Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year Bakes

These are my first bakes for the Chinese New Year. Blossom Pineapple Tarts.

I made these again for CNY this year as it is such a breeze to make. Unlike the traditional open face tarts that you either need to crimp the tart pastries or slowly mould the pineapple to fit the hollow of the tarts, these Blossom Pineaapple Tarts are really quick to make.

Since last year, I have been receiving emails on and off from visitors to my blog asking if I needed a special mould to make them. Nope! I don't! I just cut the pastries with a petal cutter (I use the rose cutter from the Wilton sugarpaste cutter set) and then put a ball of pineapple jam onto the centre of the pastry and place it into the paper cases for baking. It couldn't be easier. Aren't they pretty. I have made a short video to show how easy it is to shape the tarts. Here is is:

Told you it was simple right?

The second cookie I made was a Cheesy Bak Kwa Buttons. Using the same shortcrust pastry recipe from the pineapple tarts, I added grated cheddar cheese, chopped bak kwa (barbequed meat) and some black and white pepper to the dough. These were shaped into tiny marble-sized balls and then flatten with the prongs of fork before baking.

What can I say? Ummmh...yummy yummy!

Bamboo Charcoal Challah Bread

Made a Challah Bread with Bamboo Charcoal powder on Saturday. The recipe is from Alejandra Ramos , a blogger from New York. She was using bamboo charcoal powder which she had crushed with a mortar and pestle at home. I communicated with her and offered to send her some Bamboo Charcoal powder as this was not readily available in the US. I am now waiting to see her beautiful Challah.

The six-braid Challah, when nicely braided is really stunning. However, my braiding skills are zilch and I really had a difficult time trying to braid the six rolls of dough together. If you look at the top left of the loaf, you would be able to see where I have wrongly overlap the dough instead of going underneath it.



Next to Alejandra's beautifully braided Challah, mine looked so deformed. However, do not be misled by looks alone as underneath that awful and digusting looking braided lump of a bread is a very tender loaf which is rich with the flavor of olive oil and slight hint of sweetness. The sesame on the crust gave it a nice nutty fragrance and crunch too.

The star ingredient, the Bamboo Charcoal Powder, only gave it the rich black on the crust and a purplish-grey on the insides. I had used only 2 teaspoons of the charcoal powder and you can see how black the crust is. You don't taste the Bamboo Charcoal at all but you know it is working its miracle as a detoxifying agent as that is what it is good for.

Basler Lackerli

My niece was once given a pack of cookies by a visiting business associate from Switzerland. She was relating to me how delicious these cookies were. The cookies are sugar glazed on top and they were dense, nutty, chewy with candied fruits, spicy and tasted gingerbread like. Oh yes, they are quite sweet in a nice way. It was a good thing that she had snapped a picture of the package on her camera phone. Though the picture was not very sharp, I could make out the words on the package to be Basler Lackerli. And so I started to Google for the recipe.

As usual, googling turned up tonnes of Basler Lackerli recipes. The common ingredients are almonds, chopped candied citrus peels, honey and an assortment of ground spices ~ cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, ginger, mixed spice. I chose a recipe from Pierre Herme that had white pepper and black pepper in it as I was intrigued as to how these two peppers will taste in a cookie.

The baked cookies were really good. The finely chopped candied peels and lemon zest gave it a citrusy fragrance which combined well with the spices. The peppers gave them just a slight warmth in the mouth. I added kirsh and lemon juice to the sugar glaze to give the cookie more tang and to cut down the sweetness.

The two cookie bags you see in the background are for my niece as only she could tell me if my cookie tastes like a Basler Lackerli.

Her comments: "Hmmm yum yum. It tastes the same but not the same if you know what I mean." Well what she meant was like Chicken Rice. Although each stall is selling the same chicken rice, the taste of the chicken rice will differ from stall to stall, though the 'main' taste of the dish will not be far from each other.

Oh well okay. I am still very please to be able to replicate the closeness although I have never tasted the original Basler Lackerli myself.

Christmas Bakes

My Christmas bakes started quite late this year.

Normally, for the fruitcake, I would soak the dried fruits in the first week of November and then bake it in the second. I will then let the fruitcake mature slowly and lovingly brush them with liquor every few days apart till decorating them near Christmas. This year however, I had about ten days in all to soak, bake and mature the cake

I made four 7cm round cakes in all. Two were covered and decorated with fondant. One was decorated simply with dried fruits. And the last.......it is still wrapped in clingwrap and brown paper to mature further.

Sleeping Santa ~ Well, Santa has lots of work to be done on Christmas Eve distributing Christmas pressies to all the kids and of course to you and me. So he really needed to sleep well to have enough energy to run around town.


Another Sleeping Santa ~ Sorry for the blurry photo. I have a fantastic Nikon D90. Unfortunatly, I have yet to master how to take good pictures with it. Sigh!


The Plain Jane


I also made some Gingerbread Men, Hearts and Stars for my colleagues and their kids. They were decorated simply with sprinkles and mini M&Ms.

Cookie Bouquet

This is the cookie bouquet which I made last week. The sugar cookies were decorated two ways. Some were first outlined in medium consistency royal icing and then flooded with thin royal icing. The others were decorated with sugarpaste which were 'glued' on using piping gel.

Christmas Themed Cookie Bouquet

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 they eyed each other with suspicion.

It was Edna Faith’s Full Month party and I made this Diaper Cake for 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 a 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.

My Beef Stew

This was last Sunday's lunch which I only found time to post now. I did not follow any recipe but made a shopping list of the ingredients I think I need. I ended up with 2 trays of beef chuck tender, 2 bags of carrots, 1 bag each of large onions and potatoes, 1 bottle of Virginia Dare Cooking Sherry, 2 boxes of chicken stock, a 3-pouch pack of Masterfood Bouquet Garni. On an impulse I added two cans of stewed whole tomatoes into the trolley. Not wanting to have any vegetables leftover from cooking, I proceeded to use up everything in sight. So in a way, I created my own recipe as follows:

My Beef Stew
Ingredients:
1.7kg beef chuck tender, diced into cubes
500gm large onions, chopped
1kg carrots, diced in big chunks
1kg potatoes, quartered
12 garlics, smash and remove skin
375ml cooking sherry
2 litres chicken (or beef) stock
2 x 411g canned stewed whole tomatoes (I added the juice from only one can of tomatoes)
2 tbsp maple syrup (also added on an impulse to balance the sourness of the tomatoes)
2 pouches bouquet garni
4 tsp black pepper
4 tsp worchestire sauce
Flour for dusting
Olive Oil

Method:
1) Dust the beef in flour and brown in batches in some olive oil. Set aside.
2) In a deep pot, sweat the large onions in some olive oil. Add garlic and continue sauteing until the onions is almost caramelised.
3) Add the browned beef, black pepper and worchestire sauce and stir for a while. Add in the cooking sherry. Let it simmer for a while to evaporate the alcohol.
4) Add the bouquet garni, carrots and 1 litre of chicken stock. Bring to the boil and then lower heat. Simmer for about 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
5) Add the potatoes and the balance 1 litre of stock and continue cooking till beef is tender.
6) Adjust seasoning. (At this point, I added the maple syrup!).
7) Serve hot with a crusty bread and a green salad.

Washed down with a glass of refreshing Mint Lemongrass Lemonade Chiller

Note:
1) You may wish to thicken the stew if you find it too watery. I made a roux by melting approximately 100gm of butter in a small saucepan over low fire. Add 1 heap tablespoon of flour and fry till the flour turns slighty brown. At this point remove the saucepan from the flame and pour in a 1/2 cup of water and stir till smooth. Bring saucepan back to the flame and stir till thick and shiny. Temper the roux with some gravy from the stew before adding it to the stew to thicken it.
2) I did not add any salt to the stew as the chicken stock is already salty as is the bottle of cooking sherry from Virginia Dare.

Cupcakes for my Daughter

Today is the last day of work for my daughter at a designer furniture company. She has worked there for slightly over a year and she decided it is time to make move to a position that has more relevancy to her Mass Communications Degree.

These cupcakes are for her to bring to the office as a farewell treat for her colleagues.

Vanilla Cupcakes using a recipe from the Magnolia Bakery and with a Creamcheese Frosting that I put together with some icing sugar, butter and vanilla extract.

Saying Ciao

Apricot Cheesecake Ripple

I bought a tray of lovely luscious golden apricots from the supermarket last night and made these yummy Apricot Cheesecake Ripple which was adapted from a recipe originally using plums.
The cake has a very nice caramel flavor coming from the dark muscovado sugar and a slight salty flavor from the creamcheese ripple. Once baked, the apricots were bursting with juice, was cottony soft and it felt like with each bite, tangy apricot conserve oozing into your mouth.
It would be a good idea after filling the tray to drop the tray a couple of times onto your table top to remove any trapped air bubbles. I did not do that as you can see from the picture below – two big holes in the cake.

Apricot Cheesecake Ripple
Ingredients:
250g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-3/4 tbsp sugar
5 eggs
220g butter, softened at room temperature
220g dark Muscovado sugar
250g plain flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
400g fresh Apricots, halved, stoned and diced
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.
2) Grease and line a 20x30cm lamington tray making sure the paper is extended about 5cm above the tray on all sides (this is to add removal of the cake after baking).
3) Cream the cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and 1-1/2 eggs together till smooth and free from lumps.
4) In another bowl, cream the butter and Muscovado sugar till creamy. Add the balance 3-1/2 eggs and continue creaming till light and fluffy.
5) Beat in the sifted flour and baking powder for approximately 2 minutes till well combined.
6) Spread half of the flour mixture onto the tray, dot with half the cream cheese mixture and scatter with half of the apricots.
7) Repeat with the balance flour mixture, cream cheese and top with the balance apricots.
8) Bake for 30-35 minutes in the centre of the oven till just firm to the touch. The cream cheese ripple will firm up further when cool, so do not overbake.

7-Up Bundt Cake

My brother bought this Kitchen Aid bundt pan for me quite a while back and, like the few other baking pans which he bought back from the US, they have yet to be used.

So yesterday, I googled for a Bundt recipe and I came across this 7-Up Bundt Cake which sounded very interesting and pardon the pun, refreshing too. All the reviews for this cake were good except some said it was sweet.

I made some adjustments to the sugar and also used a combination of plain flour and cake flour for this recipe. I also added lemon zest and some lemon juice abeit insufficient, to perk up the lemon-lime flavor of the 7-Up.

Even though the pan is non-stick, I gave it a good coat of baker's grease as I want to be sure the cake can be removed without any problem. Sticking is an inherent problem with Bundt cake pans due to the intricate designs.

The cake was very soft and with tender crumbs. However, despite reducing the sugar, it still tasted sweet to me. The taste of 7-Up is not very apparent in the baked cake although you can still taste it faintly.

I will bake this cake again some other time however the sugar must be reduced further and more lemon juice added.

I am glad I did not make the icing sugar glace to drizzle over the cake otherwise the cake would taste even sweeter. I cannot however, resist the temptation of sifting a wee bit of snow sugar over the cake though.

7-UP BUNDT CAKE
(13 cup capacity bundt pan)
Ingredients:
425g butter
690g sugar
6-1/4 eggs
350g plain flour
120g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp lemon essence (or 1 tsp each of lemon and vanilla essence)
225ml 7-up
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Zest from 1 lemon

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 165 degree C.
2) Grease Bundt pan very well making sure all the nooks and crannies are greased.
3) Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4) Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition.
5) Add the 7-Up to the lemon juice to make up 225ml, then add in the essence and zest.
6) Fold in the sifted flour alternating with the 7-Up to the creamed mixture.
7) Spoon mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 60-75 minutes.
8) Skewer test near the centre of the cake. Cake is ready when no crumbs stick to the skewer.

Baker's Grease:
Mix equare ratio of shortening, flour and vegetable oil into a smooth paste. Use this to grease the Bundt pan. Balance grease can be stored in an airtight container for future use.

Milk Squares

This is one of those recipes which I copied a long time ago and in my 'to-do list'. Finally had the chance to make it last night.


This bread is kneaded and allowed to proof in the fridge overnight. I made the dough close to midnight yesterday and stayed up till around 2.30am for the 1st proofing while I finish up some office work. This morning, after returning the dough to room temperature, it was then shaped and cut into squares and given a final proofing before baking.

The first tray was spoilt because the oven temperature and timing indicated in the recipe was faulty. It stated to bake for 20 minutes at 230 degree C. Looking at the 4cm x 4.7cm cubes of bread, I decided to bake it at half the time. However even before the 10 minutes was up, all the milk square were baked to a burn. As I do not have the source for this recipe, I am unable to ascertain from the orginal blog if it was my mistake to copy the wrong baking temperature or if it was a genuine mistake of the original writer and if she has had the chance to update this error on her blog. Anyway, I lowered the temperature to 180 degree C and baked the second tray for 8 minutes and they turned out perfect.

The bread is soft, fluffy and mildy sweet. Just remember that the dough has eggs, milk powder and condensed milk in it. So please put it in the fridge for the overnight proofing. With our (Singapore) kind of hot weather, the rich dough can turn bad easily.

MILK SQUARES
Ingredients:
210gm bread flour
90g plain flour
3g baking powder
9g instant yeast
27g fine sugar
3g salt
75g condensed milk
9g milk powder
Half a beaten egg (approx 30g)
111g water
21g softened butter

Method:
1) Mix beaten egg, water and condensed milk together
2) Combine all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl, add the liquid and knead for 9 minutes.
3) Add butter and continue kneading for a further 12 minutes or until not sticky.
4) Form into a ball. cover and let it proof for 1-2 hours or until double in size.
5) Knock out the air and shape into a ball. Place in an airtight container and leave in the fridge overnight.
6) Next morning, put the dough on a table, cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it return to room temperature (approx 30 - 40 minutes).
7) Knead lightly and shape/roll into a rectangle shape measuring 14cm x 28cm.
8) Cut into squares measuring 4cm x 4.7cm.
9) Place on a greased or parchment lined tray and proof for 20 minutes or till double in size.
10) Bake at 180 degree C for between 7 to 10 minutes till light brown.