Vanilla Blueberry Chiffon Cake & Scones

Wee wee had been quite picky on his food recently and becoz i was quite busy I just instruct my maid to cook noodles, cereal etc for his breakfast. So on wednesday after work I decided to made some scones a day ahead so that he can have it for his breakfast the next day.

At the same while waiting for the scones ( as it need to be fridged for 1/2 hour so that the butter dun melt), I decided to try to made the vanilla chiffon cake which I had failed to made the other day. So was busy for almost 2 hours in the kitchen as making both the scones and the cake at the same time.

The scones turn out quite nice and fluffy. This time the vanilla chiffon was a success, it turn out quite soft. I didn't know what actually went wrong the other day.. was it the ingredient, was it me or my skill.. Something to think about ha ha.

I left the cake overnight not knowing what to put for filling and how to decorate. And being lazy to go to the bakery to get new ingredient I just went to my fridge and see what I got. Well luckily, I still got some blueberry, non-dairy whip cream and dairy whip cream. Frankly speaking I dun really know the difference between the two type of whip cream expect that one is dairy and the other is non-dairy. Maybe I should do a research in which is better and more stable for cake decoration.

Since I still got some blueberry filling, so decide to put it to use. Coz it was not enough to made the blueberry torte so I just use it as it is. Didn't have any idea on how to decorate the cake, so just simply put some chocolate rice I have in the fridge on the side. And since still got some much of cream left I decide to try on my skill or piping the cream.. It was tough to do it right but very interesting as well. Tough in the sense that firstly, i have no piping background and secondly the dairy whip cream was very soft - seem like it's melting maybe due to the hot air in the kitchen. SO just trying my luck to made the best out of it.

But surprisingly the icing pattern was there he he.. just need more practice. It was a good try but i really think I must improve my piping skill by either going to classes to get some hand on or learn from books as well as get more decorating ideas he he.. I think this time it's not so attractive. Really admire the cake designed by a lot of home bakers wonder where their insiprations come from.

Chocolate Banana Cake

Two weeks had passed and were very stressed at work so had not made any cake. Had been planning to made this cake since my last visit to KK. What inspired me to made it ?? Well I had tasted the nice Chocolate Banana Cake at Secret Recipe - It's very Chocolatic, rich yet not sweet.

So decided to give it a try to made my own Chocolate Banana Cake. It was quite challenging coz firstly I couldn't find chocolate whip cream in Brunei - Luckily Brenda shared with me that we do make our own chocolate whip cream by just adding cocoa powder to the normal whip cream. Secondly, was having difficult in making the side of the cake smooth with the whip cream. Because of not being able to made it smooth so when the chocolate ganache dry it dun look smooth on the side. Lastly, I didn't wait for the whip cream to set for enough time before I pour the chocolate ganache. The result was that the whip cream also slide off abit from the side. There was also the issue of taking the cake out from the tray after the chocolate dry. I just wonder how it was done.

The cake turn out very good - not sweet, yet rich and chocolatic and well the banana match in so nicely. Definitely a good try and Yeah I did it !!

Coffee Chiffon Cake

Woke up late today as am very tired as didn't get much sleep due to my two boys waiting up one after the other.. Had a quick breakfast and set out for work.. today was a very hectic and hot day for me.

Had a little urge to do something today after work but didn't have idea till i thought about trying a Coffee Chiffon Cake for tomorrow breakfast. SO far I had only try the norm of chiffon cake - orange, pandan.. so decided to give it a try.

I had seen this recipe in a few blog and decided to go for the recipe recommended and tried by e's joie. Thanks for the sharing of the recipe as I was not able to get hold of Kevin Chai's chiffon cake recipe book.. so sad..

The Cake turn out very soft and fluffy but as I had only used nescafe I guess the smell of coffee was not as fragant. I have actually triple the recipe shared as I was using a big chiffon mould of 23cm- coz got a big family.. ha ha.. so below i posted the original recipe by kevin chai and the version from my end. So depending on the size of your chiffon pan you can adjust the serving accordingly.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

Fit 7″ mouldAdapted from Kevin Chai – Chiffon Cake is done

Ingredients :

Egg Yolk Batter

1 tbsp instant coffee powder

30ml milk (original recipe call for 20ml milk)

2 egg yolks

20g caster sugar

20ml cooking oil

40g cake flour (original recipe call for self-raising flour)

1/4 tsp baking powder

Egg White Foam

3 egg whites (original recipe call for 2 egg whites)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

40g caster sugar (original recipe call for 50g, I find his recipe a little too sweet)

Method

1. Stir instant coffee powder with milk until melted. Combine with egg yolks, sugar and oil together.

2. Fold in flour and set aside.

3. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture is foamy. Add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff peak.

4. Gently fold beaten egg white into egg yolk batter until blended.

5. Pour into ungreased 7″ mould and bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 mins or until cooked.

6. Invert cake to cool before removing.

The Ingredients I used for my 23cm chiffon mould...

Ingredients :

Egg Yolk Batter

2 1/2 tbsp instant coffee powder

60ml milk

6 egg yolks

60g caster sugar

60ml cooking oil

120g cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

Egg White Foam

6 egg whites

3/4 tsp cream of tartar

120g caster sugar

Enjoy ya! :)

Happy Birthday Cake for My father-in-law

Last week we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday on 30th sept 2009 (It's his Lunar's Birthday) and since he liked to eat yam so I put a challenge to myself to make a yam layered cake for his birthday.

I had previously bought the cake recipe book by AMy Beh and saw this nice Yam layered cake recipe. There was a few steps involved - most importantly need to go buy a nice yam which was a challenge for me as I have never bought any yam before and so am not sure which type to go for, what is nice and will give a better taste to the cake. So the first i did was ask my father in law what type of yam is nice and went out to shop for the yam. And I found out yam really is expensive ha ha almost B$4 per kg.

And on top of that I also thought about how to decorate the cake as am good in decorating with icing as got no experience on it. So I just followed the cake decoration from the book with fresh fruits as the main decoration which is also good in presentation and I had putted almond flakes on the side instead of white chocolate as they dun really like cakes that is sweet.

I had tried the chiffon cake recipe given in the book but it turn out dry and hard. Am not sure what had went wrong - is it my technique ? which I am yet to discover. So I had to use Kevin Chai's sponge cake recipe as I'm sure that it will turn out better- due to shortage of time.

The result - well the cake decoration was nice, Sponge cake - i think was not so spongy - have to improve again and lastly yam fudge - i think it's a bit too dry - unless the yam fudge i try outside which is a smooth, creamy one - am not sure is it I put too much of the agar-agar powder.

But one good thing is my in laws like it as it's not sweet.. at least got motivation for me to try again.. ha ha..

Egg Tart again

Got an invitation for tea @ 3.30pm this afternoon and hubby suggested to have me to work on my egg puff - firstly to improve my skill and to have his friend to try out my egg puff ( call it egg puff since I use puff pastry for the base).

For the first try the one problem I faced is the temperature and timing for the egg puff to be soft inside and crispy. So had put two egg puff to try and the texture was quite different. But now I know how to control the temperature but still learning on how to made it nice and fluffy as the egg filling drop once I take it out from the oven for cooling. I guess maybe I had put it in the oven for too long.. But good try I should say..

Cornflakes Cookies

Today I woke up very early.. at around 5.10am coz Jay Ee wan to play ha ha.. then went back to sleep and woke up almost around 11.30am. After having my brunch and since we are not going out till 3pm so decide to try out the cornflakes cookies recipe which I got from Bake 4 Fun.

The cornflakes cookies is really very simple to made. But I think I had put too much of the cornflakes coz i bought the one with more than the 325g packing as with hari raya around the corner the cornflakes are also coming in bigger packing and i didn't crush it enough into smaller pieces. So it was a bit hard to form the dough into small balls.

The cookies was a bit burned coz i put it for 30 min. I think next time round will lower the temperature to 150 degree C and maybe put it for 25 min only. I think coz of the different type of oven used so it's always better to check you oven and test the cookies accordingly.

Overall, the cookies turn out to be quite nice - suit my taste - crunchy and not sweet. Thanks to Bake 4 Fun, I have found the right cornflakes cookies recipe. will definitely bake it for the coming CNY.


Ingredients:
300g Self-raising flour
1 Egg
240g Butter
180g Fine Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Essence
1 big box of cornflakes (325g)
Cherry for decoration (optional)
Methods:
Mix butter, sugar, egg till sugar melts.
Add vanilla essence
Add flour slowly (bit by bit)
Add in crushed cornflakes.
Make it round and place a bit of cherry in the middle.
Bake in 160deg C for 30-40 minutes or till golden brown.

Polo Bun

Had been thinking of trying the made Polo Bun one day after having seem the recipe at the Famous Cuisine Magazine. It seem quite simple and Brunei dun have nice Polo Bun. So since am not working yesterday so decide to made it as will need some time for the dough to double in size.

However, when i mix the dough it was not as smooth looking as what had been shown in the book so start to feel a bit uneasy as hubby was putting a lot of expectation on the Polo Bun. After adding in the butter, it look more unlike the picture shown as it was very oily. Since it was quite difficult to mix with the philip hand held mixer I decided that maybe I better put my hand to work and start to mix the dough with my hand.

After it double in size have to divide it into small dough and wait for another 10 min. Then the next challenge came on how to put the butter filling on top. Maybe it was my first time to made bread, I was also finding it hard to made the small dough into nice round ball. But after a while it was ok. But hubby say since we are trying it out no need to bake all first so I just baked 9 pieces of the dough.

As was busy with my two sons, so when i put in the 1st batch of the dough I forgot to put glaze it with egg. And when it was done, it didn't look like the Polo Bun as there was no crack on the top and it look quite hard. Was already disappointed with the look already. But when hubby try it he say it was nice.. then only i also try it and find that eventhough it look hard but was soft inside and the topping was nice.

So start to put the 2nd batch to bake, but since I just left the dough to double in size and did not put the topping, it was harder to put the topping. So i put quite a thick layer of the topping and this time i remember to glaze it with an egg.. And wa..la.. it look and taste nicer.. coz the first batch i didn't put enough of the topping therefore there was not much of the topping to crack and with no egg glaze it didn't shine nicely.

It was a really good learning for me. ha ha.. So next time will put a thicker layer of the topping and remember to glaze it with an egg.