Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

So I was faced with a dilemma recently... 3 expiring eggs... What should I bake with them?!  I quickly looked to see what I had on hand in the kitchen... 3 earl gray teabags (originally reserved for cookies).  A Google search gave me the perfect solution... earl grey chiffon cake!  I admit, I’m not a huge fan of making cakes... It’s not easy to distribute out to people and I usually need a special occasion.  Well this seemed to be a ‘special’ enough occasion... ;)

I had fun making this cake... At first, it looked like the egg whites would not stiffen and hold up without cream of tartar (coz I didn’t have any) but miraculously, it worked out fine!  It was fairly easy to put together all the ingredients and when it finished baking, the cake came out with a nice golden brown top and spongy middle.  I eagerly awaited to taste the results... Wow... Big FAIL... I dunno what happened but this ended up being salty!  Now before you jump to conclusions, I assure you that I did not mix up the amount of sugar and salt used.  I was sorely disappointed coz it was almost perfect except for the weird salty-sweet combination of the cake... Unless that’s the way it’s supposed to taste... o_O

Anyway I might try this recipe again sometime, but I’d reduce the salt maybe about a half of what it says to use?  I’m stumped as to where I went wrong...

Ingredients (makes one 7 inch diameter cake):
A:
3 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
50ml vegetable oil
75ml water
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (3 sachets)

B:
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
2. Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature.
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, in 3 separate additions and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes sticky and turn pale.
4. Drizzle in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the water. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the earl grey leaves and mix well.
5. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
6. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
7. Pour batter into a 7 inch tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for 45 minutes or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before taking out of the mold. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the centre core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake (Revisited)

Ah! So I'm back sooner than expected with my revised version of the coffee cake... =) No time like the present and I had some "guinea pigs" who were willing to help me test out my cake. I didn't change the amount of ingredients used... only the method that I used. The key really is not to over mix or the whole thing will turn into a big rubber disc.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is that I'd recommend using a baking pan with taller sides as the cake rose up quite a bit. Again, it did take quite a bit longer to bake... around 65 minutes... but I'd still check around the 45 minute mark to see whether it's done.

The result? It was fluffier... but the bottom part of it was still a bit dense! Boo... Well maybe that's just the way the cake is supposed to be. I dunno... But I still think it tasted great... =) Perhaps next time when combining the flour mixture and the liquids, I will fold them in with a spatula rather than using an electric mixer.

Ingredients:
Streusel:
43g unsalted butter, cold
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
57g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup dark chocolate chips (or semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or white chocolate)
1 and 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) unsweetened raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/176C. Grease 8 or 9-inch baking pan.
2. Prepare streusel by first mashing up cold butter with a fork.
3. Add flour and sugar to the butter and stir the mixture until it is crumbly.
4. Mix in the slivered almonds and set aside.
5. For the cake, sift flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.
6. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
7. Add in half the flour mixture and beat on low until just combined (5-10 seconds). Add in half the milk and again beat on low until just combined (5-10 seconds). Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk.
8. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork and add to the batter. Add in the vanilla extract and then beat on low until just combined (5-10 seconds).
9. Pour half of the batter into the baking pan. Layer in half the streusel, most of the raspberries and chocolate chips. Pour the remaining batter into the baking pan and layer with the the rest of the streusel. Top with the rest of the raspberries and chocolate chips.
10. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until it's no longer "jiggly".

Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake

Alas, now that Alpha's over, I have no good reason to bake regularly. Well I could bake for no reason at all... But then I'd be the one stuck eating the dessert I make! Not so good for the waistline... =P So luckily my CG decided to have a special dessert night as the following day was a public holiday. Guess who immediately volunteered to bring something?! ;-)

Well since it's CG (and CG people are more forgiving than most people... Hehe...) I figured I should make something that I haven't tried before. That's when I stumbled across the pictures of a delicious looking coffee cake! Yum... the interesting thing is that coffee cake doesn't necessarily mean that it contains coffee... =) According to Wikipedia, the term coffee cake refers to a common cake or sweetbread. Go figure!

I'm not sure if it's because I used a silicon baking pan, but the coffee cake took at least an hour before it was actually done. The middle part was still "jiggly" when I checked it at the 45 minutes mark so it was obviously not ready. I ended up covering the top part of the cake to prevent it from burning and continued to bake it.  Strange... anyway I have a link to the original recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and below is my slightly modified version.

The cake got rave reviews from my CG but I'm not completely satisfied with the results. The cake ended up being a bit denser than I like and it was bordering on being "rubbery" which probably means I mixed the batter too much. Argh... Anyway stay tuned as it's likely I'll revisit this recipe and revise it...

Ingredients:
Streusel:
43g unsalted butter, cold
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
57g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup dark chocolate chips (or semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or white chocolate)
1 and 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) unsweetened raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/176C. Grease 8 or 9-inch baking pan.
2. Prepare streusel by first mashing up cold butter with a fork.
3. Add flour and sugar to the butter and stir the mixture until it is crumbly.
4. Mix in the almonds and set aside.
5. For the cake, in a large bowl, add in flour, sugar, butter, milk, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt and egg. Using an electric mixer, beat on low power until everything is just combined. Don't over mix!
6. Pour half of the batter into the baking pan. Layer in half the streusel, most of the raspberries and chocolate chips. Pour the remaining batter into the baking pan and layer with the the rest of the streusel. Top with the rest of the raspberries and chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until it's no longer "jiggly".

Mini Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I had the biggest craving the other day for mint chocolate chip ice cream... But since it was the middle of the night and I didn't have any at home then I satisfied my cravings by googling mint chocolate chip. Out popped up images of mint chocolate chip cupcakes... Ohhhhh... I had never thought of making those before!! I put it on my list of things to make on a 'rainy day'...

For the last session of Alpha I wanted to make something special for them... I consulted my list and immediately decided to try making the mint chocolate chip cupcakes. Wow, was I ever happy that I did! I don't remember the last time I was so pleasantly surprised by the result of a recipe. In fact, the cupcakes were so tasty that I almost don't want to serve them at Alpha and eat them all myself! Haha... I'm joking of course... But they did turn out super yummy...

For the chocolate cupcake base, I used the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and for the delicious mint chocolate chip frosting, I used the recipe from Eva Bakes. I made minor adjustments to both recipes... for the cupcake base, I reduced the amount of sugar and I used semi-sweet chocolate (it seemed to work the same as bittersweet chocolate... is it the same thing??). I also took into consideration that I was making mini cupcakes and so cut down on the baking time.

For the frosting, I didn't have heavy cream available so I used a butter/milk substitute and instead of using chocolate chips, I used chocolate flakes. It was impossible to pipe the frosting with the chocolate flakes, so I ended up just slathering the frosting on with a knife. Hehe... Anyway, below is the combined and modified recipe that I used! Best of both worlds... ;-)

Ingredients (makes around 48 mini cupcakes):
Cupcakes:
113g unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
60g semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
2 eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp table salt
½ cup sour cream

Frosting:
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream (or 47mL milk and 20g butter, melted)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
3 drops green food colouring
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (or chocolate flakes)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F/160C.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.
4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogeneous and thick.
5. Line muffin pan with baking cup liners and fill up with batter until 3/4 (or 1/2) full.  Bake for around 15 minutes.
6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.
7. Using the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice.
8. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar, cream, peppermint extract, and food colouring.
9. Turn the mixer to high and beat for an additional 3 minutes. If the frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar. If the frosting is too thick, add more cream. If the frosting is too sweet, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Depending on your personal preferences, you can increase the amount of food coloring and peppermint extract as desired. Mix in the chocolate chips by hand.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Well I miscalculated the number of bananas that I would need to use for my mom's banana muffin recipe so I had extra bananas lying around. I'm not much of a banana fan normally and I also had leftover sour cream so I scoured the web for a banana sour cream recipe. I came across the perfect recipe which used both ingredients from the blog Savory Sweet Life. The recipe author gave it the name of Sour Cream Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread... but I thought the name was too long so I renamed it to simply Double Chocolate Banana Bread. This is a "re-mix" of the popular banana bread by adding cocoa powder to the dough and adding chocolate chips as well... hence double chocolate! ;-)

This is a bit more "cake-like" and moist than a regular banana bread, but surprisingly not as sweet as you'd expect from something labelled as double chocolate! I was thinking of bringing this to serve at Alpha... but I'm having seconds thoughts after my first taste test... Mmm...

Ingredients:
113g salted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 large ripened bananas mashed (or 2.5 small bananas)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (regular chocolate chips work too)
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat over to 350F/177C.
2. Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan, or 2 mini pans with non-stick spray.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Stir in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended.
4. Add baking soda, cocoa, and flour.
5. Mix everything until well incorporated (about 3 minutes with an electric mixer).
6. Add chocolate chips and nuts (if applicable).
7. Pour batter into loaf pan(s) and bake for 50 minutes – 1 hr.
8. Insert a tooth pick into the center of the loaf and check to see if it comes out clean when you pull it out.
9. Remove from heat and allow bread to rest in the loaf pan for 10 minutes.
10. Invert the loaf pans onto a cooling rack. Enjoy warm or cold.

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes

Part of the reason for my obsession with baking cupcakes is that when I see them for sale in bakeries for HK$30+ each, I think it's such a ripoff. But actually when I think about it, the money I've dumped into trying to find a good cupcake recipe would probably exceed that amount per cupcake anyway. Oh well... I had fun... well most of the time! =)

Trying to make good vanilla cupcakes was not as easy as I thought it would be. The first time I made them, I almost pulled out my hair in frustration! I was making mini versions so I had to buy a new muffin pan.. but I got the cupcake liner sizes all wrong... then I put the wrong proportions into the cupcake liners... and the muffins basically erupted all over the oven. Sigh... just thinking about it gives me the shivers... it was a big mess!

Well practice makes perfect I guess... this is probably my fifth attempt to make these cupcakes and they finally look and taste half decent. On this last attempt, I used the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and halved the recipe so I wouldn't have so many cupcakes to deal with (I still ended up with a quite lot though!).

Ingredients (makes around 20 mini cupcakes):
Cupcakes:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
113g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
113g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin/cupcake tin with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
3. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolk, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.
4. Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin. I had to fill them almost to the top of the liners.
5. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before frosting.
7. Using the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl once or twice.
8. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar.
9. Once all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and add the vanilla, mixing until incorporated. Whip at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

I've baked red velvet cupcakes before, but this time I made mini versions of them which turned out a lot better! I've been on a cupcake baking craze and after my two disastrous attempts to make "perfect" vanilla cupcakes, I switched to making red velvet ones. Hmm... sorry no photos again as I was in a rush to get the cupcakes done and serve them at an event.

I looked at a lot of recipes and finally decided on going with the one from the Brown Eyed Baker.  I liked that it didn't use oil in the cupcakes which I find makes cupcakes have a weird taste. Anyway, I'm gonna try to go back to baking vanilla cupcakes so wish me luck!

Ingredients (makes around 24 mini cupcakes):
Cupcakes:
57g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp red food coloring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting:
113g butter, at room temperature
113g cream cheese, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a mini muffin/cupcake pan with liners.
2. On medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to high and add the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.
3. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, vanilla extract and red food coloring to make a thick paste. Add to the batter and mix on medium speed until completely combined. You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.
4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk. Add half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour. Beat on high until smooth.
5. Again, reduce the mixer speed to low and add the salt, baking soda and vinegar. Turn to high and beat for another couple of minutes until completely combined and smooth.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife or skewer inserted into the center of the largest cupcake comes out clean.
7. Cool for 10 minutes and then remove cupcakes from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
8. To make the frosting: Using the whisk attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese on high speed for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down as necessary. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar until all is incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Increase the speed to medium high and whip for a few minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (Revisited)

Ok so I've never really been successful with banana bread in the past 2 times I've made it. The first time it came out all oily and the second time it was very rubbery. But this time, I finally got it to work!! It had a nice flavour, the texture was ok and it was not oily... The only problem was that it gotten eaten so fast that I forgot to take a picture of it. Oops... so you're just gonna have to take my word on it that it looked appetizing.

I got the recipe from another newly discovered blog called Christine's Recipes. She even has step-by-step photos of how the dough should look. The most important part of the recipe is not to mix it too much when adding the flour in. I still had bits of white flour in the batter when I poured it into the baking pan.

Anyway below is the modified recipe which I added chocolate chips to... just love the Hersey's semi-sweet chocolate chips! They make everything taste great...

[Update on 27-May-2013: I got super ripe bananas this weekend and decided to make banana bread with them. So now I have a picture to show you guys how it looks! I used brown sugar this time and made sure not to over-mix the batter so that it turned out just right. The outside was crispy and the inside was soft. My only regret is not adding more than 1/4 cup chocolate chips!!]

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
4 ripe bananas (170g)
76g unsalted butter, melted
67g caster sugar (or brown sugar for a darker colour)

1 egg, whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk (or 1/2 cup, depending on the thickness of the batter)
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more, depending on your sweet tooth)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
2. Smashed the ripe bananas in a large bowl with a spoon or process in a food processor.
3. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to combine melted butter with the smashed bananas.
4. Stir in sugar, whisked egg and vanilla.
5. Add 1/4 cup of the milk first, then combine well. If the batter is too thick, add more and adjust the amount as you go.
6. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt in the mixture.
7. Stir in sifted flour, one third at a time. No need to stir too hard, just fold and incorporate all ingredients thoroughly.
8. Add in chocolate chips and leave a few to sprinkle on the tops of the mixture once it's in the baking pan.
9. Transfer mixture into a greased 4x8 inch baking pan. Bake for about 1 hour.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

This is the dessert that reminds me most of V and her mom… they're both amazing bakers and this is one of their signature desserts! Of course the version that I ended up making is nowhere close to theirs, but I think it was a decent imitation… =)  It was fun to bake… I just love the bright redness of the cake and I thought it would be good as a 'Halloween' type dessert (bloody cake?  Heehee…)

I recently had this red velvet cupcake from 'Sift Patisserie' and found that their frosting was too too sweet.  So I made sure to cut down on the icing sugar for the cream cheese frosting recipe that I used.  And you know what? The frosting ended up tasting better than the cupcake (which was quite bland and tasteless) that I refused to let anyone eat the cupcake on its own.  =P

Here's the recipe that I used for the red velvet cupcakes and for the cream cheese frosting… I halved all the ingredients since I didn't want to make so many cupcakes (24?! I don't have *that* many guinea pigs)… ;-P  Even with the ingredients halved, I had a lot of frosting leftover… it was also that I broke my plastic piping tool (I absolutely have NO luck with piping tools) and wasn't able to decorate the cupcakes properly in nice swirly frosting (instead it was slathered on and looked very unappetizing).

I am really considering in investing in a stand alone mixer… it's really hard to use the hand mixer without the ingredients going everywhere… hmm… now to find out where to put it...

Cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz. red food coloring
55g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar (or less)
1 egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 6-cup muffin tins or silicone pans with cupcake liners.
2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a smaller bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in the egg, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.
4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Be careful as it will fizz so don't do it in a shallow bowl. Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Fill cupcake cups with cake batter until they are a little under 3/4 full. Place muffin tins in your preheated oven. Bake for approximately 20, rotating pans halfway through. The cupcakes are done when you are able to pat the tops and the cake springs back up. If it sinks down they are not yet complete. Or you can insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake in the center of the tin and if it comes out clean they are done!
5. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Ingredients:
113 unsalted butter, softened
170g cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature. In a mixing bowl, mix butter on medium speed until light and creamy.
2. Add cream cheese and mix until fluffy. 
3. Slowly add the sugar, a bit at a time. Continue to mix. 
4. Finally, add the vanilla extract to the mixture and mix until it has a creamy consistency. 
5. You can store this frosting for up to three days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. When you are ready to use it simply mix it with an electric mixer until it becomes smooth.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I was stuck in a rut a while back and to cheer me up, some friends decided that attempting to bake a pandan chiffon cake would help. It was an interesting experience and I had a lot of fun with it. Thank you girls, I'll always remember your kindness!

We cheated a bit with the recipe though… instead of blending the pandan leaves to get the juice out, we used a store bought pandan extract. We had to guess at how much pandan extract to use (it's not the same as juice!) But I think we overdid it a bit... It turned the cake so fluorecent green that it looked like it came from a nuclear plant. And I think our cake pan was too small as the cake mixture overflowed all over my friend's brand-new oven. Oops… =P  But the end result smelled and tasted great! Almost like it was store bought from the Singaporean bakery Bengawan Solo… almost… haha… ;-P

Anyway here's the recipe that my friend found and we sorta followed… it's really hard to get fluffy egg whites though...

Ingredients:
6 egg whites
125g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
6 egg yolks
100g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
5 tbsp corn oil
2 tbsp pandan extract
100mL thick coconut milk
140g self-raising flour, sift

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Whisk egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in an electric mixer until just stiff.
2. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla essence until light and creamy.
3. Add in corn oil, pandan juice and thick coconut milk. Mix well.
4. Stir in sifted flour and fold in carefully and gently to mix.
5. Pour egg yolk mixture lightly into the egg white mixture. Mix evenly with a metal spoon or a plastic spatula.
6. Pour batter into an ungreased 22cm tube pan.
7. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until cake is well browned and firm to the touch.
8. Remove cake from oven. Invert pan immediately.
9. Leave to cool, then remove cake from pan with the help of a thin-bladed knife.
   

No-Bake Mango Cheesecake

Part of the problem with making desserts in HK is finding people who are brave enough to eat them. Haha… I'm joking, of course! It's only hard to find people because many Asians don't like eating "sweet stuff" and it's not that common to have big "potluck" gatherings here.

That's why I jumped at the opportunity to make desserts for my church's Alpha course. This way I'm guranteed to make at least one dessert a week for the next 10 weeks or so. This week is the first week and I decided to make mango cheesecake! It's my all-time favourite dessert to make and holds a special place in my heart. This is the dessert that got me started on my whole dessert making craze in HK. I learned how to make it when SL invited me to one of her company's social events. Thanks!

This is a no-bake cheesecake and I find it much lighter to eat than a baked one. It's more like a mousse cake in texture and I prefer it that way because it's so light I can eat more than one piece! =) The original recipe from the class is below, but I made a few minor adjustments to the one I made for Alpha. First I doubled all the ingredients to make a bigger cake. Then for the base, I used half digestive biscuits crumbs and half Oreo cookie crumbs. I also added a thin layer of mango jelly to the top of the cake in an attempt to hide the bumps. The recipe also said to use mango juice, but I can't find that anywhere in HK so I used puree instead.

Ingredients:
Base:
60g digestive biscuits crumbs
30g butter, melted

Filling:
100g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
20g sugar
130g mango puree
150g whipping cream
3.5 pcs gelatine leaves
1.5 tsp hot water

Method:

1. Melt the butter over hot water (I normally cheat and use the microwave =P).
2. Mix the melted butter and digestive biscuit crumbs together (I pour it into a plastic bag and mix it together).
3. Line a 6" cake pan with parchment paper. Place the butter/crumbs mixture into the pan and press firmly down (while keeping it away from the edges of the pan). Chill for later use.
4. Cream the cream cheese with sugar until smooth.
5. Whip the whipping cream until it is about the same stiffness as a watery milkshake.
6. Add mango puree into the whipping cream and blend well.
7. Add (6) into (4) and blend well.
8. Melt the gelatine leaves with 1.5 tsp of hot water.
9. Add the gelatine mixture into (7) and blend well.
10. Pour the cake filling into the cake pan and chill for at least an hour.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

For CNY, I tried to shake the winter blues by escaping to the tropical island of Hainan (Sanya). We were blessed with beautiful, sunny weather and I spent most of the 3.5 days there eating, sleeping, reading and swimming. Since we were staying at L's aunt's place (thanks!) which was in a remote part of Sanya with no easy access to food, I originally planned on making chocolate chip banana bread to have for breakfast.

The plan ended up being too ambitious as the night before my trip, I got home around 9pm and still had not even packed yet, never mind having the time to bake anything! Although I bought the bananas already, I figured they could wait until I got back. The recipe did say that overly ripe bananas were the best! =)

Anyway, this is the 2nd time that I've tried to make chocolate chip banana bread. The 1st time I made it, I'm not sure what happened but the banana bread ended up being drenched in butter even though I followed the recipe exactly. This time I used another recipe, but it still came out a little moist and dense so I'm at a loss of what to do. I think it's because I used brown sugar (which seems to increase the moisture) so maybe I'll try caster sugar next time.

And it's sorta annoying me that it's so difficult to buy semi-sweet chocolate chips in a regular grocery store! Not to mention that doing all this metric conversion is giving me a bit of a headache. Lucky I found this website which will easily make the conversion from cups to grams for common food items. Score!

P.S. I have figured out why my banana bread came out a bit weird… when I was combining the wet and dry ingredients, I may have mixed it too much. Apparently, overmixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread. Boo… so be warned... 

Ingredients:
2 cups (200g) plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (113g) butter
3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 mashed over-ripe bananas (454g)
2 cups (365g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs, vanilla essence and bananas till well blended.
3. Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Lightly fold in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips into the wet ingredients.
5. Pour into a lined 9 x 5 loaf pan.
6. Make a cut in the middle lengthwise using a wet/greased knife.
7. Bake at 170C/350F for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Black Sugar Steamed Cake / 黑糖糕

I tried black sugar steamed cake when I went to Taipei 2 years ago and just loved the chewy QQ texture and mild sweetness of the black sugar. Though HK is a food paradise, I'm not sure where I can get black sugar steamed cake here. So I thought why not try to make it myself?

I wanted to use a recipe that was as authentic as possible so I found this one that was posted on a TW government website. The only problem was that it's all in Chinese! Doh! =|
Well, being the Google queen that I am (heehee!), I was quickly able to find this brilliant website which translated most of the common Chinese ingredients into English. Another issue that I had was that they were using a Chinese measuring system. I easily found out that one catty (一斤) = 600g and 1000cc = 1000mL. I decided to halve the recipe and voilà!

Below is the recipe I used.  Note that I made minor adjustments to the recipe so it's not a complete translation of the one on the government website.

Don't be alarmed by how ugly my cake looks… what happened was that I started steaming it in a big pot but the cake expanded so much that the top part stuck to the lid and wouldn't come off.  =( I ended up rummaging through the cabinets and trying to figure out what to do when I found out that we have a wok at home. Oops…

The cake came out a little denser than I would have liked coz of the incident.  Also, I think I didn't turn the heat high enough and so there wasn't enough steam in the beginning. O well, it was still edible! =) Practice makes perfect... 

Ingredients:
300g plain flour
150g potato starch
300g black sugar
20g baking powder
500mL warm water
Toasted white sesame seeds

Method:

1. Sift the black sugar into the warm water.  Let it dissolve completely and cool.
2. Sift plain flour, potato starch and baking powder into a bowl. Add into the black sugar water while stirring gently.
3. Pour mixture into a mould and steam on high heat for 18-22 minutes.
4. Once it's done steaming, sprinkle toasted white sesame seeds on top.