Swiss Roll - Honey Yogurt Swiss Roll and Chocolate Swiss Roll

Long overdue post as usual. I made the Honey Yogurt Swiss Roll in celebration of 2013 Father's Day. It is made using the chiffon method with a yogurt based cream. I added some chopped strawberries to balance the sweetness in the cake and cream.

This cake is moist and flexible. I could roll up this swiss roll without any cracks (thank god). This cake has a fine texture and it tasted even better when chilled.

I obtained this recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕圈 page 106.

After celebrating Father's Day, it is my hubby's birthday. I asked him what type of cake does he want for his birthday. To my surprise, he requested for a simple chocolate swiss roll but it must be coated with lots of chocolate rice. He told me this is his favorite cake from the local bakery. Of course I agreed to his request.

I obtained this recipe from 孟老师的美味蛋糕圈.

Matcha Chocolate Marble Cake

Finally I got hold of matcha powder and I can't wait to inject it into my bakes. Browsing through my bookmarks, this green tea choco marble cake from No-Frills Recipes caught my eye. I am not in the mood to try something adventurous as I am going out later in the day. This cake only need two bowls and the method used is fuss-free. ^^v

I also got to use the moulds that I bought a few years back. Roses and hearts, perfect for Valentine's Day. This batter is a bit thick so it trapped some air bubbles. And my cakes have pock marks all over it. Sad. Nevertheless, it tasted great. This matcha powder does not have a strange after taste. I like the combination of matcha with chocolate. I had two of them with teh tarik for tea. Yum.

Clearing the Cobwebs

*Hoo* Dust and cobwebs have been gathering on my blog since May 2012. A year has passed by and hopefully I am a year wiser. I made a decision in July 2012 to have a change in my job environment. Ever since, i was like sitting i an emotion roller coaster, ups and downs. Every day I am learning new things, which is something that I like but it can be stressful at times. On some days, I will melt down totally and just dump everything aside and start to moan, cry and talk rubbish. I guess this is life. The Earth will not stop rotating for me. With my work and commitments piling at exponential rate, this blog was left in the basement, untouched.

Now that I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I  finally found some time to dust off the cobwebs here. Though I know my blog is only for me and myself to read, deep down in my heart, I still hope that someone will pop by and read the rubbish that I write. Haha. No need to write any comments as I don't leave any comments in others blogs too. Haha.

On 12th May 2013, I made a Mandarin Orange Cheesecake for my beloved mummy for Mother's Day. She cooked a big feast for my birthday a few days back. I am not capable enough to wipe up a big feast for her so I only can present this humble cake to her. Thank god, she likes it. :)

I got the recipe from here. Thanks, author of the blog.

I am still quite old school. So here is my journal. Those in the brackets are some minor modifications.

Here's the cake. Enjoy!

Hope to have another post soon. *fingers crossed*

Pandan Melting Moments

I saw this recipe in the June 2011 Good Food Magazine. I love this magazine. The photos in it are so beautiful and well-taken. The recipes will make me want to jump out of my bed and start cooking. Hee hee. This is one of the recipes that I have tried. This cookie is actually accompanied with a coconut cream. Since I am not a fan of cream and these cookies are meant to last for at least a week, filling them with cream is not a wise option. 

This is a relatively simple recipe to put together. I used a zip top bag instead of a piping bag. Not a good choice. The zip top bag spilt along the seam after I piped half of the cookies and I was in a big mess when it split. To save myself from more agony, I just used a teaspoon and drop the remaining dough on the sheet pan and baked them. The rosettes held their shapes well after baking and the dropped cookies looked like the Danish butter cookies, just that they are in green. 

No one can detect the pandan flavour in my cookies. I think I need to put in more pandan paste. Nonetheless it has beautiful butter flavour. My husband and I renamed them as Green Butter Cookies. :p But my parents feel that it is too sweet. They still prefer my Chocolate Chips and Almond Cookies. Opps. I have not blog that yet. Hee hee.

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar ( I will reduced to 80g the next time)
4 tbsp pandan juice ( I replaced with 1 tsp pandan paste and top up with water till i get 4 tbsp)
225g plain flour
4 tbsp cornflour

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius.
2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and pandan juice until light and fluffy.
3. Sift in the plain flour and corn flour, and mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are well combined.
4. Place the dough in pipping bag fixed with a star nozzle and pipe the mixture into 1.5 cm rosettes or 3 cm
    long fingers.
5. Bake for 10-12 min until the cookies are firm and lightly golden. Set aside to cool on a wire tray.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake

This is an overdue post. As usual. Haha.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

My whole family doesn't fancy the whipping cream on cakes. We will scrape away the cream and eat the sponge cake and the fruits, if there is any. Unless... the cake is extremely expensive or it is coated with chocolate ganache (my favourite), then we will send it down to our esophagus. That's the main reason why I have yet to make any layer cake. Maybe I should step out of my comfort zone soon. Mother's Day? My own birthday? Mummy's birthday? Hubby's birthday? ;)

Staying in my comfort zone, I chose the Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake from Dailydelicious, a site that I trusted. I accomplished this task quite easily (phew), if not, I would have to rush out to get a cake from the bakery. Everyone loves the cake, especially the birthday boy, I mean old boy. Haha. 

Baked in a Bundt Pan. Uneven browning. :( I planned to sprinkle some icing sugar on it but my hubby said then it proves that it is made by me. -_-"

Mini Meatloaf

This recipe is obtained from the March 2011 edition of Good Food Magazine. The ingredients are easy to find and easy to prepare, just chopping onion and carrot and processing some bread cubes to get homemade breadcrumbs.

The result is good. I am not really a big fan of meat. I survive mainly on vegetables but I like this meat loaf. This recipe did change my impression of meatloaf as a heavy and filling block of compressed meat. This meatloaf is moist and not over clogging. The addition of onion and carrot not only add sweetness to the meatloaf, it also made it less oily and meaty (I know it sounds funny ;p) I served it with s bed of romaine lettuces in a simple lemon vinaigrette. A well-balanced meal.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake and Black Bottom Cupcakes.

The block of cream cheese in my fridge is expiring soon. I bought it to make the Strawberry Jelly Hearts but somehow I just don't have the mood to make it this weekend. Craving for some cakes, I began to go through my to-do list and look for cakes that uses cream cheese. I stumbled upon the Cream Cheese Pound Cake on Little Teochew's Blog. It looks so appetizing. I decided to bake this. However, it uses only 140 g of cream cheese. What am I going to do with the rest? I searched in her blog and saw the Black Bottom Cupcakes. I halved the recipe to use up the
remaining 110 g of my cream cheese. Hee hee. I managed to bake both cakes before lunch.

At about tea time, my parents came over to get my bakes and bought me 4 egg tarts from Tong Heng (my fav). So sweet of them.

I guess I am an inconfident baker. I only have the courage to offer my bakes to my parents, my brother and my husband. It is not that I cannot accept criticism, in fact I want them to comments on my bakes so that I can improve in those areas but normally they don't. Only my parents, brother and husband do. I am worried that if I gave the

m and they don't enjoy it, it will be a torture to them and I will be very upset to know that. I really enjoy cooking and baking for others and see them enjoying or giving me feedback on my food. That's the way to learn.

8 inch Cream Cheese Pound Cake

A peek at the texture

This cake smells and tastes fantastic. Soft and moist. This recipe is very forgiving and suitable for novice baker like me.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

I prefer to have more cheesy taste to it. Nonetheless, the texture is great and not too sweet.

Mummy's Chicken Stew

This is one of my favorite dishes when I was young. Whenever my mum cooks this, she would serve it on a cartoon plate and drench my rice with the gravy. I love the carrots in particular. They are so sweet. I would have extra serving of rice when my mum cook this. This dish tastes even better the next day. I tried to replicate this dish in my own kitchen. Even with my mum on the other side of the line guiding me how to cook it, I still cannot get the same taste as my mum's one. Maybe that's what they call 妈妈的味道. :)

Lemony Cupcakes with Tangy Lemon Curd

I was mesmerized by the photos in Daily Delicious but I know that with my skills, I doubt I can recreate most of her bakes. When I saw this, I was delighted because it looks basic enough for my standard. So here I go into my kitchen, armed with the ingredients, I managed to bake these cupcakes within 3 hours (I know I am slow, it runs in the family), including filling it with the lemon curd that I made a day before. I omitted the mascapone frosting and replaced it with a wedge of strawberry. I love the taste. Well balanced. My mum loves them and she finished a jar of lemon curd by spreading it on crackers and toast. I feel satisfied whenever she enjoy my creation. :)

Hamburger Buns

For busy (or lazy) people like me, I would prefer to make plain bread loaf or bun. It saves me the trouble of preparing the filling. So far, the fillings I have prepared at home are simply store bought grated cheese, cinnamon sugar and sausages. I really like to try fillings like curry potatoes and custard but that will have too wait.

This time, I tried a recipe from 65oC Tang Zhong Bread by Yvonne C. I heard so much about this book and it is really not disappointing. I am so inspired to try out all the recipes in the book. In this post, I have tried the hamburger buns.

I was so happy and amazed by the smell and softness of the bread when it just came out of the oven. I simply could not resist but to press the sides of the buns. Please bear with me. I hardly have success baking bread so far. Haha. After it was cooled, though not as soft as it was when it came out of the hot box, but the texture is comparable to the bakery one. As I was slicing them into half, I was smiling all the way. I had them with cheese the next morning, it was good without toasting. I had it the next next morning again with honey baked ham, still so good. I gave two to my mum and she gave me the same feedback too. She had them with ham, cheese and tomato. She said that the sesame seeds gave the bread the fragrance that cannot be found in the store bought ones. I was delighted.


Recipe (adapted from 65oC Tang Zhong Bread)

Ingredients:

(A)
bread flour 210g
cake flour 56g
milk powder 20g
castor sugar 42g
salt half tsp
instant yeast 6g

(B)
whole egg 30g
water 85g
Tang Zhong 84g

(C)
butter 22g

Sesame seeds for decorations

1. Mix (A) and (B) until it is smooth using a dough hook. Start with slow speed to prevent the flour from flying around then change to medium speed.

2. Add in (C) and knead till the dough pass the window pane stage, which means if you tear a piece of dough out, you are able to stretch it till it forms a thin membrane.

3. Make it into a round dough and put it into a floured bowl. Let it proof in an enclosed area for 40 minutes. (I placed it in a big box with a cup of steaming hot water and cover the box with the lid.)

4. When it has doubled in size, punch down the dough and divide into 9 round doughs (each ~60g) and let it rest for 10 minutes.

5. Roll them into nice round balls, brush the surface with the remaining egg or water and coat it with tonnes of sesame seeds. Space them out on greased baking tray.

6. Let it proof for another 40 minutes. 20 minutes before the end of proofing, preheat the oven to 180oC.

7. Bake for 15 minutes in middle rack. Let it cool first before slicing. Enjoy.