The Classic Poundcake

Saturday morning and I was goggling aimlessly for cake recipes - any cakes it does not matter as I have nothing specific in mind ~ sponge, butter, angel, brownie, chocolate, mud, ……. Pages and pages were uploaded and finally I settled on something quintessential, the classic Orange Pound Cake.
As the name implies, a true pound cake uses butter, flour and sugar in equal ratio of a pound each which by the way, is how the cake derives its name (as though this is some marvelous new news to you). This just has fresh orange juice added to it for the citrusy flavor and to lend it a rich golden color.
I made half the recipe, followed all measurements but just held back 30gms of sugar and the cake turned out perfect - moist, buttery, fine crumbed and not sweet. Perhaps the sourness of the orange juice has given it a good balance.
I baked them in a six-hole mini bundt pan and once baked and cooled, they were drizzled with a simple frosting made with fresh orange juice and icing-sugar. The result? Perfect paired with a cup of hot Earl Grey tea.


Alas it was only while uploading the photo to Photobucket that I realized I had forgotten to take a cross-section of the cut cake to show you how fine the cake was.

A Wedding Cake for a Birthday Celebration!!

What in the world is a Wedding Cake doing in a Birthday party you may ask.

I made a Croquenbroche, which is a traditional French Wedding Cake for my extended family's mass birthday celebration which falls in October. Croquenbroche which literally means "crunch in the mouth" is a tower of profiteroles stacked into a conical shape and drizzled all over with toffee. When you put one of these profiteroles into your mouth, you will bite into the crispy and crunchy toffee, which gave the cake its unique name.

Well October is the month in which there are so many of us in our family celebrating our birthdays and it has become an annual tradition whereby we will have a mass birthday party. My Croquenbroche is an updated version which I shamelessly copied from a very popular bakery in Singapore. I first laid eyes on this beautiful creation when I attended my boss's housewarming party in late September. As his wife had just celebrated her birthday a day earlier, the hardly touched birthday cake was also brought out for all of us to enjoy. That was where I got the idea to make this cake for my mass birthday party. Whilst hers was a 20cm/8inch cake with 40 profiteroles stacked on top, mine has to be much bigger for there were so many of us.

For the base, I made a 10inch square chocolate cherry cake covered with a layer of yummy and sinful rum-laced dark chocolate ganache. It was then topped with close to 80 pieces of plum-sized custard-filled profiteroles.

About half of these profiteroles were frosted in melted dark and pastel-colored white chocolate. They were then decorated with handmade sugar flowers, chopped almonds and silver & gold Nonpareils. The completed Croquenbroche was given a finishing touch with three handmade sugar Gerbera Daisies and fresh Physalis.

My, the whole cake weighs a tonne and am I glad I had the foresight to drive eight dowels into the cake to support the entire creation. I dread to think what would have happened had this not been done and I am pretty sure the cake base would be squashed from all the weight pressing down on it.

Until the next mass birthday party, my sincerest best wishes to my brothers Clarence and Charles, sister Yvonne, sister-in-law Betty and Susan, nephew Alvin, niece Joey, niece-in-law Riana and her toddler daughter Krisalyn, nephew's girlfriend Michelle, my daughter Sylvia and to ME. Yes me! I am an October baby too!

More Moonies

More Moonies. Chocolate Moonies this time. The first time I made this was two years back with the fillings made out of lotus paste and chocolate. This time around I used Dou Yong, which is green bean paste. There is no real taste difference between lotus paste and bean paste though. For the skin, I had used Dark Muscovado Sugar instead of the normal brown sugar and it gave a richer molass taste. For decoration, I added a strip of pure gold foil to the skin.

Chocolate Snowskin

Moonies

It has been ages since I updated this blog. As usual, I have been submerged under piles of work and meetings that took me away from my desk most of the time which resulted in even more work piling up.

Last Saturday, I finally found some time in the evening to make my first batch of mooncakes. I made a Nutty Bacon Mooncake which is the traditional baked type and a Mint Snowskin with white lotus paste, which is the chilled type.

The Nutty Bacon Mooncake is a quite similar to the Five Nuts Mooncakes except that it uses streaky bacon fried to a crisp instead of using the sweeter bakwa. The bacon lend the mooncakes a savoury smokey flavor and crunch. It is also not as oily as the commercial type as some bakery also add diced cooked pork fats to the fillings.

Nutty Bacon Mooncake





The chilled Snowskin is really refreshing with the added mint essence. As you swallow each bite, you could feel the cool mintiness gliding down your throat.

Mint Snowskin Dome


Mini Mint Snowskin


This is the Basic Snowskin Recipe I used:
150g Kou Fen (cooked glutinous flour)
180g to 200g icing sugar
40g shortening
220g chilled boiled water
Food color and essence as desired
Prepared lotus paste, bean paste or other fillings.

Method:
1) Sift kou fen and icing sugar together.
2) Rub in the shortening till evenly distributed.
3) Add the water and knead into a smooth dough.
4) Put into a plastic bag and let it rest for about 20 minutes before using.
Note: If using essence and color, mix it directly into the water before adding to the kou fen.

Wrapping:
1) For the mini snowskin above, I scaled the skin into 20g and fillings into 30g.
2) For the dome shaped snowskin, I scaled the skin into 150g and fillings into 70g.
3) Roll the scaled skin into a ball. Put it into a plastic bag and press with your palm to flatten.
4) Wrap fillings with the skin and press into moulds.
5) Chill in an airtight container before serving.

Excuse Me, Are You A Cake?

Cupcakes: “Errh excuse me, are you a cake?”
3-Tier Cake:“Well yes, of course I AM a cake. Isn’t that obvious? I look every inch a cake don’t I?

Single Tier Cake: “If you are a cake, why don’t you smell like us? You do smell funny. You know that don’t you?”
3-Tier Cake:“I don’t smell like you only because I have a big bottle of baby powder tucked right in my middle! And quit being so rude to me, I am much taller and stronger than you guys and you know WHAT that means don't you?”

Edna Faith: "Hey you cakes, quiet down. This is my party and don't steal my thunder or I will have you all eaten up. And Diaper Cake, I am not done with you till I finished MY BUSINESS on your smug face."

Ha Ha! I can imagine this conversation going on at the table amongst the Cupcakes, Single-tier Cake and Diaper Cake, as eyed each other with suspicion.

It was Edna Faith’s Full Month party and I made this Diaper Cake for the J, the baby girl’s mummy. Knowing that L and G will be bringing some lovely edible cakes to sweet Edna's party, I opted for a conventional baby gift presented in an unconventional way. A Baby Diaper Cake.

The baby diapers are rolled up individually and arranged in rings and then finally stacked into three tiers to look like a cake. The cake was decorated with other ‘ingredients’ like roses made with baby socks, pacifiers, toys and a pretty headband.

Diapers all rolled up and fastened with ribbons and rubberbands.


Roses made with baby socks.

Diaper rolls adorn with butterfly


The whole confection is topped with a You’re Sooo Sweet cake topper.

S-M-L Cupcakes

If you are expecting to see cupcakes in Small, Medium and Large sizes, then you have been mislead by my post title.

S-M-L here refers to the Strawberry, Mint and Lemon frostings atop the cupcakes.


I first came across the recipe for crusting buttercream about three years ago and about how you can achieve a real smooth frosted surface on a cake by using Viva paper towels. Being one with really shaky hands that can make cake decorating with any types of cream turn out looking like earthquakes, I never bothered to test out the crusting buttercream. Not until now.

Two Saturdays ago, I strolled into the basement of the Paragon Shopping Centre and spotted a popular deli there. Inside their refrigerated showcase, were some brightly frosted cupcakes that seems to be beckoning to me. The Lemon Cupcakes looked so darn pretty delicious that I had to buy one to satisfy my desires to bite into them.

It was love at first bite when I realized the frosting was a Crusting Buttercream. And so this is how it tasted! The exterior of the frosting has dried into something slightly softer then that of royal icing and it does not stick to your fingers when touched. Beyong the crusted surface, the insides are still soft. It was a much neater eating as you do not get cream sticking all over your lips. The cake though, was really nothing to shout about. DH and DS who had a bite each commented that my cupcakes tasted better. I should be pleased with the compliments but my focus then, was diverted to the frosting and not on the cake. I imagined how it would taste with different flavors added.

The following week, I had the chance to test out a batch of the Crusting Buttercream on some cupcakes for a family weekend gathering.

I flavored the frosting with strawberry syrup, mint essence and lemon paste. The results were good especially the mint and the strawberry. They crusted nicely and although it is made mostly with shortening (oh I can hear some gasps in the background), it tasted neither oily nor waxy. After the frosting has crusted, it was a breeze to handle the cupcakes. You know how fiddly it is to handle cupcakes that have been iced in regular frosting or creamcheese frosting. There is this tendency that the cream will get smudged!

Strawberry - Using Alteco #853 Deep Cut Closed Star Tip

Mint - Using Wilton #48 Basketweave Tip

Lemon - Using Alteco #195 Special Decorating Tip for Drop Flowers

The feedbacks were good compared to regular icing although some still preferred the usual creamcheese frostings that I usually make.

All packed and ready to go in my Cupcake Courier.



Postscript (1 August 2009)
At the request of several requesters, I have added information of the icing tip used for the different designs.

Berry Nice Strawberry Bars

I have so far only tasted Lemon Bars which I loved for its citrusy flavor. So when I came across a recipe for Strawberry Bars I told myself that I have to try it out for myself.

If you can imagine eating a buttery shortbread that is spread with strawberry jam then you are almost there. The Strawberry Bar is one notch better as the 'jam' part is part custardy and sticky at same time. Lemon juice and zest gave it the tangy kick while the distinctive strawberry makes this a 'berry nice' bars.