Take out 400g of the dough and mix in (D) until well-blended.
7. Leave the rest of the dough plain.
8. Cover both the doughs and let it prove for 45-55mins.
9. Roll both doughs into round shape, cover and rest for another 10mins.
10.Use a rolling pin and roll out both doughs into rectangular shape.
11.Place the flatten green dough on top of the plain dough and roll it up like Swiss roll.
12.Cut the dough into 9-10 pieces and arrange it onto a greased and bottom lined with greaseproof paper 9inches round tin.
13.Cover and leave to prove for 45mins until it doubled in size.
14.Preheat oven to 175C.
15.Brush surface with milk and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25mins until brown.
16.Remove buns from tin, brush surface with butter and cool on a wire rack.

Computer & Modem Down :(

Hi reader,

Sorry for the late reply on all your comments posted. As for the past few days my computer and modem are under servicing. :( Now they are both back in good shape so I can resume my blogging. :)

Medium Stiff Peak for Meringue

Some of you may wonder what is medium stiff peak for meringue and how to reach that stage. Here are the two shots which I took to show everyone what is medium stiff peak. You can see that there is a hook at the tip when the meringue is whisk until this stage and it will stay there. From the second photo, you can see that the marking left behind by the balloon whisk is very clear. In other words, the meringue is quite firm and it is close to stiff peak.

If meringue is whisked until this stage, it is best for chiffon cake. When meringue is fold in properly (meaning not over folded, bursting the pockets of air), your chiffon cake will rise evenly and less air holes on the cake.

Maybe some of you may ask, how long do I have to whisk to reach this stage and what is the speed I used for my cake mixer? For my Kenwood Cake Mixer(old model), I used medium high speed. What I can said for how long do I have to whisk to reach this stage is that you have to observe and moreover all cake mixers has difference wattage and speeds.

Hope the details can help some of you. Happy Baking. :)

Orange Chiffon Cake

Recipe here.

Chocolate Cupcake

Recipe

Ingredients
125g butter
95g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
2 eggs
125g milk
1/2tsp chocolate paste
155g cake flour
20g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
1/4tsp baking soda

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together, set aside.
3. Cream butter, salt and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly beat in the egg and chocolate paste until well combined.(If batter curdle add in some flour.)
5. Fold in flour alternating with milk until well combined.
6. Spoon batter into a lined muffin tin until 70% full.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30mins.
8. Remove cupcakes from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Egg White Square Cookies

Sharing with everyone another alternative to get rid of your left over egg whites. You can purchase the stencil from Kitchen Capers retail store.

Recipe

Ingredients
60g butter
55g caster sugar
2 egg whites (about 80g)
1/4tsp vanilla essence
70g plain flour (sift)

chocolate paste/cocoa powder

Steps:
1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Slowly beat in the egg white and vanilla essence until well combined.(If batter curdle add in some flour.)
4. Fold in the flour into Step 3 and mix to form a smooth batter.
5. Mix 1tsp of the plain batter with chocolate paste.
6. Spoon the chocolate batter into a piping bag and set aside.
7. Place the stencil on a piece of ungreased parchment paper or silicon mat.
8. Spoon some batter onto the stencil.
9. Use a palette knife to smooth out the surface and fill up the holes.
10.Carefully remove the stencil and pipe the chocolate batter on the surface to create pattern on it.
11.Carefully transfer the paper onto a baking tray.
12.Bake in a preheated oven for 8-10mins or until lightly browned.
13.Cool on wire rack and keep in an airtight containers.

Chocolate Swiss Roll

Honey Cookies

Baked these specially for my 'Cookies Craving Boys'. :)
Recipe here.