Cupcakes

Joshua's 21st birthday cupcakes - 7 April 2009

JAPANESE COTTON SOFT CHEESECAKE

JAPANESE CHEESECAKE


TABLE DECORATION (ROSES AND IVY FROM THE GARDEN)


ROAST TURKEY ASIAN STYLE WITH GLUTINOUS RICE STUFFING

Well, it has been a while since I last posted anything on this blog! Christmas/CNY kept me REALLY busy .......before I knew it, it's almost Easter.

Mind you, I have not been lazy with my cooking and baking. We had a Christmas eve 'do' at our place (BBQ mainly) and I even roasted a turkey! (pix attached) Of course, there was Christmas cake but I forgot to take a picture.

After Christmas, we went to KL/S'pore for a 2 week break during which I bought a large chiffon cake tin. So now, I bake my pandan chiffon cake in the large tin, using 9 eggs (again, didn't take photos - how silly of me!)I even made kuih lapis as I had leftover coconut cream the week before(no pix, sori!) and cupcakes with butter cream icing last week - yummy! Recipe fm colleague - no photos :-( Also made a fudgie chocolate cake yesterday while waiting for my popiah dough to rest - see other post on my success with the skins.

Anyway, I did remember to take some pictures of the Japanese cheesecake that I baked sometime during CNY - didn't have any shots of the sliced cake as we were too busy cutting and eating! So, here you are ........

Oh, I almost forgot to post the recipe for the cheesecake :-0

400g cream cheese
200ml (1 cup) milk
100g butter
¼ tsp salt (I leave this out as it makes the cake a bit salty)
60g superfine flour (I use plain flour)
25g cornflour
6 egg yolks
1 tsp lemon paste or ½ tsp lemon essence (I use 1 tsp lemon juice and grated rind of ½ lemon to substitute)
6 egg whites
150g sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Method:
1. Melt cheese, milk, butter and salt in double boiler. Cool. (Sieve into a basin to remove lumps.)
2. To above, fold in sifted flours, egg yolks, lemon paste and mix well.
3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till foamy. Add sugar and whisk until fluffy but not stiff.
4. Add cheese mixture to egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into 10” round tin.
5. Bake over water bath for 1 to 1 ¼ hours @ 160C

EL’s Notes: (tried and tested)
1. Line bottom of tin with greased greaseproof paper.
2. If using springform pan, wrap outside of pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from bath seeping into tin. (The std size springform pan is a little small and the cake may overflow while cooking. Adjust quantity of ingredients to 300g cream cheese, 150ml milk, 75g butter, 4 eggs, 40g & 20g of the flours and 100g sugar)
3. Use only fresh eggs at room temperature, otherwise the egg whites will not rise successfully and the cake will be anything but light.
4. Not necessary to place hot water in the water bath. Works well with tap water.
5. Check the cake after 1 hour. It’s done if a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

WALNUT 'N DATE CAKE

Recipe for the walnut and date cake with lemon cream cheese icing will be published at a later date. Have yet to type the recipe!


TUESDAY 28th Oct 2008

OK ...I've got the recipe typed up so here it is.........

WALNUT & DATE CAKE
Ingredients
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• ¾ cup boiling water
• 200g butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
Icing
• ½ cup cream cheese
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 8 walnut halves

Method
1. Preheat the oven (not fan-forced) to 180°C. Grease a 23cm square cake pan and line.
2. Combine walnuts and dates in bowl with baking soda, golden syrup and boiling water. Stir well.
3. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time.
5. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Stir well.
6. Combine with warm walnut and date mixture.
7. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60min until top springs back when lightly pressed.
8. Icing: Beat cream cheese until soft. Sift in icing sugar, beat well. Add lemon juice. Spread on to cake, decorate with walnut halves.

* Recipe fm Tina Soh circa 1979

Carrot Cake

Made this carrot cake with marzipan carrots for York Peng's birthday.
Had fun making the carrots - like playing with plasticine!
Sorry, no photo showing the two layers of carrot cake sandwiched with
the cream cheese icing - too busy cutting and eating the cake!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (150g) plain flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ cups raw sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 1 cup sultanas (optional)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Icing:

• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven (not fan-forced) to 180°C. Grease a 23cm square cake pan and line the base.
2. Sift and mix dry ingredients.
3. Add oil and stir well.
4. Stir in beaten eggs then add carrot, sultanas and walnuts. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45min or until cooked. Remove from the oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Meanwhile, beat all ingredients for the icing, except the nuts. Ice cake when it has cooled. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of cake.

Chocolate heaven cake with chocolate truffles and chocolate glaze

Don't look too closely! You'll see the defects! Had a couple of 'mishaps' in the kitchen after decorating the cake. Won't tell you what but I managed to 'save' the cake.

The things a wife has to go through for her hubby's 50th birthday ........ I don't know......

Teochew Yam Paste Moon Cakes

Ingredients
Filling:
1 kg cooked yam, mashed – I microwaved the yam
300g castor sugar (reduced fm 500g)
180ml oil
25g melon seeds (kuaci), toasted
25g olive nuts (lum yan), toasted

For the flaky pastry:

Water Dough (A):
375g plain flour, sifted
50g castor sugar
150g corn oil

Combine:
165ml water
1 tsp lime juice – I used lemon juice

Oil Dough (B):
280g plain flour, sifted
150g shortening - I used butter
Method
To make the filling: Cook mashed yam with sugar and oil until mixture turns dry and leaves the sides of the wok. Add in melon seeds and olive nuts and mix well. Leave to cool.

Divide paste into equal portions. Roll each lump into a small ball to be used as filling.

To make the pastry:
For water dough(A): Mix flour, sugar, corn oil and water. Knead into a smooth dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Divide into 100g portions.

For oil dough (B): Combine flour and shortening into a dough. (add 1-2 tabsp water to combine) Leave aside to rest. Divide into small portions of 60g each.

Wrap oil dough within the water dough. Flatten and roll up swiss-roll style. Flatten length-wise and roll up swiss-roll style again. Cut into halves. Leave aside for 20 to 30 minutes.

Press the spiral centre lightly to make an indentation and flatten out the sides with a rolling pin (you should get a dome-shaped pastry).

Use this to wrap a portion of filling by pleating the edges together. Tuck in the edges neatly.

Place pleated side down on a greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 25 to 30 minutes or until pastry is cooked.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Beating the egg white



Mixing egg yolk /pandan mixture into flour



Egg whites folded into the egg yolk mixture



Batter in tin prior to baking



Baked chiffon cake, straight from the oven, before turning over the tin



Chiffon cake baked in kugelhopf tin

Sliced pandan cake (sorry pix didn't turn out well!)

PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE -this recipe has been adapted fm the original which uses 9 egg whites and 6 egg yolks as my chiffon tin is not big enough - the batter overflowed from the tin when I used 9 egg whites

6 large egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
125g castor sugar
4 egg yolks
80g vegetable oil
½ tsp pandan essence
¾ tsp vanilla essence (optional)
85g coconut cream
135g cake flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder (heaped)
½ tsp salt

1. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till stiff.
2. Gradually add sugar and whisk for another 5-7min
3. Combine yolks, oil, cream and essences in a bowl and beat lightly.
4. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
5. Make well in centre of flour and pour in egg/oil/coconut cream mixture.
6. Bring flour in from sides and beat till smooth.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the stiff egg white mixture and blend well. Then, add the rest of the egg white and blend.
8. Pour batter into ungreased chiffon cake tin
9. Bake at 160C for 50-60 min till cake springs back when pressed with finger.
10. Remove from oven, invert cake tin over lid and leave for ½ hour before transferring to a wire rack to cool.