Black and White Raspberry Slice

I found one place selling raspberries cheaper than most places by about 30% and so, how could I resist but get one punnet. I made this on impulse after googling for something to do on a Sunday afternoon.

When the kids heard I was in the kitchen doing something, they ran in. Each asking me if they can help. With this being an easy bake, I agreed to let them help, all 3 of them. Lydia did the sifting and cream cheese mixture and Lyanne mixed the wet ingredients and helped with the final mixing. Not forgetting my boy with the raspberries. It was fun and enjoyable.

Flourless Nutella Souffle Cake - Nutella week #2

Sometimes I am greedy.

I saw Nutella going ‘Buy 1 Free 1’ and so I grabbed 4 and paid for 2. I knew the expiry is in 4 month’s time. Usually this is a Fast Moving 'Edible' Good in my household so 4 jars is no big deal. But no no no! During Christmas season and then all the pre-CNY preparation has left these jars of deliciousness untouched in the cabinet. By the time I remembered them it was 1 month to expiry.

I had to bake with them in order to use them up ASAP.

This is my first bake with Nutella, no joke. Usually I am too scroogy to use this in bakes as Nutella is quite expensive. The Nutella Chiffon cake was baked a week after this cake.

Blackforest Ice Cream Mooncake - Stone Fruits #1

Like I told you, I don't like eating tradtional mooncakes, but I never said, I don't like all sort of mooncakes. This is ice cream, made in the form of mooncakes. Give me any amount, I'll gladly take them! LOL

I had this idea, that instead of making carrot juice yolks, why not I just use beautiful cherries as the moon ?
I have a few other crazy ideas in my head, but I think let's leave them for next year and I hope I get them realized instead of letting them stored up in my brain. This idea was actually thought of last year in 2012 but until now, whatever I planned last year, haven't been done.

Chocolate Banana Boomerang Buns - Fruity Buns #2

Cathy! I really made this, hehehehe.

Last year (I made these buns last year, LOL), I saw Cathy posting some boomerang coffee buns and I thought she wrapped them with a banana. She said I was being imaginative and I thought it would work out.
And after I made the chocolate cream cheese buns, I fell in love with the dough and my mom gave me a bunch of 'velvet' bananas. They're perfect since these bananas are slim and curvy!

Sweet Potato 'Better' Brownies - Sweet Potato #3

I won’t say this is a healthy brownie, but just a better choice. That is if you want to use less sugar for a fudgy moist brownie. Brownies typically need lots of butter and sugar for that delicious mouthfeel and when one uses sweet potatoes, it acts like a humectant that retains moisture and it also lends natural sweetness to the batter.

Almond Rocher - Nutty Treats #4

As some of you knew, I won a baking competition recently and one of the gifts was a course voucher at Academy of Pastry Arts. At first, I thought, the voucher will be wasted as I need to travel to KL again to attend it, and time plus distance didn't seem to permit.

Things happened with some twists and turns... I managed to grab a course on a weekend where we happen to be in KL for a wedding. And it was the right course, chocolate class. Of all the things that I can learn by myself, this is the one thing that I truly dare not attempt, Chocolate Tempering. It was an enjoyable 2-day course and I learnt the most important thing of all, how to temper chocolate. Besides that, I took home with me 6 delicious recipes, plus a big box of handmade chocolates!

FYI, that was REAL chocolate. Not the same like the budget friendly compound chocolate that I normally use that can be melted and used as I like it. Couverture chocolate is a bit temperamental to use, but absolutely delicious to eat.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buns - Cheezy Breads #1

It's been so long since I've posted about breads!
I think I should not be keeping these in my drafts any longer.

I saw this recipe in Veronica's blog and it loooooks soooo tempting.
But my cream cheese filling isn't as smooth as Veronica's. Maybe it's my itchy butt decided to chop up the cheddar slices and mix it in, LOL.

The recipe is egg free (if you skip the glaze) and with only that tablespoon of milk yields a pretty soft bun. I am impressed. Absolutely!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Bun

Shared by: Veronica's Kitchen
Original recipe source: Chef Alan Ooi

Dough
300gm bread flour
30gm cocoa powder
5gm instant yeast
65gm sugar
5gm salt
1 Tbsp full cream milk powder
190gm water
40gm butter

Filling
250gm cream cheese, room temperature
50gm icing sugar
2 slices of cheddar cheese, chopped

Topping
1 egg, beaten
Almond nibs

1.Combine dough ingredients and knead until window pane stage. (KA speed 4, 15 minutes)
2. Cover and let it proof til double.
3. Meanwhile, mix cream cheese with icing sugar and cheddar cheese, form into 10 blobs and keep chilled until time of use.
4. Divide dough into 10 pcs and wrap with filling.
5. Place wrapped dough onto a lined tray, and let it proof for 45 minutes, until puffy and big.
6. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C.
7. Brush the top of dough with beaten egg and sprinkle almond nibs over.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until done.

Chocolate Chesnut Mousse Cake - Mousse Cake #2

I made this cake and sent it over to my SIL's in-laws (my hubby's sister's in-laws). We are in good relations with them and they always send us good free range chicken or river caught snakeheads. Well, I could only return them with bakes and Chinese New Year is always the time of gifting. They told me it tasted like cheesecake and they loved it.

Chocolate Orange Pancakes with Honey Cream - Pancakes #2

This recipe is a twist off the first recipe featured this week.

My girls love chocolate and I thought if I were to pair it with fruits, as least it won't be too heaty for them.

Mocha Checkerboard Cake - Caffeine Cakes #3

It was my hubby's birthday. Last Nov.

My hubby loves chocolate and each year, I'll think of something chocolate for him. 2011 was Chocolate Enigma Cake, 2010 was German Chocolate Cake. 2009 was..... a failed mango baked cheesecake that he told me to dump after blowing candles because it smelt and tasted like grass. And before that... nothing.

Chocolate Raspberry Cake - Rasps Whole Cakes #3




  This was the first birthday cake that I made for ME. My birthday was months ago, more than half year ago... as you all know, I post very slowly.

Personally I felt awkward making a cake for myself. But it's because my kids now understand that birthdays are something special for a person, then I can have my own cake and blow it too. I can't wait for the day when my kids will bake me my cake because no one will buy me one ... get it? LOL.

Chocolate Feather Bed for my BIL - Birthday Week #2

The 2nd cake of the week. Yes, I made 3 birthday cakes within 6 days. Lydia's 2nd cake will be posted on Friday. I'm finding time to get the pictures done. Not easy to squeeze time. Which is why my posts are rarely 2 weeks fresh. :p

I made this cake for my one and only BIL, Mike's younger brother Nic. He likes cream cakes, and last year I made him a not so successful Chocolate Banana Cake. His birthday and Lydia's is just 3 days apart :)

Chocolate Hidden Banana Cake

I made this cake based on a few recipes,  the cake was Rose Levy Beranbaum's, the idea of the hidden banana was Sonia's and the outlook was inspired by joyofbaking.

Creams made with dairy cream are always lighter than buttercreams, and how I wish that I can use dairy creams on "non sponge cakes", and in our weather, dairy creams just can't be kept out from the fridge for long. If you use when cakes made with butter or oil(in the usual way) and deco with dairy whipped cream, the cake will defiantely turn hard when kept in the fridge, but if you bring the cake out to soften up a bit, the cream starts to weep and melt in our over 32C weather..

Such headache,
hard cake-soft cream
soft cake-runny cream.
Pathetic.

Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Tart

I bought this bottle of Grand Marnier after seeing so many recipes using this. And this is my first bake using Grand Marnier.

I’ve been trying to clear things in my fridge, and when I saw this recipe , I just knew this will be made very soon, to clear the half eaten chocs in the fridge. So soon that it was the afternoon itself.

Actually I didn’t plan to make this so soon after I saw the recipe, but when I went to the baking supplies shop looking for white choc chips of which they ran out of, I then asked for hazelnut, and hahaha, I made this instead. That baking supplies shop in KK is just walking distance from my house. Altho it’s small, but the ingredients there are quite complete, I mean, don’t go there looking for rye flour or mascaporne cheese or vanilla beans, but cake flour, bread flour, pau flour and other common flours are all there, flavourings (whatever essences and colouring they have), nuts like pecans, pistachios not to mention common stuff like almonds and walnuts of course. That small shop even carries couverture chocolate!!!!! Imported from Indonesia. Now, I no longer need to shop like crazy(baking goods) when I go to KL. Well not that Ipoh doesn’t have baking stuff, but one shop in Ipoh is superhard to find parking, and another shop is selling flours at RM4.80/kg, of which is 30% more than other shops, and everything in the 2nd shop is more expensive. I only go to the 2nd shop only if I’m in a rush of ingredients, if not I won’t go there.

So, this recipe makes 16-18 tarts, I think, cos I used 15 cases and they were all so so full!!!!!
But that was all that I have in my freezer.

Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Tart
16-18 cold tart cases filled with your favourite short crust pastry (I used my egg tart crust, or you use the almond galette pastry recipe)
90gm butter
150gm soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
210gm very finely chopped hazelnut
1 Tbsp orange zest (ran out of orange and was lazy to buy, so I used the tangerine that has been sitting in my fridge for the longest of time)
100gm chopped dark chocolate (had a few bars of half eaten dark chocs in the fridge, and one of them is a hazelnut dark choc, what a nice addition)
2 Tbsp Grand Marnier or any other orange liquer

1. Preheat oven at 170/180C
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs, one after another, beating well after each addition. After both eggs are in, beat for 2 minutes on high.
4. Add the chopped hazelnuts, chopped chocolate, orange zest and liqueur to the bowl and combine all the ingredients
5. Spoon filling into cold tart cases and level the surface.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes(lower shelf) or until surface of filling is set and golden.

Chocolate Enigma Cake

It’s Mike’s Birthday (last month) and every year, it’s going to be chocolate. When I saw this cake on Hearty Bakes, I totally loved how dark it looked and it seemed I can smell the chocolate from the screen, very very delicious looking. I’m not really an all chocolate girl, but I do eat chocolate once in a blue moon. But my hubby lurves this dark looking confectionary that I’m just so so with. Any chocolate cake, he’ll say, hmm,.. now this is what I call cake. Hahahaha!! So, how can I not make him chocolate cakes for his birthdays ??

I also had a can of black pitted cherries and I might as well use that to fill the cake, since the cake is rather short Well, I baked the cake in a 9 inch pan rather than a recommended 7 inch..
But when I opened the can of cherries, the colour is totally not what I expected. So, I’ve learnt my lesson not to buy Red Man’s canned cherries. The syrup didn’t even cover the fruits! In the end, I threw in some cubed strawberries into the filling. Might be weird to have an adult looking cake with some bits of strawberries in it, but, it’s nice to have some fresh fruits in it.

And I also copycatted Hearty Bakes in the way I decorated this cake. Just hop to this post  of hers and you can see how much I copied from her. Her cakes all look so well made.

Bitter Choc Chiffon
Adapted from Hearty Bakes

Ingredients:

(A) 100g Bittersweet chocolate (chopped)
10gm butter

(B) 5 egg yolks
20g sugar

(C) 40ml water

(D) 60g Cake flour
10g black cocoa powder (it looks like charcoal powder)
1/2tsp baking powder

(E) 5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar


Choc Ganache:
100g Whipping cream
100g Dark Chocolate

Frosting:
400gm dairy whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water
1 cup chopped strawberries



Method:

Cake
1. Sieve Cake flour with cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside
2. Preheat oven to 170deg C
3. Double boil to melt (A). Stir till smooth
4. In another bowl, whisk (B) till pale in colour
5. Add in melted choc (A) mixture, add (C) stir till combine
6. Add in (D), fold till mixture well-mixed.
7. In another bowl, whisk whites(E) till frothy, add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks and add sugar. Whisk till stiff peaks
8. Fold gently 1/3 whites with chocolate mixture
9. Fold the balance of whites
10. Pour batter into 7" cake pan (I used 9 inch springform pan)
11. Baking time around 40mins
12. Insert skewer to check if cake is done
13. Overturn cake tin to cool cake
14. Unmould cake

Ganache
1. Break chocolate and put into a bowl.
2. Bring cream to a boil, stirring all the time, it's ready when it has small bubble on the side.
3. Pour scalded cream onto chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute.
4. Stir until smooth. Set aside.

Frosting
1. Freeze bowl for at least 15 minutes before use. If using stainless steel bowl, prepare and ice bath for use later.
2. Place water in a heat proof bowl and sprinkle gelatin onto water. Let it sit for 1 minute and melt it in the microwave(high for 30 secs) or over a hot pan of water. Let it cool down.
3. Remove frozen bowl from freezer (place in ice bath if stainless steel bowl) and pour in cold whipping cream.
4. Beat on low speed until it starts to thicken then increase to high. When cream has reached soft peaks, put in sugar and beat until almost stiff. Pour in melted gelatin and beat until stiff.
5. Use immdiately to frost.

To assemble
1. Slice cooled cake into 3 layers
2. Place 3 Tbsp of ganache over the bottom layer and spread evenly. Put 1/2 cup of cream over bottom layer and spread. Sprinkle half the strawberries over.
3. Take another piece of cake and spread 3 Tbsp of ganache and another 1/2 cup of cream. Then put the creamed layer on top of the strawberries on bottom layer.
4. Spread 3 Tbsp of ganache onto the 2nd cake layer (now on top of bottom layer) and then repeat step 2 and 3. Now you will have 3 layers of cake sandwiched with 2 layers of filling.
5. Spread more cream all over cake and freeze the cake for 10 minutes
6. Prepare a piping bag with a 3 mm plain nozzle. Pour in all the remaining ganache.
7. Remove cake from freezer and pipe ganache to cover cake sides and lastly top with Ferrero Rodnoir.
8. Chill for few hours before serving.

Verdict:
Frankly, The cake was wonderful when it was unchilled. Lovely and chocolatey. Soft and moist. But once it was chilled, the cake somehow turned dry. Maybe it was due to the melted chocolate content that made it harder when cold. But when the cake was left overnight, the moisture from the strawberries seeped into the cake, and made it much better. I strongly recommend that some sort of fruits be added into the filling to avoid the dry mouthfeel when the cake is eaten chilled.
Mike said the cake is nice, and the only thing not nice is the Ferrero Rodnoir. He told me to use Rocher next time if I ever want to use Ferreros for his cakes. The Rodnoir somehow turned chewy after being chilled for some hours.

Oreo Chiffon Cake

I wanted to try out this new pan that I’ve got. I didn’t know what this pan was for, but the curved base attracted me to buy this. So, the day before I made this, I looked and looked at the pan, wondering if I can invert it after baking, the removable base was small and in the middle only and with a curved base, I can scrape the sides of the cake if I can’t get it out, and with a removable base, there won’t be condensation problems…

Hmm.. so what chiffon flavours can I try out this time? I lazy to get out and buy stuff.. Yeah!!! I remember I saw an Oreo Chiffon cake before in Cherry Potato’s blog, yeah!!! That’ll be it. And I have a tube of oreo at home. Perfect!!!

True enough, yup, the chiffon cake stayed put, and here’s how it looked like after I got it out from the pan. There’s an indentation there, but hey, that’s ok… compared to having a hole in the middle.. when one uses a tube pan. But I need to practice taking it out from the pan.

I then decided to mask its ugliness by giving it some makeup. Slather on some foundation and dabble on lots of powder, tadah!!!! Pretty leh!!!!

Oreo Chiffon Cake Recipe

Adapted from CherryPotato

(A)
65gm oreo (half a regular tube), lightly pulverized together with cream


(B)
5 egg yolks
50gm sugar
60gm milk
60gm corn oil
100gm cake flour, sifted


(C )
5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar or 1 tsp lemon/lime juice
60gm sugar

1. Preheat oven at 160/180C.
2. Mix yolks and sugar together. Then put in the oil and milk. Then the sifted flour. Combine with a whisk until smooth. (Do not whisk or beat but just combine)
3. Beat egg whites until frothy, put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
4. Fold ¼ of egg whites into (2) and then another ¼ of egg whites.
5. Pour egg yolk batter into the remaining egg whites and fold (no need to be too thorough).
6. Put in pulverized oreos and fold until well combined.
7. Pour into a clean ungreased tube pan (22 or 25cm will be fine) and bake for 45 minutes.
8. Invert immediately upon removal from oven. Wait for it to cool down totally before removing cake from pan.

Oh..... this is very delicious!!! Thanks Cherry Potato!!!!

Triple Chocolate Brownies

I’m not much a brownie eater, actually never eaten a fudgy brownie before. It was always cakey brownie. So, this is my first fudgy brownie.

The fudgy look of the brownie caught my attention and with specks of white and brown all over, hidden and peeking at me. I just got to make this someday… But I need choc lovers to help me eat up the brownies.
Then came the chance, I needed to visit an aunt and uncle and I wanted to bring some bakes for them. And that weekend, her daughter Esther was back with baby Tristan. Esther told me she loves brownies and chocolate cakes… AH-Ha!!!! The chance to bake brownies has finally arrived!!!

I adapted the recipe from Anna Olsen. I used almost less of everything by cut down the choc to one pack size of 250gm. I was lazy to break another pack for the other 50gm. Then I cut down 1/3 sugar and butter. I slightly increased the choc chips cos here, the smallest packs that suppliers will sell is 100gm, so why leave the 10gm behind if I were to follow the recipe to go at 90gm. And I also had some chopped roasted walnuts leftover from a cake, and so in it went too.

250gm dark chocolate (I used dark compound chocolate)

100gm butter
100gm sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
60gm all purpose flour
100gm chocolate chips (There are no milk chocolate chips here that are light brown in colour)
100gm white chocolate chips
Small handful of walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 140/160C. Line an 8 inch shallow square pan with overlapping sides.
2. Place dark chocolate and butter into a mixing bowl. Place mixing bowl over another bowl of hot water and let the butter and chocolate melt, stirring gently.
3. Remove mixing bowl from hot water and mix in sugar and vanilla extract.
4. Put in eggs and mix.
5. Sift in flour and mix.
6. Put in 2/3 of both choc chips and nuts and mix.
7. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle balance of nuts and choc chips.
8. Bake for 35- 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Chocolate Cherries Oatmeal Cookies

I have this large pack of mixed fruit and nuts that my MIL got me from US. There’s dried bing cherries, cranberries (they look brown cos no additive was added), raisins, pistachios and almonds. I didn’t know what to do with them, so, when I saw this recipe on Honey Bee Sweets, I was delighted!!!

I picked out the cherries and used some of the nuts, and voila, a yummy and chewy oatmeal cookie.
As Honey Bee says, this is supposed to be soft and chewy, and it’s not “Lau Foong 漏风", or masuk angin . It’s meant to be like that, and not crunchy. I did change the method though…. Using a method I learnt from doing a cranberry white chocolate cookie that never got photographed cos I was in my confinement when I did it.

Chocolate Cherries Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe adapted from Honey Bee Sweets

80gm dried bing cherries, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1.5tsp vanilla extract
Mix chopped cherries together with beaten egg and vanilla. Let it sit for at least half an hour until the eggs are absorbed by the cherries.

115gm butter, softened (I always use salted, and I skipped the salt)
100gm soft brown sugar
125gm rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
115gm all purpose flour, sifted with 1 tsp baking powder and 1 t/s tsp baking soda
100gm mixed nuts, chopped
75gm chocolate chips

1. Combine sifted flour with oats.
2. Cream the butter with brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in half of (1), then the cherries and all that is in the bowl.
4. Mix in the balance of (1). Then mix in the nuts and choc chips.
5. Preheat oven to 170/180C. Prepare your cookie sheets and line them with non stick baking paper/parchment
6. Roll balls of dough and place them onto cookie sheet (I used a 1/2Tbsp measuring spoon to form half spheres)
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Place on rack to cool down before packing them in air tight jars.

My kids love these and kept on asking for more cookies : )

Individual Banoffee Pies with Chocolate Biscuit Crust

I’ve seen HomeKreation doing banoffee pies. Her kids loved this to bits and oh my, I just got to try this banoffee pie some day.

But I was worried that the crust might go soggy, cos we don’t eat that fast!!! So, I came up with adding melted chocolate into the crust. It makes it slightly waterproof, and the crust is definitely sturdier with some chocolate in it. And dark chocolate is a good contrast to the sweet dulce de leche.

And I chose to use Cavendish bananas, as they don’t brown that easily compared to local varieties. If you do not know what is Cavendish bananas, just head to your nearest hypermart and find Dole or Del Monte bananas. Cavendish is the variety and Dole and Del Monte are the brands. It’s just like Navel or Valencia oranges that comes with the brand Sunkist or whatever name. Cavendish to bananas is the equivalent of Navel and Valencia is to oranges. Well, if you can’t find Cavendish bananas, try tossing your sliced bananas in lemon juice to prevent them from browning, but I don’t want the tang of lemon to be in my pie. Do what you think is suitable for you.

Mini Banoffee Pies with Chocolate Biscuit Crust Recipe
Recipe source : Wendyywy
Inspired by: Home Kreation

80gm butter
80gm dark chocolate
160gm digestive biscuits or graham crackers, pulverized
4 large Cavendish bananas, sliced
½ cup Dulce de Leche, more or less
Some cocoa powder for dusting

300gm whipping cream + 2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water

1. Melt butter and dark chocolate together. Stir in pulverized biscuits. Press firmly into small tart tins. Freeze for 30 minutes or more. Pie crust is ready when it falls out from the tin when overturned (you might need to pry it slightly with a toothpick, but it should fall out with the slightest prying). Remove all crust from tins. Keep them chilled before use.
2. While waiting for the crust to firm up, sprinkle gelatin over water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Zap in microwave on high for 20 secs or melt it over a pan of hot water. Leave to cool. Freeze your mixing bowl now.
3. When crusts are ready, spread 2/3 tsp of Dulce de Leche into pie crust. You can put more if you like it sweeter
4. Slice bananas thinly and arrange in crust. Place pies back into fridge.
5. Remove mixing bowl from freezer or put your bowl in a basin of ice water and whip the cream and sugar until soft peaks. With the mixer on, carefully drizzle in the gelatin mixture and whip until stiff.
6. Pipe or spoon cream over bananas and dust with cocoa powder.
7. Keep chilled until time of serving, but not more than 12 hours, just in case the crust turns soggy (I've never kept these for than 4 hours, all gobbled up, so I don't really know).

As usual, I share my bakes with my neighbours. Hehe, neighbor Maria shared the pie with her co workers and after eating only 1 quarter of this mini pie, asked me, “How much do you charge if I want to order this?” That shows it’s really good.

Here's what I made for Maria. A big banoffee pie, since it's cheaper than small ones. Small ones more work hence, higher cost :)

One last pic :)