2011

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm back home in Malaysia right now, and it's been hectic hence I haven't done much baking. There will be a couple of posts coming up though, as soon as I get back to Adelaide (Unfortunately my recipes were left out when I packed for home).

May 2011 be a great year for all, and let's hope this site gets more frequent updates :)

Cheers!

Fei

Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Hi all!

After drooling over countless pictures and recipes on the internet, I finally decided on a recipe to follow and made them last week. Amidst all the craziness associated with last minute studying for tests, I dared put my notes down and took some time off revision to bake these yummies.

Ingredients and instructions taken from the Masterchef Australia official website.

Pudding
180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1¼ cups (310ml) water
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Butterscotch sauce
50g butter
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1 cup (250ml) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced). Lightly grease eight (½ cup capacity) metal dariole moulds.

2. Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add eggs one at a time, beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through sifted flour, divide mixture evenly between the eight moulds, until 2/3 full.

5. Place moulds in a baking tray, carefully pour water in tray until it comes up 1/3 of the side of the moulds. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until golden and skewer comes out clean.

6. For the butterscotch sauce, combine butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in small saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring sauce to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

7. To serve, invert the hot pudding onto a serving plate and top with butterscotch sauce.

N.B. The original recipe included an almond praline, which I did not make. Also, I divided the pudding mixture into a 12-hole muffin tray and did not bake them in a water bath. I think it wouldn't make much of a difference.

The verdict?
Pudding was so soft and moist. It's on the sweet side, especially if you drench it in too much butterscotch sauce. Texture could be improved a little, maybe by adding a few more dates? It's another quick and easy to make recipe.. and with a few tweaks here and there, it will definitely be a winner! :)

Lemon and Orange Cupcakes

Another simple recipe I've tried and tested. Topped with a good buttercream frosting and you'll be in heaven! It's also a change from the basic vanilla cupcake.


Ingredients
135 g butter
1 tsp orange rind
1 tsp lemon rind
140 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (150 g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (50 g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40 g) almond meal
1/4 cup orange juice (include a small part of lemon juice)
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add rind and eggs and mix well.
2. Fold in sifted flour and almond meal. Add juice, stir, then add milk.
3. Divide batter among cupcake cases. Fill up to about 2/3 full.
4. Bake at a 180C (or 160C fan-forced) oven for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

I tend to use my extra/rougher bits of almond meal for this recipe. You get them after sifting out the finer bits for making macarons! :)

Molten Chocolate Cake

For my family when they came over to Adelaide

Okay one thing you should know about me is that I always have dessert after dinner :) Everytime I want to whip up something quick, this is the recipe I go back to, time and time again. It's not the PERFECT molten chocolate cake/chocolate lava cake, but for something you can make in 10 minutes (excluding baking time), you really can't expect any better.

Ingredients
100 g dark chocolate
100 g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
50 g caster sugar
30 g self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl in a microwave. Be careful not to burn the chocolate!
3. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until pale and frothy.
4. Pour melted chocolate and butter into the egg. Mix until just combined, then stir in flour.
5. Grease ramekins with melted butter and coat with cocoa powder. Fill up to about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 minute. Loosen edges of ramekin with a knife and gently invert. Or if you can't be bothered, just eat it straight off the ramekin!

Enjoy!

Macaron charms

How cute are these? Complete with different coloured fillings too!

Got them as a gift, hand made by my very talented sister. Check out her blog for more handmade goodies! *click*

Devil's Food Cake - Recipe

Sorry for the delay in updates! Been busy with assignments. Now that holiday's just begun, no excuses for not tending to this blog anymore I hope.

Found this amaaziingg recipe on this blog *click* and made a few changes, some accidental some not. The following is taken directly from the link, anything I did differently will be highlighted in red.

Devil's Food Cake

Ingredients
1/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1 tsp instant espresso powder
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 canola oil
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 jumbo eggs, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Note: Makes enough for two 9-in round cake pans

Lightly grease your cake pans, line bottoms with parchment paper, then grease again. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper. Set aside.

Set your cup of water to boil. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the cocoa, espresso powder, and chocolate. Pour the boiling water into the mixture and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir in the vanilla extract. Allow the mixture to cool, then stir in the buttermilk.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and oil together until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugars. Then, beat in the eggs one at a time. Add one third of the reserved flour mixture, beating until just combined. Beat in half of the chocolate-buttermilk mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, before adding in another third of the flour mixture. Add the rest of the chocolate-buttermilk mixture, beating until just combined. Last, beat in the remaining flour mixture, beating until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pans, and spread evenly. Pans should be about half-way full. Bake layers for 25-30 min, until a tester inserted into the middle of both layers comes out clean. Allow layers to cool.

Chocolate Mousse Buttercream

Ingredients
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
6 sticks cold unsalted butter (Note: the frosting will emulsify more easily if the butter has been allowed to soften just a bit)
10 oz semi-sweet melted chocolate

(1/2 or 1/3 the above recipe if you don't like to overload your cake with icing)

Fill a large saute pan with water, and set to simmer over medium-high heat. While the water heats up, whisk the eggs, sugar, and cocoa together in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Once the water is simmering, place the mixing bowl into the water. Whisk the egg-sugar-cocoa mixture constantly until the mixture becomes thick, and the sugar is completely dissolved.

Remove the mixing bowl from the simmering water, and return it to the stand mixer. Whisk on medium-high speed for about 10 min, until the bowl is cool to the touch. The mixture will be light, fluffy, and will just have reached the soft-peak stage. Once cool, lightly mix in the vanilla and salt.

While the egg-mixture is being whisked, unwrap the sticks of butter from their original paper wrappers, and rewrap them in plastic wrap. Beat them with a rolling pin until they become a little more malleable. Once the egg-mixture has been fully mixed, add in the sticks of butter, about 2 tbsp at a time, with the mixer at medium-high speed. The frosting will appear curdled at first, but keep beating until it becomes smooth and shiny. It may take some extra time for the frosting to smooth out, but keep going until the butter is completely emulsified. Once it has reached its proper consistency, add in the melted chocolate to taste. Fold it in lightly, until the chocolate is fully incorporated.

........................................................................

With this cake, I used Jumbo eggs (800g per dozen) because they're what I usually get, hence the fudgy consistency - which is nothing to complain about! But most recipes call for large eggs (600g per dozen) so it is definitely handy to have them in your fridge.

The amount of brown sugar used was reduced to 3/4 cups, which was the right decision as the cake turned out to be just the right sweetness with the already sweet buttercream frosting.

The recipe for the chocolate mousse buttercream I found had too much leftovers, even after I halved it so 1/3 the recipe would be best, unless you're one for loads of icing on your cake.

Other than that, this recipe's a keeper! Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

I'll be making a Tiramisu cake this weekend for my family when they come over so that should be up next :)

Devil's Food Cake

Made this Sunday night for a birthday. So chocolatey and fudgy, and with a hint of instant coffee granules.. It's heaven!

Frosted the cake with chocolate mousse buttercream. Very sinful, and because of it's richness, it is best to have just a small slice at once.

Recipe will be up in my next post! Stay tuned :)

Marble Cake

The last time I attempted making marble cake was a few years ago when I was still ignorant when it comes to baking and proportions. It was a random recipe I grabbed off a book that required 500 grams of flour for a loaf of cake. My mum got home and saw the cake, it was obviously dry and too heavy, and she immediately asked "How much flour did you put in there?". "500 grams, is that a lot?" -.- Omg *runs and hides* That was back in the days. Now I only trust recipes that get a lot of good reviews. Books? Not unless I know who the author/pastry chef is.

I was having a craving for marble cake not long ago. Remembering those days when the roti man would come around our neighbourhood every evening, and often I'd get a slice of pre-packed marble cake from the tower of breads behind his motorcycle for 50 cents.

This recipe is one I happened to chance upon while Googling marble cake, and it linked to the original blogger's site *click*. The marble cake seemed too good to be true. With a short trip to the grocery store to get some plain yoghurt, my sudden craving was satisfied that very day.

All in all, this cake was definitely one of the more moist and less buttery (without compromising its fluffiness) cakes I've made. Yoghurt in baking is something new to me, it does wonders to the cake's texture and taste!

Recipe adapted from House of Annie
(I've converted the measurements to the metric system for those of us who are more used to it)

340 g unsalted butter, softened
400 g sugar
6 extra-large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
360 g plain flour
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
100 g dark choc
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Melt chocolate in 20s increments in the microwave.
3. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 20s after each one.
5. Add vanilla, mix well.
6. Sift dry ingredients into the mixture in 3 parts. Interspersing with yoghurt and milk. Stir gently.
7. Take out half of the batter, place in a buttered and floured baking tin. Mix the other half with chocolate and cocoa powder and add to the baking tin.
8. Twirl batter using a figure 8 motion.
9. Bake for 40 minutes in a loaf tin. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert!

For more detailed instructions, please check out Annie's site.

Welcome!

Starting up my own baking blog has been something I've wanted to do for some time. Seeing that I bake a minimum of twice a week, and that my recipe book is constantly stuffed with little post-it sheets containing recipes, I thought that had to stop and I had to start documenting them properly for once.

I'm sure you all are also annoyed by the never-ending Twitpic spams you see on Facebook as well! Hehe.

This blog is especially for you, MUM! It was because you seldom let me help you in the kitchen when I was younger as I'd turn everything into a mess, that I started venturing on my own, of course with some help from you.

Anyhow, recipes will be up slowly but surely so do drop by once in a while :)

Black forest cake my housemate, Nadine and I made, for Emily's 22nd

♥
Fei

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

Now a dessert that's always a hit, something that's relatively easy to make and can be made in advance if you're having guests over.

4 egg yolks
600 ml heavy cream
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
Extra caster sugar or demerara sugar

1. Preheat oven to 120C.

2. Place heavy cream, vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the cream starts to simmer. Remove from heat and discard vanilla bean.

3. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar until pale. Slowly pour hot cream in the egg yolk mixture while constantly whisking until combined.

4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.

5. Sieve mixture into a heatproof jug. Divide between 4-6 ramekins depending on the size of your ramekins.

6. Place ramekins into a deep baking tray and carefully pour boiling water into the tray until it comes about 3/4 way up the sides of the ramekins.

7. Bake for 30 minutes or until the custard has just set. It should still jiggle slightly in the middle. Remove ramekins from water bath and let them cool. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

8. 40 minutes before serving, sprinkle about 1 tsp of caster or demerara sugar on top of the baked custards. Melt sugar with a kitchen torch until it turns brown. Cool for 1 minute, decorate if you wish to - in the above picture I used strawberry and mint leaves - then serve.

* Vanilla beans can be replaced with 1 tsp vanilla essence
* If you do not own a kitchen torch, grill in oven under high heat until the sugar bubbles (this would take about 5 minutes).

French Macarons - Italian Meringue method

Let's start with my favourite!


The macaron is a sweet almondy cookie, made only with four main ingredients. I've cross-referenced, and recipes everywhere are pretty much similar. Almond meal, egg whites, icing sugar and caster sugar. Seems easy but it is very technique sensitive. I haven't mastered the French meringue method, in fact, I've failed a couple of times, therefore I'm posting the recipe for the Italian - fool proof - way of making it.

The perfect macaron is usually characterised by the presence of 'feet' (you'll see what it is later), an egg shell-like semi crunchy outer layer, and a chewy inner bit. There should be no air pockets between the outer and inner parts, and the feet should not flare out too much.

Also, macarons are not to be confused with macaroons, which main ingredient is shredded coconut.

French Macarons
150 g icing sugar
150 g almond meal
150 g caster sugar
110 g egg whites (from about 3-4 eggs)
50 g water
Food colouring - powdered or gel preferably

1. Combine caster sugar and water in a pot to make a syrup. Heat until the syrup simmers and reaches 120C (you would need a thermometer for this).

2. Divide the egg whites into equal amounts. Half in a small bowl or glass, half in a mixing bowl for the meringue.

3. Beat the egg whites until you get soft peaks. Beat to firm peaks just before the final temperature of the sugar syrup, 120C is attained.

4. Set the beater to slow, and immediately but slowly pour the hot syrup into the bowl of beaten egg whites in a thin stream.

5. Increase the speed to maximum when all syrup is in and beat for several minutes.

6. Stop beating when a stiff, white and compact meringue with a satiny consistency is formed.

7. Sift dry ingredients into another mixing bowl. Pour the remaining egg whites and mix. Food colouring should be added at this stage.

8. Once evenly mixed, scoop the meringue from Step 6 into the mixture. Incorporate meringue quickly, do not be too gentle but at the same time do not over mix otherwise you will get a runny batter.

9. Final batter should be 'lava'-like and coats the back of your spatula thickly. Fill piping bag and pipe 2cm rounds onto baking paper.

10. Preheat oven to 150C. Allow piped rounds to rest for 20-30 minutes so it forms a shell and is not sticky to touch. So choose a less humid day to make your macarons!

11. Bake for 12-13 minutes. At 5 minutes, the ruffled 'feet' will start forming. Once out of the oven, let the macarons rest for 2 minutes before peeling them off the baking paper. They shouldn't stick too much. If they do, it probably means they're undercooked.

Raspberry cream cheese frosting

Raspberry jam:
2 cups raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Cook until reduced to a jam consistency

Cream cheese mixture:
250 g unsalted butter, softened
450 g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup raspberry jam
3-4 cups icing sugar

1. Cream butter and cheese
2. Add raspberry jam, mix well.
3. Add icing sugar to your liking.

To assemble the macaron
1. Arrange pairs or similar-sized macaron shells.
2. Pipe cream cheese frosting and top with a dollop of jam in the centre.
3. Sandwich it with its similar-sized partner... And voila!

Nobody likes under-filled macarons so be generous with your fillings!