A late post

Went through my pics today and realised that my mum's birthday cake - a green tea sponge with green tea cream cheese frosting - had not yet been posted. As the green tea sponge was a bit dense, i am not bothering with the recipe post. Have to master my sponges. *Grrr*

My Best Sponge Yet

I can't believe the best sponge I made is when I am not expecting it. I've been searching for a recipe with creme caramel on top of a sponge base since when I first discovered internet a decade ago and after first eating it. It was only recently that I found a recipe on Roz's blog. I've made this three times since last week and all have been perfect. Pity my "sponge cakes" don't turn out like the ones for this custard-cake.

With a few changes, I've made mine in a 22.7cm x 96cm round pan. Don't be fooled by the detailed recipe as it is really easy to make, and you do not need to cook the custard first and the two layers is sure to impress guests. And in addition, the sponge layer comes out evenly on top of the custard once cooked.

Sugar Base:

100gm sugar

1 tbsp water

1. Melt the sugar and water in a saucepan without stirring the sugar. If required, swirl the melted sugar in the saucepan to allow the syrup to brown evenly.
2. Quickly pour the sugar into the base of the baking pan until it covers the base fully and if time permits, let the sugar syrup coat about an inch of the side of the pan.
3. Set the pan aside and the toffee to cool in pan while preparing the creme caramel and sponge base.

Creme Caramel Custard:
750ml milk
110gm sugar
6 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla essence or 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place the milk and sugar into the saucepan used to make the toffee for the sugar base and heat the milk mixture on the stove just until the sugar melts.
2. In a separate bowl, using a balloon whisk, whisk the eggs and vanilla essence until well-beaten but not until there are lots of froth on the top of the egg mixture. (If there are lots of froth, just run it through the seive.
3. Mix the milk into the egg mixture and set aside until the sponge base is prepared.

Sponge base:
3 eggs (separated into yolks and whites)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
90gm castor sugar
110gm self raising flour (sifted)
2 tbsp milk
30gm butter (melted and cooled)

1. Beat the egg yolks with about half the amount of sugar required for the sponge base.
2. Add in milk and beat until combined.
3. Fold in half the self raising flour into the egg yolk mixture until combined, repeat with the remaining flour. The batter will be really thick at this stage.
   
4. In a separate greasefree bowl, using a high speed setting, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form, before slowly adding in the rest of the castor sugar and continue beating the egg whites until firm peaks form. Continue beating the egg whites with a slow setting for another minute or two so that the air bubbles trapped in the egg whites are more stable.


5. Gently but quickly fold 1/4 of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk batter. Repeat until all the egg whites are folded into the egg yolk mixture thoroughly. At this stage, the batter should be light and fluffy.
6. Drizzle the melted butter over the batter and quickly fold through until just combined.

To assemble:

1. Pour the Custard into the toffee-prepared baking pan.
2. Pour the sponge cake mixture on top of the custard.
3. Place in a bain marie (waterbath) in the oven for 50mins at 180 degrees Celsius.
4. Let the cake cool before placing it into the fridge until chilled.
5. The toffee will have melted and there will be syrup at the bottom of the pan. I usually pour out the syrup and reserve it for drizzling over the cake when serving but you can let it soak into the cake base if desired.
6. Turn the cake onto a large plate.
7. When serving, drizzle the reserved toffee syrup if desired.

Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. But I managed to save it

Everything that could go wrong went wrong on Friday. I had an exam which I thought I did alright but on hindsight, reflecting on what went wrong with all my attempts on Friday, maybe I just didn't get the 80% needed to pass the exam (will find out tomorrow). I thought class was going to finish on time, if not earlier so I can rush home to make the cake for P's birthday, but class wasn't finished until 1 1/2 hrs later. A series of events happened but it's too tedious to type out the sequence of events but let's just say that there was blackout at around midnight so hence more delays and ended up with me with a penlight torch between my teeth while washing the chocolate coated dishes. And this was JUST THE CAKE BASE. Lucky for me, I had the chocolate paste made in advance so the roses came through easily on Sunday morning (the day of the party). Recipe is per the chocolate cupcakes in my previous post but in the 160 degrees Celcius oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Chocolate paste

Ingredients:
400gm milk chocolate
50ml glucose syrup
25ml water

Method:

1. Melt chocolate in a non stick saucepan / milk saucepan. to 40 degrees Celcius.
2. Stir melted chocolate until all the chocolate is melted.
3. Slightly warm the glucose syrup.
4. Pour the glucose syrup into the chocolate and stir rapidly until all is combined. When the glucose syrup is added, the whole mixture will start to come together pretty fast.
5. Knead until it is just combined and put it into the fridge for a few hours.
6. Once harden, take out of fridge and put it through a pasta machine for smoother and faster results. Otherwise you can always take the hard way and use the rolling pin (I used the latter when my pasta machine broke down due to inadequate maintainance and oiling of my equipment - so I'm on a lookout to purchase new kitchenaid pasta rollers)
7. When needed to make the roses, knead a small portion of the paste and make a few cone shapes for the base of the roses.
8. From the paste, take out another small portion and knead until pliable. Roll out a sausage strip of chocolate paste to 1.5cm thick in diameter. Cut into 1 cm rounds.
9. Place rounds of paste between two plastic sheets and with the pads of your thumb, flatten the paste for the petals.
10. Layer the cone with the petals.
11. Allow it to set for a few hours before assembling the spray of flowers. Use ganash to stick and position the flowers onto the cake if necessary.

Can't believe I'm saying this but I am getting sick of chocolate

I went shopping one day and saw that a box of 8 Bulla Crunch ice creams were one for $6 or 3 boxes for $10. My mind said "Gosh, they are cheap" but my body said "They won't be good for you". As you can guess, my mind took over. But because my partner needed the freezer for his diet ingredients, I had to start clearing space so over two weeks, I had 3 boxes.

And as fate had it, I was wanting to make ganache as I haven't done that before so really, I just wanted to play with the icing, rather than make the cake. But ganache is really only good for one thing - Chocolate mud cake. So I had to make that too and had to scrounge around looking for a recipe for ganache and mud cake.

I didn't even taste the cake and ganache until two days later, after quite a number of people commented on the moistness of the cake, and remembering that I haven't taken a photo of the cross section of the cupcake that I brought one home from the class whom I had baked it for. So after the photos, I tasted it and true enough, it was the best thing I've baked ever. But now, I am all chocolate-out but this has become my most beloved recipe so I had promised a friend to bake it for another friend's birthday coming up in Feb.

Chocolate Mud Cake with Ganache

Ingredients:
(makes 24 cupcakes)
190gm milk chocolate
60gm dark chocolate
250gm butter
190ml water
155gm self raising flour
170gm plain flour
30gm cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbinate soda
450gm sugar
4 eggs
40ml oil
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
125ml buttermilk

Method:

1. Place chocolate and butter in a saucepan and allow chocolate to melt slightly before adding in the water.
2. Allow chocolate to fully melt and until the mixture is a smooth consistency.
3. Allow chocolate to cool to room temperature.
4. Sift the self-raising flour, plain flour, cocoa powder, and bicarbinate soda into a large bowl.
5. Add the sugar in with the flour.
6. In another bowl, combine the eggs, oil , essence and buttermilk and whisk until the eggs are thoroughly incorporated into the fluid mixture.
7. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture into the centre of the well and fold the mixture through.
8. Pour the chocolate into the combined mixture in three batches, fully mixing the mixture after each addition. (The batter should be pretty runny)
9. Line a 12 cupcake muffin tray with cupcake liners and fill it two-thirds full of batter.
10. Place into a preheated 160 degrees Celcius oven for 30 mins or until skewer comes out clean.
11. Repeat steps 9-10.
12. Take out of oven and allow to cool to room temperature, before placing it into the fridge for an hour prior to coating it with ganache.

The recipe is actually for a cake which is required to be placed in the oven for 1 1/2hours.

Ganache:
300gm milk chocolate
60gm butter
62ml thickend cream

1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and place it over low-medium heat until the chocolate has just melted.
2. Remove from the stove and stir until the chocolate mixture is glossy and smooth.
3. Pour over the muffins if desired, or wait for the ganache to cool down slightly so that it is a spreadable consistency.

Note: By pouring the ganache over the muffins, the sides of the muffin liners can get pretty sticky and messy so I had dipped the muffins into the ganache and held it down for a few seconds. However, some still dripped onto the sides of the muffin liners. Best way is to probably wait if you have the time and spread it with a palette knife but that may not be as smooth if you had poured it on.

Muffins are just plain, ugly cupcakes.

I read somewhere that muffins are just plain, ugly cupcakes.

I have had frozen blueberries sitting in my freezer for almost 3/4 year now so decided that I'll never get to use them on anything else other than muffins/cheesecakes. Plus since it's been sitting in my freezer for so long, and I have never used these berries in my bakes, I thought that the blueberries must all be used in one hit so it doesn't go back into my freezer. So having remembered the quote "Muffins are just ugly cupcakes, I thought I'd make a cream cheese topping so I don't end up with ugly cupcakes", and remaining blueberries.

Blueberry muffins with blueberry cream cheese topping

Ingredients:

(makes 24 muffins)

3 eggs (small, or 2 large eggs)

2 tsp vanilla essence

125ml oil

420ml buttermilk

600gm self raising flour

335gm sugar

400gm blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Method:

1. Combine vanilla essence, oil, buttermilk and eggs in a bowl and whisk until eggs are incorporated into the fluid mixture.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl.
3. Mix the sugar and blueberries into the flour.
4. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in one third of the liquid mixture.
5. Fold until it is half incorporated before adding another one-third of the liquid mixture.
6. Repeat step 5 with the remaining liquid until mixture is well mixed. DO NOT overmix the mixture as this increases the gluten from the flour and makes the muffins tough after baking. Just fold until just combined.
7. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners and fill it two-thirds full with the batter.
8. Place in a preheated 190 degrees Celcius oven.
9. Bake for 25 mins or until skewer comes out clean.
10. Repeat steps 7-9.
11. Allow the cupcakes/muffins to cool to room temperature, before placing it into the fridge for 1 hour.

Icing:
250gm philadelphia cream cheese
200gm whipping cream
80gm blueberries (fresh or frozen)
icing sugar

Method:

1. Whip softened cream cheese until fluffy.
2. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
3. Puree the blueberries and add into the softened cream cheese.
4. Gradually add the whipped cream and sift enough icing sugar to taste (sorry, I didn't measure)
5. Pour on top of cupcake. To make my decoration, after each layer, place into fridge for 10 mins before adding another dollop of cream on top. Repeat 4-5 times.

Note: I made the topping too runny and cannot therefore place into piping bags to pipe onto the muffins and resorted to step 5 above. To reduce the runny-ness, reduce the whipped cream.

Curry Puffs

Ingredients:
Filling:
2 tbsp oil
4 large potatoes (diced into 1cm cubes)
4 large onions (diced)
500gm chicken mince
125ml coconut milk
3 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp tumeric powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp plain flour (may not be required)
2 cups oil for frying

Water dough(A)
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
150 ml cold water (mix and knead together)

Oil Dough(B)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
6 oz butter
(mix and knead together)

Method:

1. Boil diced potatoes until tender, but not mushy. Drain and set aside.
2. Saute diced onions in a skillet with the oil until soft and fragrant.
3. Add chicken mince to the onions and stir fry until chicken mince is cooked, then add in potatoes.
4. Add coconut milk into the chicken mixture.
5. Sprinkle the curry powder, tumeric powder, and sugar into the skillet.
6. Depending on the moisture content of the mixture, if it is too watery, sprinkle a bit of plain flour to absorb the water. Otherwise, this can be omitted.
7. Set aside filling to cool to room temperature.

1. Mix Dough A and Dough B separately and store in the fridge for about 1 hour.
2. Divide Dough A into 28 portions, and Dough B into 25 portions.
3. Take one portion each of Dough A and Dough B and roll it into a ball.
4. Slightly flatten Dough A with the palm of your hands and wrap up Dough B.
5. Roll the combined dough into a long rectangle, ensuring that Dough B does not leak out of Dough A.
6. Starting from one end of the rectangle where the width is narrowest, roll it to the other end like a swiss roll.
7. Turn the rolled up dough 90 degrees clockwise and roll out into a long rectangle again. If you find that the oil dough is going to leak out, place it back into the fridge.
8. Repeat steps 13 and 14 another 2 more times, before rolling it into a ball and returning it to the fridge while completing the rest of Dough A and Dough B.
9. Place ball of combined dough onto work surface and roll out onto the tabletop, place filling in the middle and crimp the sides of the curry puff. Place it aside (in the fridge if you willl be deep frying it soon, or in the freezer if you plan to store it for a later date).
10. Deep fry curry puffs in batches of three - five until golden brown. Drain off excess oil and serve hot or warm.
    
    

    
    

Note: If the made-up curry puffs are stored in the freezer, defrost it for about 8hrs (overnight) in the fridge before frying. The frozen curry puffs can stay in the freezer for about 2-3 months.

What's Christmas Without Trifle

Trifle - Sweet and refreshing on a hot, Darwin Christmas. This recipe is ideal for those who want to say that they made it but the truth is, they only assembled it all together.

Trifle
1 jam roll
2 packets portwine/raspberry jelly (follow manufacturer's direction and allow to set)
1 litre custard (I made mine with 2/3 cup of custard powder and 1 litre of milk, boiled until it thickens and let to cool)
500gm fruit salad in syrup (drained, and reserve the syrup)
600ml cream

Method:

1. Cut jam roll into 1cm slices.
2. Line half the jam rolls into glass bowl,
3. Drizzle 1/3 of the fruit salad syrup over the jam roll slices.
4. Cut jelly into cubes and fill the glass bowl with half the amount of jelly made.
5. Pour the custard over the jelly.
6. Top with half the drained fruit salad.
7. Place the remaining jam rolls on top of the fruit salad layer.
8. Repeat steps 4 - 6.
9. Whip cream until cream almost triple in volume (but before it turns into butter)
10. Using the spatula, layer the cream on top of the trifle.

Note: No cream layer in my pic as it was nearly overflowing, and my partner has to take it into work so I didn't want cream all over the car.