My Kitchen Produce » Dessert

Perfect Party Cake

linda — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:46:46 +0000

I am so sorry for ignoring you my beloved food blog. I promise to try my best to talk to you

I really am sorry. It has been more than 4 months since I last updated the post. I have been busy with kids and catering and cakes order and we are building our home. I am exhausted by the time the kids go to sleep, therefore I had no chance to do my things.

Anyway, enough with my excuses, here what I promised 4 months ago, a recipe for the Perfect Party Cake by Dorie Greenspan. This cake was trully delish and if you are a fan of all lemony things like me, you will love this cake.Enjoy this recipe and meanwhile I will update you with lots of pictures of what I have been doing for the 4 months on the next post.

Ingredients for The Cake

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan: Baking from My Homes to Yours p.250-252

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking flour
1/2 tsp salt (I omit this)
1 1/4 whole milk or buttermilk (I used buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup)
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 stick or 114 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp pure lemon extract
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves, stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable (I added few drops of water and stirred until smooth), for finishing
about 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, for finishing (I omit this)

Ingredients for The Buttercream

1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks or 340 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions for The Cake

Preheat the oven to 176 C.
Butter two 9 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter to the sugar mixture and beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract.
Then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2 minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between two pans and smooth tops with rubber spatula.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cakes is well risen and springy to the touch.
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes before get them out.

Instructions for The Buttercream

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream.
Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

Instructions for Assembling

Put the sugar and e

Assemble: Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one third of the preserves. Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream. Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover). Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Storing: The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

linda — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:44:57 +0000

It was 30th of September 2010, our fourth wedding anniversary. I haven’t prepared anything to celebrate. I always prepared something special, but I just haven’t got the time. Since my baby was just 2 months old, I was overwhelmed with my new routines.

My husband came home after work around 7 PM and brought a cake. He said that his office usually ordered this Chocolate Mousse cake if someone has a birthday. He said it was pretty good. Well, either this cake really tastes good or they had no choice but to buy this particular cake from the nearest available bakery, since their office is kinda in the middle of nowhere :p

I was really looking forward to taste this “favorite birthday cake for office people”, they were good. The chocolate mousse cake was basically just a chocolate mouse in a cake shape. What I mean is there was no layer of chocolate cake stacked up together with chocolate mousse. The cake was topped with cocoa dusting and 2 tubular shape of meringue.

However, I found a 3 cm thin metal rod in the middle of the meringue. Shocking and very dangerous. I couldn’t imagine if Nathan was the one who ate that meringue. I managed to keep that rod thinking that my husband probably want to show the bakery that on his next visit. Well, as far as I know, he haven’t go there and I lost the metal rod thingy.

Well, getting inspired by this Chocolate Mousse, I myself try to search for the recipe high and low. After searching through lots of recipe, I decided to make “Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake with Hazelnut Crunch Crust” without the milk chocolate (I was using dark chocolate), without the hazelnut crunch crust, and without some other ingredients. I know, I completely turned and improvised this recipe accordingly to suit my ingredients available. While typing this, I couldn’t believe why in the world would I chose that recipe since I wasn’t really following everything it said.

Since, I wasn’t really using the correct ingredients, i.e. gianduja bars (I used Nestle dark chocolate buttons), and this was where the nightmare begun. The instruction says to mix 3 tbsp of water with the melted chocolate. Since mine wasn’t Gianduja bars, it turned like an overcooked melted chocolate. If I have to make it again, I will stick with my usual Chocolate mousse recipe. I am happy to combine my Chocolate mousse with the cake recipe though. Here is the link to the recipe.

I also decided to make lots of meringue sticks as decoration. I used the recipe I posted earlier. However, I don’t think this meringue recipe is suitable for this cake though, because they all became spongy and quite soft overnight.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Cake Pops

linda — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:39:00 +0000

This was my fun cooking project with Nathan, the birthday boy. We had lots of chocolate cake left over from the pirate ship cake cut outs as well as some creme cheese frosting left over from Strawberried Treasure Cupcake. They had been sitting around for few days and I just had to make something out of them, or they would be going to the rubbish bin for sure.

I had been looking for the recipe on how to make cake pops. There is a measurement on how much the cake and the frosting should be. AH stuff them, I would used my own instinct instead.

So this is how it works.

Crumble the cake.
Mix them with cream cheese frosting until they are easily to be work with. It is messy to use hand but the mixture will be well combined. I used spoon at first and had a go with hand last.
In order to have the same cake pops size, weigh them individually.
Store them in the fridge, so they retain their shape better.
Dip them in melted chocolate and sprinkle with hundreds and thousands.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Nathan’s Birthday – Part 1

linda — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:15:39 +0000

On Saturday the 28th August 2010, we were going to find presents for my little boy. He was going to be three on the 29th of August. We have been thinking what kind of present should we give to him since he already had lots and lots of toys (courtesy of his daddy who likes to buy more and more toys almost every weekend without Nathan even asking for one… hmm how lucky you are boy). I said to my husband to skip all the toys sections and go to the educational and art n craft sections. Our apartment seems to shrink day by day because of all the overcrowded “junk”. We ended up buying a colouring book and a paint set. Not bad, since he is really into this art n craft stuff especially with the encouragement of his favourite TV shows “Mr. Maker”.

I didn’t plan to make anything for him on Sunday as I thought he would have his Robot birthday cake (as he requested) at his preschool on the coming Tuesday. Late in the afternoon, his daddy asked me whether I am going to prepare something for him or not. I thought better to make something simple yet interesting for Nathan. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, that is easy, simple and quick. The decoration is no fuss, just need to find an easy, quick yet tasty recipes to make. Before I begin my recipes hunting, I asked my husband what flavour he would like to have on the cakes (He is not a cake and dessert eater, but he loves chocolate). I did my research at night and decided to make Martha Steward’s Double Chocolate Cake and Shelly Kaldunski’s Chocolate Cupcakes.

When Martha Steward’s Double Chocolate Cake is done, I started the carving while waiting for the cupcakes being baked in the oven. I started to pass on the unused cake to Nathan, so he could have a nibble. Suddenly we had this conversation:

Husband: OMG I can’t stop (speaking while watching the series of old cartoon “Duck Tales”)

Me: I never understand how people can’t stop watching this kind of cartoon. I couldn’t seem to find the addictive part of this series.

Husband: I am not talking about the Duck Tales. I couldn’t stop eating this chocolate cake

Me: (surprised and can’t believed what I heard) Really??? Why??????

Husband: I just love the taste… What the difference from the usual cake

Me: There is no egg and butter in it. It uses oil instead.

Husband: Owww probably that is why BUTTER. I don’t like the greasy feeling on my throat after eating them.

Me: Isn’t oil greasy as well????

Husband: (finished the whole cake left over from the carving)

Ingredients for Double Chocolate Cakes

Recipe adapted from Martha Steward, for details click here

Vegetable-oil cooking spray (I used butter and baking paper instead)
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (I used Cadbury cocoa powder)
1 1/2 or 192 gr cups all-purpose flour
1 cup or 128 gr granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sunflower oil (I used canola oil)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost

Instructions for Double Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 190 C. I used 8.5 inch round tin.
Whisk water and cocoa in a small bowl until smooth.
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in center.
Add cocoa mixture, oil, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
Whisk in vinegar.
Pour into pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
Run a satay stick around edge of cake and invert it onto rack. Let cool completely.
Cut the cake in half and carve it into desire half round shape. (It is so much easier working with half of the cake instead of carving the whole cake) When the half cake is done then you could place it on top of the other half and use it as a guide. Combine both of the half to form the head of the caterpillar. You could trim the edges to perfect your round shape.

Ingredients for Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Iheartcuppycakes: Chizzler Cupcakes, for details click here

2/3 cup or 85 gr plain flour
2-1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Cadbury Cocoa Powder)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (I better omit this next time, the saltiness is too obvious)
3 oz or 85 gr bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Nestle dark cooking chocolate buttons)
1/2 cup + 3 tbsp or 142 gr unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions for Chocolate Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 175 C. Prepare pan with cupcake liners.
In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over simmering water in a saucepan. Stir frequently until melted, about 5 minutes. Remove bowl from saucepan and let cool to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.
Stir in the sugar until combined.
Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
Then add vanilla extract.
Gradually add flour mixture and fold into chocolate mixture. Try not to over mix.
Fill the cupcake liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before frost.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Pandan Cake Vla Pandan with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

linda — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:58:25 +0000

If you read my previous blog, you know that I made this cake on the occasion of my newborn being one month old. I have been longing to try this recipe for sometimes now.

Here are some notes and tips that you may consider before you try to make this cake:

The original recipe doesn’t state the temperature, so I tried 170. Next time I preheat my oven around 190-200 C. (will keep you posted on this)
Both of the cake layers weren’t rise as they suppose to be. One of the reason was because the oven wasn’t hot enough. The first layer that was bake sunk slightly after cooling down.
When the first layer was cooked and removed from the tin, I quickly poured the remaining batter into the baking tin. What I found was breaking my heart. I found a thick residue of melted butter on the bottom of the mixing bowl. I just knew that the second layer wouldn’t be spongy at all. My conclusion, it is winter now and the recipe requests a melted butter. The melted butter just couldn’t wait to be butter again because of the weather. Next time I will divide the ingredients into two portions and whip them individually. Unless your oven would fit two baking tins at the same time, you better consider my suggestion.

Overall, the cake was pretty soft and spongy, but honestly the credit was all for the cake emulsifier. You have a peace of mind when you use cake emulsifier

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Natural Cooking Club : Cake Pandan Vla Pandan, for details click here

6 eggs
2 egg yolks
200 gr sugar (I used 150 gr instead)
1 tsp cake emulsifier (I used 12 gr)
200 gr plain flour
100 gr butter, melted (I used reduced salt butter)
1 tbsp pandan paste
Custard mix with a little bit pandan paste for in between the layer (or just omit the pandan paste)
Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost

Instructions

The recipe didn’t mention the temperature of the oven, so I did mine at 170 C (preheat).
Using a hand held mixer, mix eggs, sugar, and cake emulsifier until pale and thickened.
Add in plain flour, mix until combined.
Add in Melted butter and pandan paste, and mix until well combined.
Pour into 3 baking tins with 20 cm in diameter and bake separately.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Sandwich Pavlova

linda — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:52:17 +0000

I could pretty much declare the month of July and August as “The Egg Whites Creation” months. Probably to all the upcoming months, I would say “Let’s get creative with egg whites” or ” Please think twice before you throw your egg whites down the sink”. I could get about 2.5 L of fresh squeeze egg whites every 2 weeks. I may change what I think about egg whites around December as my fridge and sink are flooded with egg whites.

My dad came to visit us on July and he stayed for 3 long weeks. For me, he was very helpful because he could help me by playing and looking after my first boy as I am preoccupied with the newborn. For him however, he looked pretty bored when my boy was at school as the little one only sleep and sleep. On both of our free time, we used it to discussed about his new exciting business back in Indonesia. He is opening a restaurant cafe and he is not too familiar in this field. So I am sort of giving him the ideas for individual serving of sweets, cakes, and desserts. One of them is Pavlova, and it uses egg whites YAY!!!

His verdict about Pavlova: LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!! LOVE IT!!! All member of the house verdict about Pavlova: Absolutely love it !!! Special verdict from my brother: Absolutely ADDICTED to Pavlova. He keep asking me almost everyday whether I am going to make one or not. I did make another one on the weekend. Poor him, he woke up late. We actually wanted to left him half of the Pavlova but it was too good. We ended up eating a third of a quarter and left him a quarter. I promise him I will make one big Pavlova for him.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay: Pavlova, for details click here

150 ml egg white (approximately 4 eggs)
220 gr caster sugar (I used 200 gr and will use lesser next time)
2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
2 tsp white vinegar
whipped cream to serve
fresh fruit to serve
passion fruit pulp to serve

Instructions

Heat the oven to 150 C.
Using a hand held mixer, whisk the egg white until stiff peak form. Gradually add sugar until the mixture stiff and glossy.
Add the cornflour and white vinegar and whisk until just combined.
Draw circles as a guideline on top of baking paper. Using the other side of baking paper, sift some cornflour on top of the baking paper.
Shape the mixture according to the circle guideline. You could use a piping bag. The mixture should be around 2 cm thick.
Before you bake, turn down the heat of the oven into 120 C. Bake until the meringue harden. Leave the meringue to cool in the oven. Open the oven door slightly.
To serve, arrange pavlova, then whipped cream and fresh fruits, stacked with pavlova, then whipped cream and fresh fruits, topped with passion fruit pulp.

Culinary tradition: Australian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Rainbow Pudding

linda — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:28:04 +0000

As usual, I always have an unimaginable huge amount of egg whites stored in my fridge. This time, I decided to make a rainbow pudding made from whipped egg whites mix with agar-agar mixture. Agar-agar is an Indonesian instant jelly. It is not as chewy as the usual jelly, it is in fact quite hard (oh well it depends on the amount of water used for cooking them).

A little background story behind this pudding. When I was little, I remembered that our close family friend who owned a bakery back in Indonesia always send us this pudding on Chinese New Year. They usually delivered this pudding a day before the Chinese New Year and we (or at least me) can’t wait for tomorrow to come so I could have a big chunk for myself. Well you see, I slept at my grandparent house on new years eve because it was a big family dinner. My grandmother is a fussy woman (sorry ama, but you really are). She won’t let us touch all the cakes until the actual day of Chinese New Year. I never understand why or how she thinks, because she didn’t serve the pudding to the guests who visit her house anyway. She kept all of her grandchildren favourite foods in a safe place so no one could had them. So, why didn’t she let us have the taste before the day Ama? Oh well, I think she likes to have lots and lots of various foods serve on her table at the same time on the important day.

I did an attempt to make this pudding before with a recipe listed on some packet instruction (forget what is the product..) a long long time ago. I don’t think I need to describe how was it, because it was surely a big disaster, ended up with the whole chunk of mess in the trash. So, I am a little bit traumatized to try.

I found this recipe, read the instructions all the way through. I thought to myself, well I have nothing to lose because the egg whites is going to the trash anyway if it is unused. If you look at the original recipe (if you could understand Indonesian), you will notice that she whipped all the egg whites and mix it with the agar-agar mixture. Then she divide the mixture into three batches and mixing them with colours. Then she arrange it colour by colour. Well, I thought it was a chance to fail for me. I am not that big of a risk taker. So I decided to do two tins so I don’t have to weight the agar-agar every time I cook them. I am really surprised on how quick the layer set, and I am relieved that I didn’t do as the original recipe told.

Note to myself:

Reduce the amount of milk so the texture is much harder.
The sponge cake recipe is OK, but next time I will use sponge cake recipe from egg whites.
The top layer is better with Nutrijel (jelly) as this agar-agar is too hard and break the colourful layer as you spoon them.

Ingredients for the Sponge Cake

Recipe adapted from dapur DiFa : Sponge Cake with Toppings, for details click here

4 eggs
80 gr plain flour
20 gr corn flour
100 gr sugar
50 gr reduced salt butter, melted
1 tsp cake emulsifier

Instructions for the Sponge Cake

Preheat the oven 180 C.
Using a hand held mixer, whip the egg and sugar until foamy. Then add cake emulsifier and whip it until thickened and pale.
Add in sifted plain flour and corn flour to the mixture and mix until well combined.
Add in melted butter and mix until well combined.
Divide the mixture into two and bake them separately.
After the cake is cooling down, cut each cake in half, so there are 4 layers of sponge cake.

Ingredients for the Rainbow Pudding (for 2 round tins)

Recipe adapted from Passion: Rainbow Pudding, for details click here

For each layer of colour (pink, green and yellow)

1 packet of Agar-agar
460 ml milk (I will use less milk next time, probably around 400 ml)
100 gr sugar
130 ml egg whites
Colouring red, green and yellow
Essence of strawberry (pink), pandan (green), and lemon (yellow)

For the top clear layer

2 packet of Agar-agar (I will use jelly next time)
120 gr sugar
800 ml water

Instructions for the Rainbow Pudding

Using a saucepan, mix milk, sugar, agar-agar, drops of red colouring and drops of strawberry essence. Stir it frequently while bringing them to boil. Set aside to cool it down.
Using a hand held mixer, beat the egg whites until high peak.
Slowly pour the agar-agar mixture to the egg whites on low speed setting mixer.
Pour the mixture straight to the tins. Work quick as they will set very quickly.
Add a layer of sponge cake into each tin.
Do the same thing for the green layer and yellow layer.
For the top clear layer, boil all the ingredients and set aside to cool.
Arrange the fresh fruits on top of yellow layer.
Pour the clear agar-agar mixture on top of fresh fruits.
Let it set and refrigerate. Best to serve when it is cold.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Chocolate Egg Whites Chiffon Cake

linda — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:21:54 +0000

This is another effort of mine trying to rescue the unwanted egg whites. I had my doubt when reading the recipe. What!!! adding the unwhipped egg whites straight to the flour mixture??? But I thought, what the hell, I had nothing to lose anyway. It is only egg whites.

My verdict on the cake is absolutely soft and spongy even without the cake emulsifier. Amazing really, how can it be that soft without the cake emulsifier. I still couldn’t explain the reason.

As the recipe suggested, do not buttered the baking tin. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The side of the cake is not that difficult, but as for the bottom one, I rip part of my cake and left it on the pan. Next time I will definitely butter the pan very lightly especially the bottom of the tin.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Passion (Ibu Tio Blog) : Chiffon Chocolate White Egg, for details click here

125 gr plain flour
25 gr cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
25 gr corn flour
75 gr oil (I used 75 gr melted reduced salt butter)
75 ml full cream milk
100 gr egg whites (to be mix to the mixture)
400 gr egg whites (to be whipped)
1/2 tsp salt
175 gr sugar (I used 150 gr)

Instructions

Heat the oven to 190 C.
Sift plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and corn flour. Set aside.
Add milk and melted butter to the mixture. Mix.
Add 100 gr egg whites to the mixture. Mix well until combined.
Using a hand held mixture or a stand mixer, whip the egg whites and salt until foamy. Then add sugar and whip until high peak.
Mix the first mixture to the whip egg whites little by little and mix until well combined.
Bake in a chiffon cake baking tin (do not buttered the pan, however I will buttered it very lightly next time just in case the cake sticks to the pan) until cook.
Straight after the cake out of the oven, put the cake upside down until it cools down.
Using an aid (like a dull knife, I used a satay stick), take the cake out of the tin.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Steam Rainbow Cake

linda — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:40:55 +0000

Since I made quite a lot of Lapis Legit lately because of the orders from store and customers, I have a huge unimaginable amount of egg whites stocked up in my fridge. I already threw some of them away because my fridge couldn’t take it anymore. I really felt for the unused egg whites and couldn’t stand the thought of throwing them down the drain. I started to search for egg whites recipes. To my surprised, there are lots and lots of egg white recipes and I couldn’t wait to try them all

This is one of my trial recipe. the recipe is definitely a keeper. The cake is super soft and has a beautiful texture. It is really different compares to the baked cakes. It is also beautiful in appearance. This steam cake is a sudden hit to my house members. When I asked my husband whether I should actually give some of the cake to my neighbor, he simply replied : “Hmmm… not this one, I think we could finish it very quickly”. He was right. We finished the cake in a day. My boy loves the pink one as it has a strong strawberry essence. My husband loves the green one. I love them all.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Passion (Ibu Tio Blog) : Bolu Kukus Pelangi, for details click here

500 ml egg whites
325 gr sugar (I used 300 gr)
1 tbsp cake emulsifier (I used 15 gr Ovalet Kupu Kupu brand)
1/2 tsp salt
100 ml full cream milk
50 gr melted butter (I used reduced salt butter)
1 tsp baking powder
250 gr plain flour
25 gr full cream milk powder
strawberry essence + red colouring
lemon essence
mocha essence
pandan essence

Instructions for the Bread

Heat a steamer.
Using a hand held mixer, mix egg whites, sugar, emulsifier, and salt until high peak.
Sift plain flour, full cream milk powder, and baking powder. Add in to the egg whites mixture and mix until well combined.
Mix full cream milk and melted butter. Add in to the egg whites mixture and mix until well combined.
Divide the mixture into 4 parts. Each part is added with strawberry, lemon, mocha, and pandan essence. Mix until well combined.
Put a baking paper on the baking tin and buttered the sides of the baking tin.
Steam pandan mixture for about 7 minutes. Then followed with mocha on top for another 7 minutes. Followed with lemon and strawberry.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Cheese Buttercream and Grated Cheese

linda — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:55:17 +0000

My friend was celebrating his son first birthday’s party and I promised her that I would bring some cupcakes over for the little ones. I was pretty excited in doing these cupcakes because I got a chance to experiment with new recipes. My choice for the cupcakes are Rainbow Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and another type of cupcakes which I haven’t really decided. I have been surfing the web for some cupcakes ideas at several websites and my final choice is Vanilla Cupcakes which I frost with cheese butter cream and grated cheddar cheese and topped with red preserved cherries. The frosting idea was came from Sponge Cake with Butter cream and Grated Cheese which I did few months ago. I thought the sweet vanilla cupcakes would probably goes well with cheesy flavour and it does.

I need to get up early in the morning to prepare everything and not be late at the party. Well, I used my toddler as my alarm clock as he usually asked for milk around 6-ish in the morning. After I gave him the bottled, I was ready for my cupcakes battles in the kitchen. Great, my preheated oven would also help to keep me warm in these cold winter morning. After being in the kitchen for about 1 hour, my toddler just realized that I was not around anymore, then as usual he check me in the kitchen. He sat in the living room very quietly with a sad rejected face as he thought I would felt guilty by leaving him in the bedroom. Yes, he still sleep in between me and my husband. Thank God we share a king bed together, so it is quite spacious. Thank God he didn’t bugging me all those time and sat quietly watching ABC Kids.

I ended up making three types of cupcakes. Last one is Chocolate Cupcake without frosting. These chocolate cupcakes were for my boy and hid daddy as they dislike any type of topping on their cupcake. I thought of bringing some of these cupcakes over for the party as well, but I didn’t have enough hand to carry. I figured 32 cupcakes would be more than enough for the party as well.

Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from I Heart Cuppycakes! : Pretty Young Cupcakes on this link

170 gr unsalted butter at room temperature (I used reduced salt butter)
335 gr vanilla sugar (I used 200 gr caster sugar)
2 large eggs at room temperature
340 gr plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (I didn’t use this)
215 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 2 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scrape out (I didn’t use this)

Ingredients for Cheese Butter cream Frosting

Recipe adapted from http://parmanti.multiply.com/journal/item/11/Cake_Keju

200 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used 100 gr of reduced salt Western Star Butter and 100 gr of Red Feather butter)
150 gr condensed milk/icing sugar (I used 100 gr icing sugar)
75 gr cream cheese/grated cheddar (I used grated cheese)

Instructions for Vanilla Cupcake

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl.
Beat butter until softened.
Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at the time, beating until well combined.
Add vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions alternating with milk in 2 additions.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until the skewer inserted is clean.

Instructions for Cheese Butter cream Frosting

Mix all the ingredients together until fluffy.
Frost the cupcake, grate cheddar cheese on top and decorated with red preserve cherries.

Preparation time (duration): 30

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Buttermilk Pancake

linda — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:16:00 +0000

I had about 500 ml of buttermilk leftover in the fridge. I only used a little bit for Devil’s Food White Out Cake, so I urgently need to think about something to make them out of for before they are spoiled. I bumped into this great recipe of buttermilk pancakes. The website is absolutely helpful for a beginner pancake maker with all the details about how to make great pancakes till all the equipments and hints. If you would like the details, click on the link below the ingredients.

I used my precious non stick square pan. I bought them like ages ago, 7 years to be exact and never used it ever since. How silly of me! I am just concerned that all the steel hands living in my house will scratch and ruin my precious pan. Well after I used it for pancakes, I let them cooled down then straight to the sink for wash, wipe them dry, then straight to the storage.

My buttermilk pancakes are complimented with frozen blueberries and caramel crunch ice cream with the drizzle of maple syrup on top. They are absolutely to die for. Yummy yummy yummy

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Scott Jenson: Buttermilk Pancakes, for details click here

350 ml buttermilk
1 egg
50 gr melted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
125 gr plain flour
3 tbsp or 40 gr sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
Mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk lightly until just combined.
Add dry ingredients into the wet mixture in 2 additions and whisk lightly. Do not over mix.
Cook on low heat on both sides.

Preparation time (duration): 15

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Devil’s Food White Out Cake

linda — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:38:19 +0000

I actually prepared to make this cake few days ahead of Kitchen Produce’s Bloggersary anniversary in my head. Well, I didn’t quite have a time to make them. So, I am so sorry my blog, although I was late to present you with this cake, at least I still did something special

What could I say about this cake. It is a very chocolaty cake and I am sure for big chocolate lovers out there, they will absolutely love them. It is not my type of cake though as I am not a big fan of chocolate and my tooth isn’t sweet enough. However, for all of the member of my house, this is the type of cake to die for.

At first, I wasn’t really sure that I will succeed making this cake as Dorie’s. Few reasons behind that:

Mixing boiling water to the cake batter.
Mixing hot sugar syrup to the egg white mixture.

Hmm, but they all turned out OK. I guess you can really judge the final result until you have a go.

I admit that I am not that generous with the frosting as Dorie’s. She had the frosting in between layers almost as thick as the cake layer. Well I have reasons for that. First, my house members are not a big fan of frosting. And last, because I don’t have a candy thermometer handy at my home, I kinda work my way through cooking the syrup. So, 1/3 of my frosting actually turned into liquid. OMG, I kinda glad that I was not divide the layer into 4, because there will be not enough frosting to go around.

Ingredients for The Cake

Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/3 cups AP flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup sugar)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup boiling water
4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped

Ingredients for The Filling and Frosting

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large eggs)
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions for The Cake

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line round 22 inch cake pan with baking paper.
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.
Add the sugars and continue to beat for another 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at the time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
Beat in vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate.
When it is fully incorporated, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into batter. At this point, the batter will be thick, like frosting.
Still working on low speed, mixing the boiling water, which will thin the batter considerably.
Switch to a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl and stir in the chopped chocolate.
Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with the rubber spatula.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. Take it out when it is cooked or until the skewer inserted is clean. Don’t worry if tops have a few small cracks.
Set aside to cool down. (Dorie actually slice each cake into 2 layers so there are four layer together. 3 layers for the cake and last one is to be crumbled on the side and top of the frosting. I didn’t. I left them as 2 layers and used chocolate cookie crumble for the side and top of the frosting.)

Instructions for The Filling and Frosting

Put the egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl. Have a candy thermometer at hand.
Put the sugar, cream of tar tar and water in a small saucepan and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to boil over medium-high heat, cover the pan and boil for 3 minutes. Uncover and allow syrup to boil until it reaches 242 F on the candy thermometer. While the syrup is cooking, start beating the egg whites.
When the syrup is at about 235 F, begin beating egg whites on medium speed with a mixer. If the whites form firm, shiny peaks before the syrup reaches the temperature, reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing the whites until the syrup catches up.
With the mixer at medium speed, carefully pour in the hot syrup, pouring in between the beaters and the side of the bowl. Splatters are inevitable, don’t try to scrape them into the whites, just carry on.
Add the vanilla extract and keep beating the whites at medium speed until they reach room temperature, about 5 minutes. You should have a smooth, shiny, marshmallowy frosting. Although you could keep it in the fridge in a pinch, it’s really better to use it right away.
Frost the cake and refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour before serving.

Preparation time (duration): 60

Culinary Tradition: American

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Zebra Cake

linda — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:54:12 +0000

Making Lapis Legit means that a huge amount of egg whites left over in the fridge. It needs 40 egg yolks for 1 cake, so you could imagine the quantity of egg whites I will have in the fridge during Christmas orders. I usually didn’t bother storing them in the fridge and discard them straight away in the drain.

However, I was saving them because I only made one Lapis Legit. I could use them for many things, for cakes, cookies, coating the meat/chicken, making an egg omelet (of course by mixing them the yolks as well, only lots and lots of egg whites), steaming the egg whites with mince meat and vegetable, and some people even use it for a face mask for tightening the skin.

I was sitting on the couch playing with my toddler on a rainy afternoon. Winter season is here and I need a warm simple cake with hot cup of tea so bad. So, here it was a very quick and easy cake to make. They are not as light and fluffy as the cake with yolks but they are pretty good for egg whites cake.

Ingredients

400 ml egg whites (or about 10 eggs whites)
175 gr plain flour
25 gr corn flour
150 gr sugar
200 gr margarine, melted (I used Blue Band margarine)
1/2 tsp emulsifier
cocoa powder as needed

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 180 C.
Whip the egg whites and emulsifier until foamy and gradually add sugar until glossy and high peak formed.
Gradually add flour and melted margarine in 3 additions.
Mix half the batter with cocoa powder.
Using a round tin, gradually add one ladle of the mixture one at the time at one centre point.
Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the skewer inserted is clean.

Preparation time (duration): 30

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

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Tiramisu

linda — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:49:18 +0000

My boy was at school so it was a perfect timing to do an uninterrupted groceries shopping. I could spent more than an hour walking slowly passing each isle and thinking about lots of new exciting recipes that I am going to do. Of course I always look for great weekly deals in every store department, and there it was marcarpone cheese on special. Without hesitation I grab it straight away, and thinking I still have a whole pack of saviordi biscuits which have been sitting for months in the pantry.

Finally I could make my Tiramisu after waiting for several days. YAY it was weekend and my husband could accompany my boy playing without him following me around. I didn’t make the sponge cake as the recipe suggested as I want something quick and easy and saviordi biscuits taste as nice I think. If you would like the recipe, click here.

Little did I realize that I can’t eat Tiramisu because I was 6 months pregnant. OMG so silly of me creating my own temptation. I did a little finger licking though, just for the sake that I need to know whether this is a great recipe or not (another excuse LOL). My husband said this Tiramisu was much better than my previous one, or he just want to tease me because I can’t eat them. Hmmm doesn’t matter, I will make this again for sure in 4 months time and I will update my verdict for this fabulous dessert.

Preparation time (duration): 30

Culinary tradition: Italian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Rainbow Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

linda — Sun, 16 May 2010 00:34:46 +0000

I went to shop on Tuesday morning to buy some ready made bottled custard, just in case mine wasn’t turned out as I expected. I was intended to make choux pastry (also known as Kue Sus in Indonesia) for my boy afternoon tea gathering in his kindy. Having no experience in making choux pastry before plus I was kind of in a hurry since the party was at 2 PM and it was 11 AM already, I messed up the whole two batches of choux pastry. The mixture was just too runny. I tried to rescue them by adding extra plain flour, but still I had no luck. I tried to bake them anyway, and they were flat like a pancake. Later I discovered, I added the eggs too soon to the hot mixture. Gosh what an effort, went to the supermarket for bottled custard which I didn’t use anyway.

I started to panic since I haven’t really think of plan B. I started surfing the web and was thinking that cupcake would be a brilliant idea since it was easy to make and I had a very small little tiny chance of getting failed. So, there you go, I decided to make rainbow cupcakes which are just perfect for kids.

That was my first gathering at my toddler’s kindy and I had no idea what the kindy expects mums to bring and what other mums usually bring to this kind of gathering. Little that I know of, other mums just brought ready packed chips, grapes, fruits, crackers, ready packed cakes from grocery stores (no offense to other mums, maybe I just love getting my kitchen busy and steamy). I realized that all my panicking was for nothing. Anyway, if there is another similar gathering, I will still doing the same thing, making a home-made stuff.

Ingredients for Orange Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from http://iheartcuppycakes.com/2009/04/12/taste-the-rainbow/

2 1/2 cups AP flour
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup sugar (I use 200 gr instead)
12 tbsp/1 1/2 stick butter, room temperature (I use 170 gr of butter)
2 large eggs + 2 egg whites, room temperatue
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Ingredients for Lemon Cello Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe adapted from http://www.mytartelette.com/2009/07/recipe-meyer-lemon-limoncello-cupcakes.html

60 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature (I use reduced salt butter)
120 gr cream cheese, at room temperature (I use Philadelphia)
1 tbsp lemon cello (I used 1/2 tbsp orange essence)
1 cup icing sugar (I used 1/3 cup )

Instructions for Orange Cupcake

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line cupcake with paper liners.
In large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar until well combined, about 2-3 minutes.
Add eggs and egg whites, one at the time, beating on low.
Add vanilla extract.
Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture.
Divide the batter into 6 different bowls. Add food colouring per bowl and mix to combine until you get the vibrant colour you want.
Add batter colour by colour, about 1 tbsp of each colour until all the colours fill the cupcake liner about 2/3 full.
Bake about 17-20 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let the cupcake cool completely before frosting.

Instructions for Lemon Cello Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Using a stand up mixer or a hand held one, beat the butter and cream cheese for 2-3 minutes on medium speed.
Add the orange essence and beat them again for about 1 minutes.
Add icing sugar little by little on slow speed.
Frost the cupcake.

Preparation time (duration): 45

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!