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!