Belated Christmas Post

What is a christmas feast without a christmas pudding?
But what do to when your christmas season is actually 40 degree celcius, and the family is not a big fan to the rich traditional christmas pudding in this weather?! Well, a Panettone pudding is the answer. Panettone is a buttery fruit bread, that is widely available during the christmas month, the italian eat it like a fruit toast, but it can also be made into very delicious dessert like the panettone pudding. I like to invest in a good quality one from my local deli, with extra fruits and liqeur.

Christmas Panettone Pudding

Ingrediant:

• 700g panettone
• 30g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
• 50g Apricot Jam ( or more )
• 50ml Rum
• 50ml Cointreau
• 600ml Milk
• 600ml Thincken Cream
• 4 eggs
• 125g sugar
• 100g almond flacks
• 150g red currents
• icing sugar

Method:

1. Remove the top and bottom bits of the Panettone, thickly slice the panettone, so it's about 1cm thick. You can cut the bread into any shape you like, i cut mine into triangular in shape.
2. Preheave the oven to 170 degree celcius, lightly grease a 1.5 litre oven proof dish.
3. Lightly spread jam and butter on each slice of panettone, lay slices, slightly overlapping, to fill the dish.
4. In a big jug, whisk the milk, cream, eggs, sugar and liquer together until combine. Pour the custard mixture over the panettone, until it is completly covered.
5. Let the pudding soak for at least 15 mins before put it in the oven.
6. Scatter almond flakes on top of the pudding, and bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 mins, or until set.
7. Cool the pudding in the dish slighly, and decorated it with red current. Dusting if off with icing sugar, serve warm with store bought brandy custard.

It can also be serve cold, if the mercury is rising!!

My Fav Cake

Carrot cake have always been my favourite cake, but i have not lay my hand to bake any because i was so afraid that i would fail. But as sydney weather suddenly change from 45 degree to 16 degree in just 1 day, i decided to start my 2009 baking with my fav cake. To my relieve, this cake is so yummy that i polish it off about half myself!! and the frosting is the best frosting ever!! The best part is that it is virtually like baking a muffin, ( no beating, no creaming, just add wet ingrediant into dry ingrediant ). I strongly suggest that you try to bake this if you're a carrot cake lover like me!

Maple Carrot Cake

Ingrediants for the cake:
-200g ( about 2 ) carrots, finely grated
-1 cup SR flour
-1/2 cup P Flour
-1 tsp bicarb soda
-1 tsp ground cinnamon ( more if you like cinnamon)
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1/2 cup maple syrup
-3 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingrediants for the frosting:
-250g cream cheese ( I like to use the lightest version, taste wise, it really doesn't make much diffrence, but your waist line will thank you for that! )
-2 big tbsp of Maply Syrup
-4 big tbsp of icing sugar
-100g pecan nuts for decoration

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree celcius. Grease and line a 20cm round cake pan.
   Sift SR flour, P flour, bicarb soda, brown sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, or a big jug, combine the vegetable oil, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla. whisk together until combine.
3. Gently pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stir until just combine. Fold in the finely grated carrots.
4. Pour cake mixture into the cake pan, smooth surface with the back of spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
5. Cool the cake in pan, and remove cake from pan while cool. Leave the cake to cool completely.
6. To make the frosting, just combine the soften creamcheese, maple syrup and icing sugar together, and chilled it in the fridge for about 10 mins.
7. To assemble, cut the cake in half horizontally, spread the frosting on top of the cut-side, and sandwitch the 2 cake together. Frost the top side of the cake with the remaining frosting and decorated it with peacan nuts. ( or your desired nuts )

The cake is very moist and soft, and it taste even better the next day!!!!

Breaky in 10 mins

Muffin is the most easy thing to bake. It's always volatile, and it can be either savoury or sweet.
This is my first savoury muffin, and it only took me 10 mins to prepare and ready in 20 mins time. Perfect for a breakfast on the bed, breakfast on the go, or whatever you like. This is actually a tomato and basil muffin, the classic italian muffin, but i don't have any basil, instead i have a bunch of chives sitting in my fridge, so the tomato and chives muffins are born!!
I'm sure if i have some cheese i would throw them in the muffins too. ( these are really volatile recipe!!)




Tomato and Chives muffins

Ingrediants:

• 1 bunch of chives, finely chopped.
• 320g plain flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 4 lightly beated eggs
• 125ml olive oil
• 320g tin condensed tomato soup ( campbell would work beutifully )
• 3 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes ( i use fresh tomatoes )

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degree celcius. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, and line it with muffin cases.
2. in a bowl, mix the chinvces, flour, baking powder and salt with a spoon.
3. in a large jug, combine the eggs, olive oil, and soup with a whisk, until well combine.
   
4. Mix the flour mixture into the soup mixture until just combine. ( do not over mix )
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, top them with slices of fresh tomatoes.
   
6. Bake in the pre heated oven for 20 mins.
7. When cook, remove the muffin from oven and let it cool for 5 mins, best serve warm.
   

Twisted Cheese

I love cheesecakes but they can be a bit troublesome to bake, with the biscuit base and leave it to cool overnight etc etc...
so, when i came across this chocolate cheese cake with a twist, which do not invovled the biscuit base and the cooling overnight etc ect, i decided to give it a go!
It's actually a very simply cake, substituting butter with cream cheese. Resulting a in a very moist chocolate cake. I frost it with chocolate frosting and decorate it with choppen pecans.

Chocolate CheeseCakes
Ingrediants:

• 125g cream cheese
• 60g butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup choppen peacans
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/3 cup SR flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicar soda

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius
2. Grease a 20cm (8 inch) spring foam cake tin and lined with baking paper
3. Beat cheese, butter, sugar and egg with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Stir in nut and milk
5. Sift all the dry ingrediant together for 2 times and add into the cake batter.
6. Spread the mixture into pan.
7. Bake for about 50 mins, or until cooked.
8. Cool in pan for 15 mins and then cool on wire rack for at least 1 hour, or until completely cooled before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

• 1/2 cup cream
• 100g dark chocolate
• 60g butter
• 1 cup icing sugar

1. Combine the cream, chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt it over a saucepan of boiling water, gently stir with a woodern spoon until they are melted and combine.
2. Cool the chocolate sauce slightly, and then beat in the icing sugar until smooth.
3. Spread on cooled cake, decorate it with anything you like..

The cake before frosting and after frosting



I make this cake for the youth group, and i didn't get to try it, but feed back were that it's very good and some thought it was store bought. So, i think it should be nice **

Marble Effect

I'm in the mood of baking something chocolaty with the block of dark chocolate that i bought from IKEA, so, the marble cake from Dnnoa Hay Chocolate COoking book caught my attention, and i decided to give it a try.
This cake indeed have a very pretty marble effect, and it's very very delicious and moist!!

Marble Cake

Ingrediant:

• 250g Butter, soften.
• 11/4 cups caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups SR flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
• 3 tbsp extra caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree celcius. Grease a 22cm bundt tin with melted butter.
2. Place butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl, and beat until light and creamy.
3. Add tge eggs, one at a time, and beat well.
4. Fold through flour and milk.
5. Divide the mixture in 2, stir cocoa, extra sugar and milk through one of the portion.
6. drop alternate spoonfuls of plain and chocolate cake mixture into the tin, and swirls with a skwer.
7. Bake for 45-50mins, until the cake is cooked.
8. Cool on a wire rack, and when cooled, frost the cake with chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Glaze:

• 150g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup cream

Method:

1. Place chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat, and stir untul melted and smooth.
2. Allow the mixture to stand for 10 mins to thicken slightly.
3. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake.
   

Little is MORE

Recently, i have the honour of baking a batch of 100 cupcakes for a friend's wedding refreshment.
I'm very excited as i love baking cupcakes, or more precisely, i love decorating these little cakes.
First thing, is to decided what flavour the cupcake base will be, so, between the basic vanilla and chocolate, i decided to do something more special, since it's a spring wedding, i decided to do a summer flavour base cupcake, and frost them with tangy cream cheese frosting.
I actually make about 150 more mini cupcake, and decorated them in 4 diffrent style.


these cupcakes is so easy to bake, anyone should try it, as you only need to dirty 1 bowl, and you do not need to beat the sugar and butter, everything can be done using a hand whisk!!

Orange Cupcakes


Ingrediant:

• 2 cups SR flour, sifted.
• 3/4 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup milk
• 125 g butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp orange blossom water ( or orange essence )
• 2 tbsp of orange zest
  
• handful of white chocolate chips ( optional )

Method:

1. Preheated oven at 200 degree celcious. Line two 24 holes mini muffin pan with colourful paper cases.
2. combine melted butter, orange juice, milk , eggs, orange water and zest in a jug. Whisk to combine.
3. In a bowl, combine flour and sugar, and make a well in centre.
   
4. Pour the butter, milk mixture into the flour sugar mixture, stir with a ballon whisk until all just combine. Stir in zest and white chocolate chips.
5. Put one teaspoon of the batter into the prepared paper cases. Be careful to only fill it half way, other wise the cake will over flow!!
6. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 12 mins.
7. Cool on wire rack.
   
8. Frost and decorated them once cooled.

( the above recipe will produce about 48 cupcakes )

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 125 g butter, soften
• 250g cream cheese, soften
• 4 cups pure icing sugar
• 2 tbsp orange blossom water
• food colours

Method:

1. Beat everything except the colours together until it tripple in volume.
2. divide the frosting into saperate bowl, and dye them with your choice of food colour.
3. put in the fridge for 10 mins before frost them on cooled cupcakes.

( the above frosting is more than enough to frost 150 mini cupcakes )

"The" Cake

Lot's of people tell me that it's not easy to bake a chiffon cake, in fact, it's "the"cake, that if you master, you could basically pass as a cake baker. I didn't took those saying seriously of course, what could be so difficult? Chiffon cake is just ordinary and cheap cake that you can easily buy from Aisan shop!! SO, i decided to give this cake a try, and search high and low in the internet for a good recipe, and finally, after reading extensively on how to succeed in chiffon cake baking, i'm ready to bake.
However, it's very diffrent when you experiance it first hand in baking this cake than you do the reading. My first chiffon rise beutifully in the oven, but when i took it out, it sank horribly!!
My second chiffon cake turn out nicely, and i faild to get it out!! SO, i blame the cake tin because i dun really have a chiffon cake tin. I'm desperate to find a chiffon tin and try again. SO, i bought it in e-bay, for about $15 dollar. at the mean time, i read again more information about chiffon cake baking, and i find out that the hardest part is actually the beating of the egg whites part. If you beat for too short, the cake will be desse, but if you beat for too long, it'll be tough and chewy, you have to beat it just right! ( ie: Stiff peak, but when you invert it on the hook, it'll still make a curve shaped). Another tip is also when you fold in the batter with the egg white, must be carefull to use a folding technique, so that the air in the egg white will not escape, resulting in a tough cake. If you can manage these 2, then you'll have soft, cottony chiffon cake, that rise beutifully.
2 weeks later, my chiffon cake tin arrive, and i can't wait till the next day to bake it, and this time, i really put more efford into beating my egg whites and folding the yolk to the white mixture. also, i put in extra patience for the cake to cool down before i loosen them out from the tin. Hence, my first chiffon cake was born at 12 am midnight!! yes, it was soft, cottony and rise so tall and proudly!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingrediant:

• 100g cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tbsp pandan paste
• 100ml coconut milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 50ml corn oil ( i use conola oil)
• 5 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 100g castor sugar
• pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 170 degree celcious.
2. Combine egg yolks, 50g sugar, oil, pandan paste, salt, and coconut milk together. Whisk them up using a electric mixer until all incoporated.
3. Sift cake flour and baking powder for at least 3 times, and then fold them into the yolk mixture.
4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until foamy, gradually add 50g of sugar, continue beating until stiff. To check if egg white is ready, take the hook of the mixture out and invert it, if the egg whites attach to the book form a curve loope, but not falling down, it's ready.
5. Add 1/3 of the white into the yolk, to loosed the yolk. then, gradually fold the rest of the egg white into the yolk mixture. Fold until just combine.
   
6. Pour the batter into the ungrease chiffon cake tin ( 18cm ), and bake for 1 hour.
   
7. invert the cake immediately and leave it to cool for at least 2 hour in winter, and more in warmer weather. ( in hot weather, it is best leave it overnight to cool down completly)
8. Run a knife around the edge of the cake tin to loosed it, the cake should fall away easily.
   

I'm very happy with the result of my chiffon cake.


Soft Cottony texture


It's also very fragrance because of the pandan! Yamm!!



The cake rise high and tall.