Fresh fruit sour cream cake

This blueberry sour cream cake is somewhere between light sponge and typical local (UK) cakes (rather dense)so I would say medium light...lol. Ok, so it was one of the 'ladies who lunch's birthday and I volunteered to bake the cake. It's a simple to do cake with very few steps, i.e. dump all ingredients into the mixer and mix till it drops off the spoon easily and bake! Of course you still have to measure flour, sugar etc and wait for butter to softened which is forever in this climate other than that, how simple can it be? I decided on a fresh cream/mascarpone icing and fresh fruit theme. As I was only baking it the morning for lunch, I didn't want to mess around with smoothing icing so out came the chocolate fingers to go round the sides. I must learn to make chocolate cigarillos, it's on my to conquer list now.

Cross section, baked blueberries turn sweet and lovely!

 

 

 

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Salted caramel chocolate cake

It's other half's 40th birthday, so what cake? A friend was also baking a birthday and she decided on a gooey moist salted caramel chocolate cake. I decided to give it a go too as I've not made salted caramel before.

Oh! It is evil this thing called salted caramel! I'm not the kind who likes to lick spoons when cooking or baking but this salted caramel calls to me and just can't help myself! Consider this a warning for those brave enough to try! And yes, I made some chocolate shards for the first time too but the excitement of the salted caramel overshadows it.

Pure indulgence!

I went for a moist sponge instead of gooey as per my friend

 

 

Chocolate shards and icing

 

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Christmas fruit cake part 2

Finally the rest of the fruit cake has been iced. Not much different from the smaller 2 but a bit tidier I believe. So this is it for the fruit cake for this year. Maybe I will attempt round ones next year. It's late and words escape me so I close the fruit cake story with some before photos.

Chopped pecans

 

The mixed batter

 

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Christmas fruit cake part 1

Baking requires patience as the saying goes, how about five weeks of patience? Five weeks is how long I've waited to cut into this Christmas fruit cake full of dried fruits and pecan nuts, diligently laced with rum week after week. Yes, I said rum and not brandy. I'm not a fan of this rich cake but with the rum it's not too bad! So after five weeks, I finally get to the fun part, this is the make it or break it step of the process. Decorating is not my strong point so armed with pictures from the net, icing sugar and marzipan we begin. The end result was a design not like any I googled, it's was improvised as the first ribbon I used for my 'I think I can do this design' which was all fancy and sparkly left gold dust on the cake...inedible gold dust, oh dear! So the cake got stripped off, icing and all and we start again.

In the end I think it was passable, OCD kicking in now and I hope my two friends will be happy recipients of these two loaves. The other big half of the cake will be iced come weekend, that's for the in laws, measuring tape and level spirit will be required for that one so stay tuned for the second part of the Christmas fruit cake.

The two loaves

 

Of course I sneaked a slice, it's been 5 weeks!

 

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Pandan chiffon cupcakes

This afternoon there was a desperate request for 'green cake' or better known to the rest of the world as pandan chiffon cake. The conversation went something like this

'I really really want the green cake'

'no, it takes a long time to make, how about tomorrow'

'But I want it now, I'll help you make it' goes off into the kitchen and started to clear a space on the table

'You put the ingredients here' so as commanded I proceeded to 'put the ingredients on the table'

Now cakes that are prone to collapsing and little helpers are not a good combo but I have seen this cake made in cupcake form. So I decided to half the recipe and make chiffon cupcakes. As it turns out, the cupcakes did not colaspe and my little helper, true to her words did a lot of the work. There was a bit of a volcanic action going on 7 minutes into the bake but once the temperature was adjusted it calmed down giving the end result a bit of a rustic look. Little helper happily ate two cupcakes as soon as it was done and left me to do all the washing up.

Unlike the full sized cake, no need to invert and cool

 

 

Still as fully and soft

 

 

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Chocolate fudge cake

Chocolate fudge cake Is on the menu this time round, needless to say it's for another potluck, you all know the drill by now. I made this cake before a long time ago for my girl's 1st birthday, that time it was covered ready rolled icing. This time I decided to cover it with luscious ganache and then on a whim because I bought too many bars of chocolate, chocolate covered cherries! This cake is the kind that needs to sit and think about being delicious before it actually becomes delicious for a day or two which is great as it means I don't have to have panic attacks about running out of time before the dinner gong sounds!

There's not a lot I am proud of but this is one of them!

Let is shine!

Dark choc and cherries...match made in heaven!

 

 

 

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Japanese cheese cake

This is my attempt at the acclaimed japanese cotton soft cheesecake. Actually, it's my second attempt, the first one, just 24 hours earlier was not what one would call a success. After the usual searching for the recipe to try and watching countless uTube videos, I settled for one and went for it. After turning up the motivation crank to full , I discovered I only had 3 eggs instead of 6 but I was still determined so I halved everything and before you know I was watching tv waiting for the ding of the timer. As the forces that be will have it, baking is not as easy sailing as that. The cake (this is the first one btw) rose and rose while I was focused on the tv and the top cracked open, bringing to mind mount vesuvious. After which once removed from the oven proceeded to deflate and resembled something like a flat tyre. Nevertheless it still went into the fridge for the required time before being consumed as per the recipe...oh, only it actually didn't as someone (not me) forgot to put it in the fridge after promising to do so. Which meant that cake nbr1 was really not meant to be. So on to cake nbr2, deciding to give the recipe another go, I started again, this time watching the cake like a hawk. End result, not too bad, there's still a bit of a collapsed but passable. Though it tastes good, would I try again? Maybe but not in the near future.

 

 

 

Sarcher torte

I first saw this on the Great British Bakeoff, the shiny ganache like topping on a moist chocolate base looks really lush. So when it's other half's birthday, what better time to give it a test. Though I was up at the crack of dawn on the birthday day to make the cake, the first thing I read on the recipe was that this is a cake that is best eaten a day after it was baked...bummer! I don't happen to have a time machine with me so there's not really much I can do but to go with it. We left it till really late at night to cut the cake, poor little one was past her bedtime and only the excitement of getting cake and blowing candles kept her awake. The cake tasted just ok and I had to reign in my disappointment and hold judgement till the next day. As it turns out, the cake was lovely, moist and chocolatey the next day, so thanks Mary Berry for a lovely recipe.

 

 

Fastest way to ruin a cake is with shaky icing writing!

 

Pandan chiffon cake

It's pot luck time again! What to bring for sharing....not wanting to have a manic morning cooking and too lazy to get in to town to the chinese supermarket for Asian ingredients, I decided to go for a store cupboard staple that I can make the night before. There's always pandan in the freezer, tinned coconut milk in the larder, no waiting for butter to get to room temperature what better choice could there be? So pandan cake it is, I've made this numerous times and my mantra while making this is ...be patient when whisking the eggs whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites AND you will be rewarded!

So two hours later, cake is baked and ready! I can watch tv while waiting for it cool, sleep in tomorrow morning and turn up at the pot luck not looking harassed! I call that a WIN!

Cake cooling

 

 

Before de-tinning, less cracking on the top than usual, I must have been a patient whisker this time round

 

Raspberry tart

I made this a few weeks back with raspberries freshly picked from the garden. It's simple quick and yummy, just use a ready made pastry shell, whip some custard with mascarpone cheese, top with raspberries and garnish with mint (from the garden too) and enjoy! Simple!

 

Chocolate butterflies

When I was invited to a friend's for lunch this weekend and it slipped out that it was her birthday, I decided to make a cheesecake for her. Since she was not wanting to celebrate her birthday (she claims 'I'm old already lah'), it seemed like a suitable choice as its not too birthday-ish but yet it's still a cake. To make it special, I decided to look into tempering chocolate and making decorations with it. I found a quick and simple method of tempering chocolate using the microwave. The trick is not to be impatient and melt the chocolate in small bursts, once done, to make the decorations it's more of a balance of having to move the hand quickly in order to keep a consistent flow of chocolate to draw with and keeping the movements controlled so we don't end up with blobs of chocolate which is what we started out with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drying out on non stick parchment

 

 

Rainbow birthday cake

 

My little girl's 3rd birthday was coming up and I was looking for something special to top last year's Mickey Mouse clubhouse cake. Just so happened at that time rainbow cakes seemed to be all the rage. As I was browsing at sample rainbow cakes, my little one came up and asked if it was for her birthday, at that time without thinking I just said yes. Since then every time I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, the answer was a rainbow cake and thus I was committed.

First, I tried a recipe from a magazine where I first saw the rainbow cake though reviews said the recipe was not great. After trying it I had to agree with the reviews, it was not a good recipe at all, though the baked layers turned out level and would hold stable stacked up in 6-7 layers, the texture and taste was bad (only was to describe it) and I know it's not due to my baking skills as that was exactly what the reviews said.

So I reverted to a trusty sponge recipe that I know and used that instead with fingers crossed that stacking 6 layers would not be too much. Another thing that I tried new was to freeze the baked layers, I read that it would not impair the quality of the cake and its true. On the day it was cut, the layers tasted as they were freshly baked and this freezing method saved me a lot of time as I had to bake 6 separate layers and now I could do this ahead of time and spread the baking over two days (yes, I was being El Cheapo and only used a single tin to bake all 6 layers).

Then it was decision on fresh cream or buttercream icing, I opted for buttercream as the cake will be rather big and buttercream will last longer than fresh cream. Then after more browsing for decorating ideas and how to do buttercream icing, I took the plunge.

As is reported by those who have made a rainbow cake, to see the surprise and delight on people's faces when the first cut is made to reveal the layers is very satisfying indeed and makes the effort of baking the layers worth it....I totally agree!

Rainbow made out of smarties

 

 

The first cut

Almost gone!

Good look at the layers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese Swiss roll

So finally my battle with the swiss roll comes to an acceptable end. First a little history lesson, well, not that old but months ago, I had a craving for Swiss roll and attempted to make one...swiss roll no.1 failed. So ok, as a home baker, it's no big deal, we try again.... hence started the swiss roll week, from which swiss rolls no.2, 3,4,5,6 ...was produced, you get the drift. It became a challenge to me make the swiss roll that tasted like it did in my head, yes, some would by then term it as an obsession! So I tried numerous recipes, trying a swiss roll (or two) each day after work! All failed, some was not even edible....so after a week of wasted eggs, I waved the white flag. One type of swiss roll though intrigued me i.e. the Japanese variation where the texture is so soft and light, I believe there's a shop in Ipoh that specialises in them. Anyway, yesterday I brushed off my swiss roll pan and tried once again to make the Japanese roll swiss, after of course watching numerous uTube videos of other people making it look like a breeze to bake. Previously I had managed to produced ones that have the right taste but they collapsed at various stages, when removed from the oven, after rolling and after chilling on the fridge. But this time round, armed with new knowledge of whisking egg whites and folding flour, I think I may have cracked the secret of soft Japanese swiss rolls, it's not perfect (yet) but at least I feel that it no longer eludes me!

 

Banana Loaf

I found myself with a bunch of really ripe bananas this weekend... What to do to minimise waste? Banana loaf comes to mind, specifically the ones sold in the market or pasar malam by the Malay vendors. I love the fragrant banana loaf they sell, to call it a loaf I think does not do it any justice, it's a really long loaf, enough to feed a family of 12 or more I would say, I would not be exaggerating! Anyway, a quick rummage in the larder to hunt for the banana essence I was sure I had and with a little help from a pair of little hands to measure the ingredients, the loaf was baked and smelling lovely! The owner of the pair of little hands thought it was good and ate an entire adult size piece...so it must really be good!

 

Stollen buns

Stollen is a traditional German breadlike cake and this recipe is yet another version in which the loaf is made to look like buns hence the name Stollen buns. My version is filled with mixed fruit, white chocolate chunks (in place of marzipan, which I don't like) then iced with lemon flavoured icing and chopped pistachio nuts. This time too, I kneaded the dough by hand rather than using my electric mixer, just cause I couldn't face washing the beast! The bread turned out nice and fluffy but I think it could have used a few minutes in the oven and less sweetness!

Cross section of the bread

 

 

Blueberry Friand

Finally, I managed to test out the recipe for blueberry friands. It's from one of baking books and every time I flip through the pages to find something to bake, the image catches my eye and think to myself 'that looks so yummy' but somehow I never tried to bake it till now. It's a very rich and indulgent piece of cake and not for everyday eating! The taste was sublime but I think I need to work on the egg whites as the cake was not as airy as I expected....till much to learn with regards to beat egg whites till the right stage! But still a delicious bake.

 

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Chocolate Fudge Cake

It's Sarah's 2nd birthday and now that she is old enough to have favourites when it comes to eating, the menu will have to be filled with her favourite things.

First up, the all important birthday cake and its no contest that it will have to be a chocolate cake. That was the easy part, the hardest part was deciding what shape and theme it would be. Since she practically eats and breathes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it did cross my mind to make a Mickey cake but in the end I decided to bite the bullet and go for the whole thing. So after a few weeks of looking a MMCh cakes, my head was spining and I practically saw Mickey and co everywhere I looked but I digress so back to baking and cooking. After having spent a fortune on ready rolled icing, I was raring to go, unfortunately the little lady did not go to bed till 11pm, which meant I could not start till then. So it was in the middle of the night till the early hours that I was crafting away in the kitchen and guess what, there is a certain peace to the stillness of the hour which made it very pleasant to work.

My biggest challenge to date

The sliced cake ..yummy!

Closeup on the front door detail

My shaky attempt at writing

 

The uncovered cake

The bits n pieces prior to assembly