ice tea: sugar high

Matcha polka dot angel cake

2010-03-11T23:00:00.001+11:00

I've accumulated over 15 eggs worth of egg whites after the last tiramisu order.. so I decided to turn it into this beautiful cottony soft angel cake. To spice things up a bit, I take a small portion of the mixture and added some matcha powder which then I piped randomly into the mixture inside the pan.

The smell is just divine!! The strong matcha flavour paired beautifully with the vanilla. I had to refrain myself not to eat the whole thing by myself =p.

I used alton brown's recipe. I never made any of his recipe, but I think I'm a convert now. This recipe is totally fuss-free and super gooooodddd..

Angel Food Cake
by Alton Brown

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cake flour, sifted
12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)
1/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon orange extract, or extract of your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.

In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, orange extract, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a hand mixer. Slowly sift the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.

Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Bake for 35 minutes before checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).

Cool upside down on cooling rack for at least an hour before removing from pan.

Cook's Note: Since they're easier to separate use the freshest eggs you can get.

DB February 2009 - Heaven on a dessert plate

2010-02-27T20:35:00.001+11:00

When I saw that the challenge for this month was tiramisu, I was actually disappointed. Tiramisu is the one dessert that I made so many time, I can make it with my eyes close. I even made a post about green tea-ramisu exactly a year ago. But as I read through the challenge, I found out that we have to make home made mascarpone cheese and the sponge fingers. Whoohooo.. this is surely taking the term "bake from scratch" to a whole new level. Now, this is a challenge!!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I'm super pumped! February also means my best friend's birthday. She loooovveeess tiramisu. As a matter of fact, exactly a year ago I also made her a tiramisu. She works in Singapore now, but she's flying over for the weekend to celebrate her birthday with me and the rest of the girls.

I love the mascarpone cheese!! It took a bit of an effort to make it from scratch, but it is so worth it, and quite a bargain (I never realize how expensive cream cheese are in Indonesia). I'm a bit disappointed with the sponge fingers though. It is so tedious, and it didn't really produce enough sponge fingers for the cake and decoration. Plus, baking with a super small microwave oven means I can only make about 8 sponge fingers at a time, so baking them took forever. The humidity in Indonesia made the sponge fingers quickly looses it's crunchiness. I had to re-bake them before I use them for the decoration.

I had a little leftovers, so I decided to make a deconstructed version.

The following weekend, (I made this cake on Valentine's weekend) my dad ordered 40 mini cakes for his friend's engagement party. I got rave reviews, and an order of 20 more mini cakes followed right after. This time, I also made the green tea version.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Caramelized Apple & Salted Caramel Nanaimo Bars - DB January 2010

2010-02-05T02:51:00.006+11:00

Who's been a bad daring baker?
Who's been a bad blogger?

I am *sigh*

And to make it worst, I've got just about a thousand excuses. I thought about sparing you guys by simply using the classic excuse of "life just get in the way", but, to be honest, I NEED TO VENT! So, lookout folks, this will be a long one! Don't worry, for those of you who come here for the Daring Baker challenge, just skip my rantings and look for the bold part of this post.

Believe me folks when I say this past 2 and a half months is not exactly the highlight of my life. Yes, I'm glad to be home and reunited again with my family. For once after more than 7 years, the Soehoed family household is complete again. And for every new thing, there's a lot of adjusting to do. And the problem over problem that are happening around my family didn't exactly make it easier.

The first big thing would be my grandma passing away the night I was suppose to fly to Jakarta which immediately followed by the rapid deterioration of my grandpa's health from the unbearable pain of losing the one thing that keeps him together all these years. If this would happen in my Mum's side of the family, there won't be so much drama. But my Dad's side of the family is something else. I don't even think 'dysfunctional' is a strong enough word to describe it. The 'drama' still lingers until this day, almost 100 days after my grandma's passing. I have mastered a state of ignorance when it comes to my Dad's family, but the thing that bothers me when this 'drama' is on, is how sensitive and stressed out it made my mum and dad. They become very edgy and like any volcano, can erupt with rage at anytime, without prior warning. Small stuff (or shall I say, my bad habit or mistakes) can turn into huge endless argument. Because like me, my parents can be a control freak (to be more politically correct, 'may have some control issues'), so when I don't do things or behave differently as they might have behave in the same situation, they will try to correct it. They are not that controlling, but for someone who's been independent for quite some time, it can be hard to handle sometimes.

Second of all, my emotional state. Put a dash of unemployment stress, add a pinch of culture shock, then a cup of homesick, mix it all together then you'll get stress and depression. Not the bad kind that I actually a threat to myself, just the kind where my mood is so foul, everything just becomes wrong and nothing can make me happy. If I sit all day, i'll get bored and would agitate my mom more. If I go out too much, I feel guilty for spending money when I don't have any income coming in. I've been in this state before, baking actually helped me back on my feet the last time. But I've packed a lot of weight lately which sweet treats won't exactly help brings back my happy mood. I don't exactly understand the concept of 'doing nothing'. This state only made worst by the time I spent in the hospital. yess.. I was admitted to the hospital for 6 days for being tested positive for dengue fever and typhoid. yup, I got the double whammy. M said it's Jakarta's way to welcome me back to the tropics. I live here for the first 17 years of my life and not even once I am even close to these two common tropical illness. On top of the 6 crappy days in the hospital, I still had to endure an extra 2 weeks of recovery time since my stamina was just so low and if I'm not careful, the virus might came back, hitting twice as hard. For you unfamiliar with these two illnesses, eventhough they are considered common, but without proper caution, they can be quite deadly. This is also why I miss last month's DB challenge. I've made the gingerbread house, a very ambitious one as well I might add. Due to my bestfriend's wedding commotion happening, I didn't finish decorating the house in time. When I had time to finish it, that's when I started to get high fevers which then leads to hospital time. By the time I came home from the hospital, my stained glass windows have already melted, and my terrace has broken, in short, I give up!

I still don't regret coming home. It's all a matter of self-adjustments so I can finally settle down. It's getting better and better everyday. I'm more used to living with my parents again, I'm starting to find things to do, projects to do while I sort out my career direction. and... i'm starting to bake again.

Aanndd.. here's the part where I stop my whining and get back to this month's DB challenge. This is the first time I ever heard about Nanaimo bars and my first time making graham crackers from scratch. I might say it is becoming one of my favourites. I didn't make it gluten-free though, it's not that easy to find gluten-free flour here. The nanaimo bars itself is also a treat and not at all hard to make.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

For the flavours, I chose to add caramelized apple in the custard part and a thin layer of salted caramel in between the crust and the custard. these bars are quite rich, that's why I only made about a quarter of the recipe. Even that makes about 10 of 2cm x 5cm bars with a thickness of around 3 cm.

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

French Macaroons - Daring Baker October 2009

2009-10-27T22:00:00.001+11:00

Where did time go? I haven't had the chance to blink yet, and it's time for another daring baker's challenge.

First of all, you must forgive the lack of creativity in the photos, nor the quality the photos I might say. I'm in the midst of moving back to Jakarta, and I barely have a chair to sit on, let alone a table to shoot the macaroons. I had to do it on a piece of chopping board on the floor. My apartment is completely empty now. The boxes was picked up today to be shipped to Jakarta. I still can't believe that a tiny person can accumulate so much stuff. My cargo actually weighs a shocking 400 kgs!! These past weeks has been filled with packing, packing and more packing. It's not an easy job to pack 7 years of your life!!

The reality is starting to sink in now.. 15 more days to go.. No turning back!!

Even in the midst of my move, my bestfriend made a request for some of my baked goods. She consider this as her way to ask for a piece of me to stay here with her. She is planning to freeze some so she can enjoy my homemade baked goods, even if I can't be here to make it for her. Not easy ones I might add. She asked for hot cross buns, croissant and macaroons. That's why I was quite overjoyed when I found out that this month's challenge is french macaroons.

Before I start yapping about the macaroons, here is the mandatory lines that need to be said each month: The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I made macaroons before, but this recipe is new for me. I was not in the mood of making dozens and dozens of macaroons. My goal is only make enough macaroons for my friend, I don't think I'm up for macaroons these coming days, and M is not the type of person to crave for them unless I put it in front of his eyes. So leaving some in the freezer is definitely not an option, nor carrying them all the way to Jakarta (don't think they travel well). So in the flavours, I have to take my friends taste buds into consideration. She doesn't really like rich desserts, she is more into fresh stuff, something fruity perhaps. So in welcoming Spring which finally has sprung here in Melbourne, I decided to showcase some of spring and tropical fruits like kiwi, watermelon and lychee. I still put in chocolate as it is always a safe option. However, I don't feel like making 6 (oh, I forgot to mention lavender & rose) different buttercream/ganache, so I decided to use cream cheese buttercream and just put the different pate de fruit in the middle. I planned to made the turkish delight for the centre of the rose macaroons, but was just to overwhelmed with everything, so decided to cross the road to Thomas Dux Grocer and pick up a pariya turkish delight. I wanted to colour the shells, but I think I was in a hurry when I did the macarooning after colouring the batch, the white shells are the only ones that work. So I got creative and use the white shells and paint different colours on them to indicate the flavours. It's pretty too =)

lychee

kiwi

rose with turkish delight centre

This would be the last daring baker's challenge I bake in Melbourne.. sob sob.. In the good side, I'm moving to a bigger house with more crockery and tableware to play with. However, an insufficient oven (believe it or not, my mom only have a small microwave oven!!) and the daunting humidity looms.

As always, thank you ladies for yet another fun challenge. Till next month =)

**PS: I'm sorry if I don't have time to comment on your macaroons, I don't have a computer anymore, let alone an internet connection. I'll try my best, but no promises. The only time I can be online is at M's house, and I can't be too long, as he needs the computer too.**

Time to get the rolling pins out! - DB does vol au vent

2009-10-01T13:28:00.009+10:00

4 days late, but I come with 4 different variations of vol au vent. I must admit, I cringed when I read that this month's DB challenge involves puff pastry. I've made a couple of successful puff pastry in the past, but I'm still not comfortable in doing any lamented dough. I always find it quite temperamental. But, when you get it right, it is so worth the effort.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, “After one bite we could die and go to heaven!”

As always, I want to try to do as much varieties as I can. I have lots of leftover in my fridge, so I decided to use them as I can. I ended up making 2 savouries, and 2 sweets. In the spirit of Ramadhan, I made some opor ayam, and I still have some leftover, so I shredded the chicken and thicken the soup and made it as one of the savoury filling. For the other savoury one, I use up some leftover from the chicken sweet chilly mayo wrap, my yesterday's lunch.

For the sweets, I incorporate leftover salted caramels from my boss' order and the IMBC (Italian Meringue Buttercream) leftover from the cake order last weekend. I transform the IMBC into 2, one gets a burnt sugar syrup added to them to make burnt sugar frosting, and the other one was whipped together with a lavender syrup. I paired the burnt sugar frosting with layers of salted caramel and chocolate ganache. Whereas the lavender frosting got paired with Yuzu lemon curd. This is particularly my favourite. The tartness from the curd complements the sweetness of the frosting beautifully with a slight lavender undertone. Perfect to welcomes the spring (which is suppose to come by now, but it is still bloody cold here).

Check out the Daring Bakers roundup for other fantastic vol au vent. Thanks again ladies for the sweet challenge =)

A lesson in Hungarian - Dobos Torte, DB August 2009

2009-08-27T06:00:00.006+10:00

Yup, it's that time of the month again.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

It's been a while since I last make a layered cake, not for myself anyway, so I welcomed this month's challenge with open arms =).

This is the first time I heard about Dobos Torte. After a quick consultation with Google, I found out that Dobos Torte is Hungarian in origin and basically means a layered sponge cake with chocolate buttercream. And, not to forget, the trademark caramel glazed sponge cake layers that forms a fan-like decoration on top of the cake.

Although it is quite time consuming and quite fiddley, this recipe is quite simple. The texture of the sponge cake is one of the best I ever had. I made three mini cakes, I didn't play around with the flavours nor the presentation too much this month. I did had a bit of fun with the caramel-glazed sponge layer.

Thanks ladies for yet another tasty challenge =)

Sponge cake layers

6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream

4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Caramel topping

1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Finishing touches

a 7” cardboard round
12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts

Directions for the sponge layers:

NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).
2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)
3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)

4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8" springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

A baked layer.

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.
2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.
3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.
4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.
5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Lorraine's note: If you're in Winter just now your butter might not soften enough at room temperature, which leads to lumps forming in the buttercream. Male sure the butter is of a very soft texture I.e. running a knife through it will provide little resistance, before you try to beat it into the chocolate mixture. Also, if you beat the butter in while the chocolate mixture is hot you'll end up with more of a ganache than a buttercream!

Directions for the caramel topping:

1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.
2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.
3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Angela's note: I recommend cutting, rather than scoring, the cake layer into wedges before covering in caramel (reform them into a round). If you have an 8” silicon round form, then I highly recommend placing the wedges in that for easy removal later and it also ensures that the caramel stays on the cake layer. Once set, use a very sharp knife to separate the wedges.

Assembling the Dobos

1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.
4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

A musical birthday

2009-08-26T22:30:00.000+10:00

Whoa! I'm swamped with cake orders this month. Well, not really, but when you have a full time job and a dad visiting, 3 big cake orders is quite a handful for a 2 weeks span. The first one is a cupcake tower for my friend's wedding which I will blog later this week. And the second one, is a birthday cake for a special little girl who turns 14. Almost a woman =).

She loves music, so she wants a musical themed cake. At first she wanted a guitar shaped cake. But I'm pressed for time and I'm not that daring enough nor skillful enough to decorate a 3D cake just yet. So I suggested something similar. I based this design on Planet Cake's exploding star cake that I made in the Basic 101 class, but replacing the stars with a guitar and making it into a two tier cake. For an extra touch, I painted some musical notes on the cake using black food colouring.

Phew! two orders down, one more to go!

For detailed recipe on the cake and the ganache I use, please refer back to this post.

A taste of home - Nasi tim ayam jamur (Chicken rice with mushroom)

2009-08-12T17:58:00.000+10:00

My dad is visitting for two weeks. This means a lot of eating out =). However, for his lunches, I like to cook for him so he doesn't have to end up settling with greasy chinese food most of the time since it's the easiest and closest thing from my house.

This dish was actually a request from a good friend who fell ill and crave for comforting homemade food. His girlfriend cooks to kill so these times, I gladly fill in the role of nourishing him. I've never tried making this dish before, and it is one of my childhood favourites, so when he requested, I happily obeyed it.

I didn't think that this dish was this simple to make. I usually avoids anything that requires steaming, but to my surprise, the rice is actually steamed separately from the chicken, so I can actually make the rice as per the normal way of making rice, in the rice cooker. Only this time, the rice is cooked in chicken stock, not water to achieve the fragrant and tasty chicken rice. Using homemade chicken stock takes this dish into a different level.

Nasi tim ayam jamur (Chicken rice with mushroom)

Chicken rice
2 cups of rice
250ml chicken stock (preferably homemade)
water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
a dash of sesame oil
1 cm ginger, crushed
2 clove of garlic, finely sliced

Wash rice and rinse thoroughly. In a rice cooker, mix chicken stock, water, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic. Add cleaned rise and cook until it's done.

For the chicken
2 boneless chicken thigh fillet, remove excess fat, diced
50-80g of button mushroom or swiss brown
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 cm ginger, crushed
sauce (for the sauce, I didn't actually measure it, mix according to your taste, the taste you should get is a strong garlicky & gingery flavour with a sweet undertone from the soy sauce):
soy sauce, oyster sauce, ketjap manis, salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil, chinese five spice powder, corn starch, vegetable oil

Marinate chicken pieces with a bit of dark soy, sesame oil, sugar and 1 tbsp corn starch for 1-2 hours. Saute garlic and ginger in hot oil, add chicken pieces until cooked through, add the sauce.

Soup
250 ml chicken stock
1 cm ginger, crushed
1 clove of garlic, crushed
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp of soy sauce
dash of sesame oil

In a heavy based saucepan, saute garlic and ginger with a bit of oil. Pour in the stock and cook until boiling. Season with soy sauce, salt & pepper to taste.

Quince & Apple Crisps with Rum Raisin

2009-08-11T19:39:00.001+10:00

I have a friend that is obsessed with apple crumble. She can skip meals when she knows I'm making apple crumble just so she have enough room in her stomach for my crumble. She can easily polish off one whole pan of apple crumble by herself in one seating. That actually what she did last year when I made her a big pan of apple crumble for her birthday.

Sadly, this year, her birthday falls the day before my exam, so eventhough it's already a month late, she still demands her birthday apple crumble. I usually use my ex housemate's recipe where she used canned apple and muesli and desiccated coconut in the crust. But eversince I encounter this recipe in the Bon Appetit special thanksgiving issue more than 2 years ago, I never look back. It is definitely requires a lot more work and time consuming. But if you plan your meals cleverly, this dish can actually be done in steps over a couple of days. No shortcuts here either. I love the combination of quince and apple. It gives an interesting texture to the dish. The rum raisin gives an extra punch too.

The recipe actually produce quite a lot of stuffing. I love a thick layer of crust, so when making this, I always double the crust topping quantity, and bake it in individual ramekins for late night snacks for me =). I usually serve this with store bought pouring custard, but after I gave the whole bottle to my friend, I left with none for me. So I made my own vanilla custard from scratch. A good way to use up the dying bottle of milk I have in the fridge.

Apple and Quince Crisp with Rum Raisins

Bon Appétit | November 2007

Rum Raisins:

1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup dark rum

Crisp Topping:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

4 cups water
3 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 pounds quinces (about 5 medium), peeled, quartered, cored
4 large Gala apples, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

For rum raisins:
Simmer raisins and rum in small saucepan 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Ignite with match; let flames burn out, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer 2 tablespoons liquid to small bowl for crisp topping.

For crisp topping:
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer until butter is golden brown, about 6 minutes. Cool.

Mix flour, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in medium bowl. Add browned butter and 2 tablespoons reserved liquid from rum raisins; stir until moist clumps form. DO AHEAD: Raisins and topping can be made 1 day ahead. Cover each; chill.

For filling:
Combine 4 cups water and 3 cups sugar in large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add quinces; simmer until tender, 15 minutes. Remove from syrup; cool. Reserve syrup for another use. Cut quinces into 1-inch cubes. Transfer to large bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Add apples, lemon juice, flour, salt, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and rum raisin mixture to bowl with quinces; toss to blend. Transfer to baking dish. Crumble topping over.

Bake apple and quince crisp until golden and bubbling, about 55 minutes. Cool at least 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with softly whipped cream or ice cream.

Fish for dinner - whole baked salmon en papillote with Lemon & fennel

2009-08-10T18:49:00.000+10:00

I've been a bad bad blogger. Lately my entries usually comprise of daring baker challenges and that's about it. I used to be able to blame uni studies, but now that it's over, I'm running out of excuses. I guess the old excuse of "life just gets in the way" is the best one I can think of. My kitchen is busy as always though. Busier than ever actually. I have been baking and cooking like crazy to contemplate all those times consumed with study and assignments. I just didn't find the time, energy, nor the inspiration to blog.

Lately, my thoughts are consumed with this huge decision I'm about to make. Perhaps one of the biggest decision in my life. I think I mentioned somewhere before that I planned to move back to Indonesia this year. But I put that aside to focus on my study, now, it's getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. No dates has been set yet. And there's still a lot of details that I need to figure out. Breaking the news to my boss has been the first step. It's so overwhelming!!! Just the thought of packing 7 years of my life and saying goodbye to this beautiful city where I basically spent most of my adult life is extremely hard and very daunting. What most daunting for me is saying goodbye to M. We decided to try a long distance relationship for the time being and see how we go from there. Having coming out of a 4 years relationship where the 3 years out of it are spent apart, I'm certainly not looking forward to relive the experience. It's just something we have to do. If it's meant to be, there will be a way.

From now on, I'll be busy cramming as much as "melbourne experience" as I can. So I can bottle up enough memories of this city to last me till the next visit. But hey, coming home to the love of your family and childhood friends sort of make all this 'separation' worth doing. And I won't know what the future holds for me. I can easily end up back in Melbourne in a couple years time. For now, I need to go back home and start taking care of my parents.

This is why I've been cooking lots of comfort food. My mind just needs to be soothed from all this as well as the freezing weather Melbourne has delivered this couple of weeks.

I'm trying a new technique to cook this beautiful whole trout I got from the market. The term 'en papillote means 'in parchment' in french. It's a technique of cooking fish or meat in their own juice inside a parcel made out of aluminium foil or baking paper. The parcel traps the heat and steam and gently cooks the meat and infuse it with flavour. I love this technique as it gives a very strong infusion to the meat while keeping it moist and juicy. I never cook with fennel before, but it goes beautifully with the trout. I serve this fish with a rich and creamy baked potatoes. The tanginess and freshness of the fish marries perfectly with the richness and creaminess of the potatoes. Definitely a perfect comfort food for a chilly night with a tall glass of white wine.

Baked whole trout en papillote with lemon and fennel
Original recipe can be found at the Times Online October 3, 2007

1 whole trout, cleaned and gutted
1 tbsp classic vinaigrette
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 bulbs of fennel, tough core removed and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
4 slices of lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
60-70ml dry white wine

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6, or light the barbecue.
2 Place the trout on a clean chopping board and make 3-4 deep slices in each side of the fish, then season well with salt and pepper.
3 Take four large pieces of tin foil and brush the surface with olive oil
4 Fill the cavity of each trout with the fennel and garlic and place the fish inside the foil. Place the slices of lemon confit on top of the fish, carefully pull the foil up to create a parcel, then pour over the wine.
5 Scrunch the top of the foil together to form a nice, tight parcel.
6 Place in the preheated oven or barbecue and cook for 10-15 minutes.
7 Transfer the fish in the foil to the serving plates, then open up the foil parcels - eat straight from the foil if you like.

Lemon sable cookies with Yuzu lemon curd

2009-08-09T14:28:00.000+10:00

I have some Yuzu lemon curd leftover from the bakewell tart that is last month's daring bakers challenge (I actually made this cookies about 1 month or so ago, and no, I don't use a month old curd), after making lemon meringue tart, I ran out of ideas of the things to use this curd with. So I bake some of Dorie Greenspan's Sable au Citron which I've been wanting to try ever since I read it in her Paris Sweets book.

A couple of friends come over to my place so we have these cookies with a cup of 'teh gopek', Indonesian black tea in my new moroccan tea set. They're just lovely.

Marshmallowy goodness - DB July 09

2009-08-04T18:53:00.003+10:00

I'm late, yet again.
My timing is just wayyyy off lately.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Hope this post will still make the cut of July's DB challenge.
I only made the mallows, since I'm not that fond of milano cookies nor do I have the time and energy to do two kinds.

I made marshmallows before, and they are super easy and way better than the store bought one. So when I see this month (last month's I mean) challenge, I was quite excited. My boss was too, because I've been raving about homemade marshmallow to her but never had the chance to actually made one for her.

This time, I made strawberry marshmallow to go with the cinnamon cookies. The cookies was amazing by the way, and a breeze to whip up. I sprinkle the marshmallow with strawberry powder to intensify the strawberry flavour even further. After dipping the mallows in chocolate, I sprinkle pink glitter and put edible gold leaves on top. They look just adorable.

I made PLENTY of marshmallow. After giving some to my boss, I took the rest to the snow with me. Just picture a steaming hot choco with these babies while it's pouring snow outside.. Pure bliss. It even made me forgot how lousy the weather was all weekend at Mt. Buller.

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows, recipe here
• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

For the homemade marshmallow, I used Nightscotman's strawberry marshmallow which are a variation of Martha Stewart's vanilla marshmallow found here

Chocolate glaze:

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

A weekend getaway

2009-07-05T20:34:00.000+10:00

M had a couple of reason to celebrate this month. We usually celebrate our big events with a nice night out dining in some fancy place. However, this month he has two big things that is wothy of a big celebration, one is his birthday, and the other one is a new job. In this economy, I'm considering myself lucky enough to still have a job, but for M to be able to find a new full time job with a hefty pay rise is a definite bonus. We were planning to try some fancy restaurant like Half Moon in Brighton or Andrew McConnell's newest restaurant, Cutler & Co. Since I was completely drained out from cramming for exams and working in unGodly hours (you see, my work has been CRAZY this past weeks, just in time with my exams no wonder I'm sick right?), fine dining will not sufficient enough to rejuvenate my spirit. So I propose a better outlet, a weekend away.

Staying in wineries always a good way to invigorate, but due to winter, I don't think the wineries will be that attractive. It will be just dried up branches. And a couple of good places I found online was devastated by the recent bushfire. My boss sugested a place in Lorne where she recently stayed in. They're doing a great deal at the moment where you pay $195 for Saturday night, and add $5 to stay on the Friday night. Sweet! Lorne is such a beautiful place, there's the beautiful beaches, waterfalls, farms, and a couple of little wineries. Our place sets out in the middle of the bush. The cottage is sooooo beautiful. The area offers seclution and tranquility. It was quite scary when we first got there. It was pitch black, we can barely see the road leading up to the cottage. But the crackling open fire that Sarah, the cottage keeper kindly got going for us was just.... bliss. Morning time, we can see that our cottage is actually surounded by a lot of houses, so there's no need to worry.

I packed up quite a lot of food for the both of us. We want to spend as much time with each other with no distractions and interuption from other people so eating in by the fire seems like the best way to go. It made me realize how changed I am this past year as a cook/baker. A year ago, when going on a road trip, the main thing on my mind is what clothes to bring and what DVD or game should I pack to entertain myself. Now, I planned menus, wines to bring, weeks before the trip. I even created a detailed rundown of food to prepare, when to cook it and what can be done beforehand. And I'm not just talking about one or two meals here, it's all the meals including breakfast, lunch, dinner, after dinner, even some practical food to eat on the road.

In preparation, I made a tomato ragu for the baked eggs, pancake mix (dry and wet ingredients separated), marinate my lamb, salad dressing, and facon & egg sandwiches with perinaise for our dinner on the road. We didn't want to waste time having dinner before we go, so we can get to Lorne before 10pm.

Baked eggs with parmigiano soldiers

We actually went on this trip about two weeks ago, but only now after I am fully recovered from my flu that I actually had time to blog about it. I actually started to get sick on the Friday night when we went to Lorne. Started out with light fever and a bad sore throat. But I popped enough vitamins and echinacea to not let it ruin my weekend. I guess my body just finally gave up after I torture it with sleep deprivation and lack of nutrition for more than a month. By monday last week, I completely lost my voice. My doctor said I sounded like a frog, but I refer it as my sexy voice =p. Can't say the same about the runny noise and the all night coughing though. Well I gues it's just nature's way of telling me to rest, and that I did, I didn't work for three days and was fully rested.

lamb chops with rosemary and red wine jus

Pear & rocket salad

So here's the menu that we had:
Friday - facon, egg, cheese, lettuce & tomato sandwiches with nando's perinaise
Saturday - Tomato & feta baked eggs with parmigiano soldiers, Minnestrone soup (ready
made) for lunch, Rosemary lamb chops with red wine jus with baked potatoes
and pear & rocket salad, Cheese platter for after dinner
Sunday - Was going to make pancake, but left the pancake mix, so we had breakfast in the
local cafe and went for some tapas lunch at BaBaLu bar

cheese platter

Baked eggs with parmigiano soldiers

Parmigiano soldiers:
1 loaf of crusty white bread or sourdough
good quality parmigiano regiano, grated
2 eggs
dash of milk
oil for frying

Cut bread into 1 cm x 1 cm thick soldiers. In a shalow bowl/dish, beat eggs and milk. Soak the bread in the eggy mixture and coat it with the cheese. Deep fry until golden brown. Preheat the oven to 180C. Soak up all the oil with a paper towel, and put soldiers in a baking pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes until crispy.

Tomato base:
3 vine ripened tomatoes
beef sausage
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 rosemary stalk
Olive oil

With a sharp knife make an X marking on the tomatoes. Boil water and pour it into a large bowl. Soak tomatoes in boiling water until the skins come off. Once the skins comes off, peel tomatoes and put in a baking tray. Season with freshly cracked pepper and salt, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast garlic, rosemary and tomatoes for 30-40 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Once it's soft, mash with a fork or if you like your tomate base to be smooth, blend all the roasted ingredients in a blender/food processor until smooth. In a large pan, saute onion with a dash of olive oil until fragrant and slightly transparent. Add the tomato puree and cook until it boils. Take the beef sausage and with a sharp scissor, snip the skin off one of the ends. With your fingers, squeeze out about a teaspoon of the sausage filling and round it into a ball and cook it in the tomato sauce. Voila, a quick meatballs in tomato sauce. Sometimes I like to add 1/2-1 diced fresh tomatoes for added texture to the sauce. Cook until the sauce thickens slightly. This sauce is also great as a pasta sauce.

For the baked eggs, put tomato sauce on an ovenproof ramekins. Preheat oven to 170C. Crumbled some Greek feta. Carefully crack two eggs and bake until the desired doneness. I like my eggs hard, so I cook it for around 15-20 minutes, M likes his runny, so 10 minutes should be perfect.

Lamb chops with pear & rocket salad

Pear & rocket salad
1 green pear
Greek feta
Toasted almonds or walnuts
Rocket
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil

For the dressing, whisk olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt & pepper to taste. Slice the pear thinly. Mix rocket, feta, pear & almonds in a salad bowl. Lightly dress it with the vinegar dressing.

Lamb chop
6 french cut lamb chops
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
bunch of mint leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
olive oil
300 g of chat potatoes, roasted with rosemary

red wine

Marinate lamb chops with the olive oil, garlic, rosemary and 4-5 mint leaves for at least 30 mins. Season with salt & pepper. Preheat oven to 180C. Chop finely the remaining mint leaves. Infuse about 30ml of olive oil with the chopped mint leaves. You can do this way ahead of time to get a stronger mint flavoured oil. Brown the lamb chops for about 1 minute on each side. Transfer to the baking tray immediately and roast for 10-15 minutes until cook through, but still pink in the middle. De glaze the pan with the red wine and cook until it reduces slightly. In a plate, arange the potatoes in a circle, topped with the lamb chops. Drizzle the red wine jus and the mint oil.

Bakewell tart....er pudding - DB June 2009

2009-06-29T09:49:00.007+10:00

Phew.. I finally made it. I didn't thought I will be able to participate in this month's challenge. I've been down with a heavy case of flu this past week. No, it's not swine flu, but it felt worst than that. Stuffy nose, high fever, nose bleeds, croaky voice, and what's worst, the dry cough that kept me up most of the night. I blame it on the weather! and my exhaustion from all that studying and working at the same time.

I have to be honest with you, when I found out the challenge was a tart, I wasn't too excited. Not my favourite kind of pastry. But as I read on, I found out that it was a frangipane tart. This I love! I've been wanting to try my hands on making a frangipane tart for ages. As I mentioned before, post-exam and down with the flu is not exactly the best time to get my creative juice running. So I settled for a simple & basic flavour combination. I made 2 version, one is green tea frangipane with homemade raspberry jam and the other one is vanilla frangipane with yuzu lemon curd.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

The bakewell tart itself, being a traditional English dessert, has a rich history behind it. Instead of boring you with it, you can read it here, or visit Jasmine's blog. She talked a lot about the history and lore about the bakewell tart....er pudding.

I personally LOVED this tart or pudding. The almond frangipane is light and fluffy yet so decadent. The homemade shortcrust pastry is beautiful. The texture is perfect for me. Making this cake is quite simple and quick. This recipe is definitely a keeper. The combination of green tea and raspberry is perfect. Not too sweet, and the green & red colour combine with the brown from the crust is so beautiful. Whereas the Yuzu one.. yumm is all I can say. I'm falling in love with Yuzu. I love it's aromatic flavour with a less tanginess when compared to original lemon. It almost taste like a lemonade, even though I didn't add sugar or soda to it. Thank you so much for the hostess for showing me this wonderful recipe. Please check the other daring bakers for their wonderful creations. Hopefully all of you can enjoy this recipe as much as I did =)

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Vanilla / Green tea Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Added flavourings:
1 Vanilla pod
2tbs of matcha powder

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Scrape the seeds of one vanilla bean and to the frangipane mixture. Set aside the required amount for the vanilla/yuzu lemon tart and add green tea/ matcha powder to the other half of the frangipane mixture. Mix well

Raspberry jam

1 punnet of raspberry (250g), blend and sieved through a fine sieve to remove the seeds
250g sugar
1-2 tsp of pectin

In a heavy based saucepan, cook raspberry juice, sugar and pectin to a boil. Once it boiled, turn down the heat and simmer until it thickens. Turn off heat and cool to room temperature before using. Any excess jam can be stored in a sterilized jar and spread on your toast in the morning.

Yuzu lemon curd

1/2 cup of Yuzu lemon juice zest of 1 lemon 1/2 cup sugar 3 large eggs 125g butter, at room temperature In a heavy saucepan, whisk together alll the ingredients and cook in a medium-low heat. Whisk constantly until the curd thickens and can easily coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a bowl and wrap tightly with a cling wrap. Cool to room temperature before transfering to the fridge. Chill for a minimum of 2 hours before using.

A cocktail to celebrate

2009-06-25T22:14:00.002+10:00

I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!
No more exam, no more assignment, no more group meetings.
But you know what, when I was a full time student, a nice holliday or time off usually follows, but now, I'm just back to become a full time worker. hmpfh!

I made this cocktail for my boss' BYO cocktail party. It's lychee, lime and mint vodka tonic with strawberry pearls. I think I mentioned before that I tried my hands on molecular gastronomy, but it wasn't so good because the pudding didn't set. However this time, I got pictures! =).

For detailed instruction & recipe on making the pearls, please visit Michael Laiskonis' blog

Lychee, mint and lime Vodka tonic
Adapted from Good Taste Magazine July 2009
serves 12-15

2 cans of lychee, diced
110g brown sugar
40 fresh mint leaves
4-5 limes, quartered
360ml vodka
2L Soda water, chilled, to serve
Ice cubes, to serve

Divide the sugar, mint lime, and lychee among serving glasses. Use the end of a rolling pin to gently pound until lime is crushed.Pour vodka among glasses. Top with soda water and ice. Serve.

Dumpling dinner party - DC June 2009

2009-06-15T20:30:00.002+10:00

**updated, ooppss.. sorry, I forgot to thank Jen from userealbutter for being a terrific hostest on this month's challenge. Please forgive me, I was busy cramming for exam when I made this post =p**

A day late, but I promise you, it will be worth the wait.

I went all out for this month's Daring Cooks. The brief said to make potstickers, but since I love dumplings soooo much, I made it 4 ways.. with 3 different fillings. Plus a dessert version to end the night with a sweet note.

xiao long bao

In the midst of my cramming session for my exams, I allocate one whole day to make this dumplings. The pleating and rolling out the dumpling proved to be quite therapeutic and a short escape from the grueling hours buried in books. I have a couple of dumpling recipe that I want to try so instead of picking one, I decided to try them all. But being the idiot that I am, instead of doing the fillings half the recipe or even less, I did all of them in full quantity, so I end up with heaps of dumplings. Fortunately, they freeze well, so I can enjoy them for weeks. I invited a couple of friends for a dumpling dinner.

I made the whole dinner with dumplings. Mushroom and tofu potstickers in thick broth for appetizer, prawn & chicken and wafu gyoza dumplings served in 2 ways for the main, and a choc caramel banana mille feuille for dessert. For the main course, I boil the dumplings and made it as a dumpling noodle soup.

xiao long bao

To accompany the noodle soup, I also made some xia long bao. Xia long bao is a traditional shanghai style dumplings where each delicate dumplings holds a tasty soup in the middle. I used to think they inject the soup into the dumpling. But after reading chef Joycelyn's rendition of it, I found out that the broth was first set into a gelee that looks like a translucent jewel-like cubes. Then, from the steaming process, the gelee liquifies back into a broth, hence the soupy centre in the dumplings. I've tried making xiao long bao before, and back then, I was making it for myself, so I can actually use the secret ingredient that makes the broth very gelatinous, even without the addition of a setting agent like agar-agar or gelatine.It is very simple really, the secret lies in the skin of a pig, or pork rind. It is so fatty and rich in albumen and colagen that is very gelatinous when cooked in water. However, this time, as I am cooking for M this time, I used chicken stock and add agar-agar to make it set. I still couldn't get the pleating technique right, but it's good enough for me. The appetizer is actually inspired from watching masterchef. I'm so addicted to masterchef lately, I sometimes even watch the rerun on my lunch hour. It was the winning dish that made Julia won the invention test which then leads to her win over chef Peter Evans and a guaranteed spot in the finals.

And last but not least, being the sweet tooth that I am, I couldn't resist making a dessert. I deep fried the lefover dumpling skin, and made an asian mille feuille with banana, chocolate and caramel sauce. The chocolate mousse is also leftover from my friend's two tier birthday cake.

As you can see, I enjoyed this challenge so much. Thank you Jenn for the tasty challenge, as well as the recipe. Can't wait for next month's challenge =)

Dumpling skin:
250g flour
1tsp salt (replace with sugar for the mille feuille)
100ml boiling water

Combine salt and flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Boil water, and as soon as it stop's bubbling, pour into the well in the centre of the flour mixture. With a fork, slowly incorporate flour into the water until it forms a dough. Transfer to a work surface and continue working on the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Keep covered in a damp cloth all the time when you're not working with the dough to prevent it from drying out.

Mushroom & Tofu filling:
Recipe by Julia, Masterchef Australia finalist

50g firm tofu, finely diced
2 stems choy sum, finely chopped
50g mixed Asian mushrooms, finely diced
1 tsp fresh ginger finely diced

combine the tofu, greens, mushrooms and ginger in a bowl, mix and season.

Broth:
3 cups chicken stock
1 tbs caster sugar
¼ cup black vinegar
1 tbs light soy sauce
2cm piece ginger, peeled and sliced

For the broth, pour the stock into a saucepan. Add the sugar, vinegar, soy and ginger. Place over a medium heat and allow to simmer.

Shrimp & chicken filling:

1/2 lb (225g) raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb (225g) ground chicken
5 chinese chives, minced
1/4 cup (55g) ginger root, minced
1 tsp (5g) salt
3 tbsp (40g) sesame oil
2 tbsp (16g) corn starch

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).

Wafu gyoza filling recipe can be found here

Xiao Long Bao:

broth gelee:
500ml of chicken stock - preferably home made
half a packet of agar-agar

in a separate bowl, disperse agar-agar in 50ml of stock, set aside. In a saucepan, bring stock to the boil, season with salt and pepper. Add the agar-agar and simmer for 1-2 mins. In a shallow dish, pour the stock and cool to room temperature. Set in refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. After fully set, dice gelee into cubes.

For Xiao Long Bao, I use the wafu gyoza filling and the shrimp & chicken filling. Steam in a bamboo steamer over a bed of lettuce.

Noodle soup:
bunch of shitake mushroom
bunch of enoki mushroom
egg noodle
1L of chicken stock
200-400ml of water
hoisin sauce
soy sauce
ginger
dash of fish sauce
sesame oil
bunch of chinese chives
bok choy

Boil chicken stock and water in a large pot. Add sauces & ginger according to taste. put dumplings and boil for a couple of minutes until it becomes see-through. Put in mushrooms, bok choy and chives and simmer until it boils again. Cook noodle according to pack instruction. Put noodles in individual bowls, pour the soup over.

Potstickers:
In a shallow pan, heat oil and fry the dumplings until browned in the bottom. Pour in chicken stock and cover pan immediately, trapping the steam inside. Please be careful, as it will splatter a lot. If you're like me, the thought of oil splattering is unbearable, steam it in a separate pan. While the dumpling is cooking, in a separate pan, heat up chicken stock. As the dumplings browned, transfer the dumplings to the pan with chicken stock and cover immediately. Steam until most of the stock are absorbed by the dumpling and dumplings are translucent.

My first two tier cake

2009-05-26T09:46:00.002+10:00

My second cake order.. This time for one of my close friend's birthday. I would naturally made a cake for her anyway, but this time, her sister made a special order from me. I'm so happy. I'm getting sick of making chocolate cakes, so I decided this time I want to make it interesting. The birthday girl is someone who really appreciates food, so I can be a bit fancy here. At first, I want to combine raspberry with chocolate. Classic flavour combination, nothing can go wrong with that. However, I just bought a bottle of Yuzu lemon Juice that already passed it's best before date, so I need to use it right away. Ever since I read about Yuzu lemon, I was intrigued. I always thought there was only one type of lemon in this world. But now I've been hearing about Yuzu & Meyer lemon.. Of course, Australia being very remote, don't have those two fruits. So I'm on a man hunt for some kind of extract or some sort of puree. I finally found it at Simon Johnson two weeks ago. But it's price makes my jaws drop! $50+ for a 500ml bottle!!! you got to be kidding me!!

But wait! there's hope after all. when my housemate told me Simon Johnson is having a warehouse clearance, I literally jumped for joy. So off we go at 7.30 in the morning to Port Melbourne. When she told me she wants to go at 7am in the morning, I thought she was out of her mind, but it turns out to be quite packed when we got there. By 8.30am, some stuff has already run out. And yes, my Yuzu juice was on sale!! down to just $10. Fabulous!! Less to say, I couldn't keep myself composed on that sale. I was like a kid in a candy store. My biggest splurge would be the 4kg bags of Valhorna chocolates. Gosh! all that chocolates!! my mind was spinning from thinking the numerous fabulous dessert I can create with that. I wasn't the only one that went mad with chocolates. by 8am the once high piles of Valhorna chocolates was cleaned out. At $15-$20 a kilo for what normally is $50-$60 a kilo, that chocolates are a steal!

I can keep the chocolates for a while, the Yuzu juice on the other hand, need to be used immediately. I think I will have "Project: Yuzu Lemon" for the whole next month. So far, I can only think making lemon curd and lemon mousse. Any better ideas??

Back to the cake.. if I had trouble decorating for guys because I'm too feminine, this time I have trouble because there is just too many options!! I tried drawing inspirations from what I know about her. She's fashionable (a fashion desgner I might add), very feminine, likes owls, loves chocolates. Oh gosh! the options! As always, I turn to Flickr for inspiration. Then I saw a wedding cake with black and white polka dots and a fabulous flower details on them. It looks like a fashion hat. So I used that as inspiration. With every cake, I like to push myself everytime. This time, I challenge myself to make a two tier cake. Chocolate cake as the base, with lemon and chocolate mousse filling, chocolate IMBC frosting and chocolate flavoured fondant.

A little drama.. the flower decorations turns out quite brittle. I may have went overboard with the CMC therefore it's very dry and brittle. I should have used gum paste instead. One other thing, I forgot to let the frosting hardens before enrobing it with the fondant, therefore the fondant didn't have a solid ground to hold on to, that's why I can't get the edges to be sharp and the frostng actually got pushed down, creating a bulging bottom. Aside from that, I love the design. The combination of brown, green and red is very chic and gorgeous.

Chocolate mousse
Recipe taken from Delicious - June 2009

300g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
3 eggs
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
1 tbs good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
300ml thickened cream, plus extra whipped cream to serve
Grated chocolate, to serve

Method

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted. Remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool slightly. Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters for 5 minutes, or until mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold in cooled chocolate and cocoa powder until combined. In a separate bowl, whip cream until thickened (be careful not to over-beat). Use a large metal spoon to carefully fold the cream into the chocolate mixture, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible.

Yuzu Lemon Mousse
Recipe taken from Delicious - June 2009

1 eggs
100ml of Yuzu lemon juice
1tbs finely grated lemon rind
25g caster sugar
150ml thickened cream

Method

Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters for 5 minutes, or until mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold in juice and rind.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until thickened (be careful not to over-beat). Use a large metal spoon to carefully fold the cream into the lemon-egg mixture, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible.

Asian night

2009-05-24T09:45:00.004+10:00

What better ways to spend an evening catching up with an old friend over a hearty bowl of laksa lemak. It's wholesome goodness packs a spicy punch to a chilly evening. I went all out creating a three course asian dinner started with fresh oysters with asian soy dressing, laksa lemak and a refreshing mango pudding with strawberry pearl and condensed milk for a sweet touch at the end of the meal.

It's definitely not mango season here in Melbourne, but I can't find anything better to end the night. So I substitute the mango puree with a fresh mango sorbet from Jones the Grocer. Well, I thought of making some egg tarts, but I want to try my hands on Molecular Gastronomy inspired by chef Ferran Adria from the renowned restaurant il Bulli in Spain. And again, I am just to lazy to make pastry. When doing last month's DB challenge on cheesecake, I was in awe looking at what Pretty Tasty Cakes manage to put together. She then referred me to Michael Laiskonis from La Bernadine who taught her how to create the pearls. I don't have a picture of the mango pudding or the pearl i'm afraid. The stupid pudding didn't set properly!! But I promise this won't be the last time I play around with fruit pearls.

You can find the recipe for Laksa Lemak here.

Asian dressing

Sake
Soy sauce
Rice wine vinegar
fish sauce
Lime juice

chilly, thinly sliced
cucumber, thinly sliced
tobiko (red, black or wasabi)

Combine all the sauce ingredients according to taste. I like mine sour and acidic, so I put extra vinegar and lime juice.
When ready to serve, pour about 2tsp (depending on the size of each oyster) of sauce in each oyster shell, top it with chilly and cucumber. Put generous amount of tobiko on top.

Japanese Night

2009-05-22T09:43:00.003+10:00

A Japanese friend once told me "Oyako" in Japan means "parent and child" (I always thought it meant egg - silly me). In the Oyako don that you usually get from your normal Japanese eatery, this dish usually consist of chicken and egg - hence the "parent and child" combination. In this dish however, it would refer to the salmon and the salmon roe.

As a child, my dad used to take me to this fabulous Japanese restaurant at Kempinski Hotel in Jakarta. Their specialty was "Kamameshi" combined with fabulous grilled Yakitoris which basically means satay. Due to its minute size compared to the usual satay skewer, I always refer them as "mini satay". Kamameshi itself is basically rice steamed in a cyprus container with some sort of beef, seafood or vegetables. The rice itself is very tasty and full of Japanese flavours.

Ever since I moved to Melbourne, I have only found one Japanese restaurant that does this dish, but it's hardly something to rave about. So I guess I have to have a go at creating this myself. I don't know where to get the cyprus container nor would I even know where to begin looking for it here. After turning to my trusted friend, Google, I found a recipe at RecipeZaar that uses rice cooker to cook it. Brilliant! I say. Here I thought I will get to use my new claypot dish I bought from the courtesy of my mum's credit card (tee hee hee - in my defense, the eftpos machine wasn't working that day at Essential Ingredients, with no cash on hand, I only have my in-case-of-an-emergency credit card's). So I just use it to serve the rice at the end.

I adjusted the recipe for 2 and to use salmon instead of chicken. Please excuse the crappy photos, I left my SLR at M's house, so I had to use M's crappy camera.

Salmon Oyako Kamameshi
Original recipe taken from RecipeZaar

1-2 cups rice
1 cups chicken broth
1 cups of dashi (made from 1 cup of boiling water to 1-2 tbs of dashi powder)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 cup shiitake mushroom, chopped
1 fillet of fresh salmon, cut in 4 slices
Red tobiko for garnish
a handful of boiled edamame

Sauce

1-2 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoons sugar
1-2 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon mirin

Wash rice until the water almost clear. Drain. Mix all the sauce ingredients with the broth. Put the rice and shiitake mushroom in the rice cooker. Pour in the liquid and cook. In the meantime, boil a handful of edamame in a slightly salted water for about 3-5 minutes. Remove the pods from the skin. Once the rice cooker finish cooking, put the salmon fillets on top of the rice and let it steam no longer than 10 minutes. Remove from the rice cooker, stir in tobiko and edamame. Serve with a glass of sake, extra edamame, Japanese pickles or a simple Japanese salad of beanshoots in rice wine vinegar and a dash of soy sauce.

My first cake order - Madagascar theme cake

2009-05-19T09:44:00.003+10:00

Baking can be quite an expensive hobby sometimes. Especially when you're a self thaught novice where mistakes and wastage are inevitable. Especially in my case, where the number of recipes that I want to try my hands on doesn't really balanced the level of consumption of me and the people surrounds me. I'm running out of people to be treated as "lab rats" or probably nicer to say "taste testers". So, when my friend ordered a cake for her nephew's second birthday, eventhough i'm in the middle of two major assignments, I just couldn't say no. My first official order? The first time I actually getting paid for doing what I love? How can I possibly say no.

The biggest question here is not what design or what flavours should I make the cake, it was how much should I charge? With little to no experience on pricing strategies nor business strategies for that matter, I would just have to guess it this time. I still feel inadequate to charge for my time. With the quality control being inexistent, I still feel very scared of how people might think of my rates. I'm happy enough if people exchange me for all the expenses of buying the ingredients. The most expensive ones would be the chocolates. I thought by using the supermarket brand, it would be much much cheaper. But I was wrong. The couverture chocolate sold in the supermarket is actually almost doubled the price of my fancy Lindt couverture chocolates I bought at Essential Ingredients. I guess buying in bulk really pays off sometimes. I thought of using compound chocolates, but for the chocolate ganache, it will go through several times of reheating. And to my knowledge, compound chocolates are not meant to be reheated. Couverture in the other hand will be fine. I may be wrong on this, but the limited time that I have will not allow me to do a trial and error.

I want to try using a lighter chocolate cake this time. I'm not a big fan of mud cakes or any dense cake in that matter. Ideally, I'd go for a sponge cake anytime. But I know, sponge cakes cannot suffice the weight of the icing, it needs a dense cake. I just realized by doing this cake that I actually don't have a basic chocolate cake in my recipe repertoire. You would have think for someone who bakes as much as I do, chocolate cake recipe should have been one of my staple recipe. I found a recipe of a chocolate cake that I found interesting. So based on that recipe, I start calculating my cost. Give and take here and there (I can't really measure the cost of my flour and sugar as I buy it in bulk and was too lazy to calculate how much it cost per 100g) I ended up with a couple of options. $45 for choc cake with choc buttercream, $55 for choc cake with choc mousse filling and choc buttercream, $65 for choc mud cake with choc ganache. To serve 30 people, I think that's a very good price. I absolutely have no idea whether those prices are good or not. More experienced cake decorator out there, please help me out.......

I ended up over budget since the chocolate cake recipe said it would serve 15, but it ended up not rising and quite short, so I have to make 3 times the recipe instead of 2. My friend opt for the cheapest option, which uses choc buttercream. It actually work to my advantage, one, I get to try Cake Journal's IMBC (Italian Meringue Butter Cream) recipe and two, I don't have to sacrifice my chocolates even more, because even at $65, I don't think it will cover the cost of the chocolates. There must be a better way.. I need to do more research.

The birthday boy loves sponge bob, Alex the lion from Madagascar, and Thomas the Tank. So naturally, that's what he wants for his birthday. At first, the thought of modelling all the Madagascar cast seems very daunting, and Thomas the Tank has navy blue and christmas red colours (the two colours that are hard to produce in icing). So I pushed the sponge bob idea. But it's very unlike me to turn down a good challenge. After hours of looking at Madagascar pictures, I decided to go ahead with the madagascar design. In one of my cake decorating books, I found a cake design where it looks like a round jungle with animal heads popping out between the trees. This is perfect for my Madagascar cake. I only need to model the heads of the cast, I don't need to do their bodies.

Out of the four (well, Melvin the Giraffe has to be singled out as I ran out of time), I think my Gloria the hippo looks the most like the real one, with the Zebra (I forgot his name) being the hardest one to sculpt. The feedback from everyone has been fantastic. They loved every bit of the cake. The flavour, the look, everything. It's a job well done!

Step-by-step chocolate cake (for this cake I made 3 times the recipe)
Recipe taken from Notebook - September 2007, page 136

125g butter, chopped
2 tsp instant coffee powder
3/4 cup (185ml) water
100g good-quality dark cooking chocolate, chopped
1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (30g) almond meal
1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line the base and side of an 18cmround (base measurement) cake pan.Place the butter, coffee, water, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until butter and chocolate melt and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.Transfer mixture to a bowl. Sift the combined flours and cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and add the almond meal. Use a balloon whisk to gently fold the flour into the chocolate mixture. Add the egg and stir to combine.Pour cake mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 30 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool completely.

DC May 2009 - Ricotta Gnocchi

2009-05-14T12:52:00.006+10:00

The first ever daring cooks... YAY!! soo excited.

I was less excited when reading the first challenge I'm afraid.. gnocchi - good, ricotta - BAD! I'm not a big fan of ricotta. I prefer my cheese to be gutsy, full of flavour with a hint of smokiness or tartness. Ricotta in my opinion, feels no different than tofu.. tasteless and very mushy. I was contemplating to use a good Greek Fetta or a blue cheese instead of the Ricotta, but for the first challenge, I think I better stick to the brief. I never made a gnocchi before, so I don't want to be a smart ass and end up wasting good cheese. I did change the sauce. Adding a creamy sauce and an aioli that turns out beautifull with the gnocchi.

I have a lovely salmon fillett in the freezer so I made a salmon, oregano cream sauce - with heaps of parmiggiano regiano of course. For a lighter version, I also made a truffle infused garlic aioli with roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted garlic. Not sure if this will be something I will enjoy, I decided to make just half of the gnocchi. It still produce quite a lot. Enough for 3 meals for me. I'm eating the last batch as we speak. I personally love it with the cream sauce, the parmigiano helps to add more flavour to the gnocchi. I'm still not a convert i'm afraid. I do like the texture of the gnocchi. It is much nicer and creamier than potato gnocchi. It has that melt in your mouth feel to it. It's not very attractive though.. or maybe that's just my lack of gnocchi-shaping experience..

Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook.

Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6)

Prep time: Step 1 will take 24 hours. Steps 2 through 4 will take approximately 1 hour.

Tips:

- If you can find it, use fresh ricotta. As Judy Rodgers advises in her recipe, there is no substitute for fresh ricotta. It may be a bit more expensive, but it's worth it.
- Do not skip the draining step. Even if the fresh ricotta doesn't look very wet, it is. Draining the ricotta will help your gnocchi tremendously.
- When shaping your gnocchi, resist the urge to over handle them. It's okay if they look a bit wrinkled or if they're not perfectly smooth.
- If you're not freezing the gnocchi for later, cook them as soon as you can. If you let them sit around too long they may become a bit sticky.
- For the variations to the challenge recipe, please see the end of the recipe.

Equipment required:

- Sieve
- Cheesecloth or paper towels
- Large mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
- Tablespoon
- Baking dish or baking sheet
- Wax or parchment paper
- Small pot
- Large skillet
- Large pan or pot (very wide in diameter and at least 2 inches deep)

Videos that might help:

- Judy Rodgers Gnocchi Demo
- Making fresh ricotta demo
- Making ricotta gnocchi

For the gnocchi:

1 pound (454 grams/16 ounces) fresh ricotta (2 cups)
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) unsalted butter
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional)
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed)
about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt)
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi

For the gnocchi sauce:

8 tablespoons (227 grams/1/4 pound/4 ounces) butter, sliced
2 teaspoons water

Step 1 (the day before you make the gnocchi): Preparing the ricotta.

If the ricotta is too wet, your gnocchi will not form properly. In her cookbook, Judy Rodgers recommends checking the ricotta’s wetness. To test the ricotta, take a teaspoon or so and place it on a paper towel. If you notice a very large ring of dampness forming around the ricotta after a minute or so, then the ricotta is too wet. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Cover it and let it drain for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (2 layers) and suspend it in your refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours with a bowl underneath to catch the water that’s released. Either way, it’s recommended that you do this step the day before you plan on making the gnocchi.

Step 2 (the day you plan on eating the gnocchi): Making the gnocchi dough.

To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.

Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture.

Add in any flavouring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavouring, that’s fine.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.

Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Step 3: Forming the gnocchi.

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.

In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep.

With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the centre of your bowl.

Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.

At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.

Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes.

If your gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success.

Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them.

Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour.

You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up.

Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi.

Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other.

Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.

Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi).

When the gnocchi float to the top, you can start your sauce while you wait for them to finish cooking.

Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts. As soon as it melts and is incorporated with the water, turn off the heat. Your gnocchi should be cooked by now.

With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately.

Variations: For the gnocchi, you can flavour them however you wish. If you want to experiment by adding something to your gnocchi (i.e., caramelized onion, sundried tomato), feel free to do so. However, be forewarned, ricotta gnocchi are delicate and may not take well to elaborate additions. For the sauce, this is your chance to go nuts. Enjoy yourselves. Surprise us!!!

Freezing the gnocchi: If you don’t want to cook your gnocchi right away or if you don’t want to cook all of them, you can make them and freeze them. Once they are formed and resting on the flour-dusted, lined tray, place them uncovered in the freezer. Leave them for several hours to freeze. Once frozen, place them in a plastic bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Return to the freezer. To cook frozen gnocchi, remove them from the bag and place individually on a plate or on a tray. Place in the refrigerator to thaw completely. Cook as directed for fresh gnocchi.

Salmon Oregano Cream Sauce

30-40g of parmigiano regiano
200ml of thick cream
1 salmon fillett
2 tbs of dried oregano

Cook salmon for 20-30 seconds. Add the cream and let it boil. Put in the cheese and oregano, stir until the cheese is melted through. Set the flame to low, cook until the sauce thickens.

Trufle infused garlic aioli

1 stalk of vine ripened cherry tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
white truffle infused olive oil

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees. Combine all the ingredients on a baking tray. I usually don't bother peeling the garlic when roasting. drench with olive oil. Seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Roast untill the tomatoes are wrinkled.

McBurger Birthday cake

2009-04-30T18:50:00.007+10:00

I'm quite girly and feminine as a person, so decorating a cake for guys can be quite difficult for me. Flowers & hearts are definitely out of the picture. My colour palette is usually quite feminine too with pastel colours as a favourite. Usually, I always opt for chocolates as it is quite universal. But I like to push myself everytime, I'm bored playing it safe. And I want to practice my fondant skill after my last disaster. Lately, I've been going to flickr for decorating inspiration. You really can find some great ideas there. In there, I've seen a few burger shaped cake that I thought was pretty cool and perfect for my friend.

He loves chocolate so I'm making the basic chocolate mud cake in the shape of a burger. Strapped for cash and time due to my assignments, I decided to use whatever's available in my pantry. I don't have time to go to cake deco to get red, yellow and brown icing colourings for the tomato, cheese and the buns. Luckily, I still have caramel brown icing from the course and green from Zio's cake. I incorporate some plain white icing to 3/4 of the brown to get that faded brown colour for the buns. For the beef, I wanted a deep brown colour. In painting, caramel brown + black would equal dark brwon, right?........ wrong! in icing colouring, it would equal to a yucky greyish colour. so I ended up leaving the meat part covered in chocolate ganache without a fondant covering. Since my friend is not so fussy about cakes and he's happy enough if someone would take the time to make him one, so I tried not to went over my head. I decided to put just a few layers of lettuce and a slice of cheese. Just call this a meaty burger with little toppings.

The drama was kept to a minimal this time, in fact, there's hardly any. My ganache worked perfectly! I found out why it didn't work for me the first time. It's because I set it in the fridge rather than in room temperature. However, due to this crazy freezing weather, my kitchen feels like a fridge, so I put it in my oven overnight *turned off obviously*, and warm it up in the microwave for 2 minutes on low to soften it up. Ideally, if you have time, try to make the buns in white chocolate mud cake and dark chocolate for the meat. Therefore, when they slice the cake, it will look like real burger.

My fondant skills nor my covering-the-cake-with-ganache skill is still faaaarrrr from perfect but I'd like to think I'm improving. Still a crack here and there and ganache stain as well, but it's getting better. I'm planing to get some stirofoam made up in different sizes so I can practice and not waste any cake.

I will post the recipe this time.. you can also find it in Paris Cutler's Planet Cake book along with fabulous cake decorating ideas.

Additional info:
This morning I read this post again and thought I'd like to share more about the process of making this cake. It may not be new to all of you experienced bakers and cake decorators, but perhaps this will be beneficial for us novices. In decorating with fondant, it would be good to divide the work in a couple of days rather than finishing it at one go. Unlike sponge cakes, or when you decorating with buttercream, fondant cakes can be handled better when the cake had enough resting time. Time wise, this could actually be an advantage. Especially for someone who has a tight schedule like me. When my friends asked me "how long does it take you to make that cake?", I said "four days" they all looked at me with a blank face. It's actually not that long. perhaps in that 4 days, I only spend around 1 - 2 hours of active time, the most time is spent on the final day when you put it all together (It took me. Please keep in mind the cake can keep around 7-10 days once it's taken out from the fridge. So for ecample in this case, if you are having the party on Thursday, you should bake the cake at least Sunday or Monday the latest. The cake itself when stored in the fridge can last up to 3 weeks. Here's a detailed rundown of the schedule:
- Day 1 -> bake the cake, mix in colours, make decoration if using (I only had to do the sesame seeds for the bun, so this process is quite quick for me)
- Day 2 -> Make the ganache (it has to be set overnight)
- Day 3 -> cover the cake with ganache (keep it in an airtight container to prevent drying)
- Day 4 (this is where you need the most time) -> cover the cake with fondant and put in all the decorations. For this burger cake, It took me around 2.5 hours to do this part including making the lettuce and cheese, and I'm considered quite slow.

Hopefully this will help you plan your cakes better and avoid any drama =)

Chocolate Mud Cake makes one 22cm (9in) round cake or 20cm (8in) square cake. For this cake, I only made 3/4 of the recipe

220g butter
220g dark chocolate, chopped
25g coffee
125g self raising flour
125g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
480g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
7tsp vegetable oil
100ml buttermilk

Put butter, chocolate coffee and 160ml of water in saucepan and melt under low heat stirring constantly. Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarb of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make well in the centre. Add the combined egg, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mixture to the flour, stir well with a large spoon.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes in a 160 degrees oven. Cooled completely in the tin. Cake can keep in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer.

Chocolate Ganache
(again, I use 3/4 of the recipe)

600ml of cream
1.2 kg of bittersweet chocolate couverture - (I use Lindt 58% bittersweet chocolate couverture)
A little note: For friends I like I usually use Lindt chocolates (they're pretty good and quite reasonably priced), for the so so friends, I just use the general brands like Cadburry couverture or Nestle couverture since they are much cheaper. For myself or loved ones, I always chose the best and my most favourites like Valhorna or Kennedy & Wilson. They are superior with also a premium price especially here in Melbourne as there's only one store that stock Valhorna.

Chop the chocolates as finely as you can and put in a large bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it reaches just bellow the boiling point. Pour cream over chocolates, whisking constantly. Whisk until smooth. Don't use a mixer as you will incorporate too much air to the ganache. Cool completely. After cooled, cover tightly with glad wrap with the wrap touching the surface of the ganache to avoid skin forming. Leave to set overnight in room temperature. When you're ready to use, if the ganache is too hard, heat it up in the microwave on low for 1-2 minutes and until it reaches the desired consistency. You're looking for a nutella-like consistency.

Assembling the cake

Syrup
2-3 tbs of jam (any flavour)
20ml of liquor (any flavour - jamaican rum, cointreau, grand marnier or tia maria are always nice with chocolate)
150-250ml of water

Instead of getting rid of the bump on the top, I usually cut thinly on the hard skin of the cake, and reserving it to patch uneven surfaces later. to get a perfectly level surface of the top, use the second layer or the cake as the first layer. Brush each layer generously with the syrup to moisten the cake. Wait until the cake absorp the liquid before putting the ganache. Cover it with ganache. Let the ganache to set in room temperature. When ready to cover with fondant, brush the cake with the syrup or water to help the fondant to stick better to the cake. Here's a video on covering a cake with fondant:

Cheesecakeletes three ways - DB April 2009

2009-04-27T09:41:00.004+10:00

I admit my defeat. I finally caved in to these cheesecakes. I never used to like cheesecakes. The texture, the sligtly tangy and sweet taste just never work for me. Especially that stuck-in-your-throat feeling you get everytime you eat a spoonful. Bleh! The one and only time I ever made a cheesecake, a baked one I might add was for my boss's birthday and I still wasn't sold by this dessert. However, I think I might just found a recipe that could change my skepticism.The recipe that is this month's Daring Bakers challenge was soooo creamy and the texture was so soft (soft enough for me to wreck one when I tried to unmold it). Not the easiest or simplest recipe I'm afraid. The baking time plus resting time, and the water bath makes this recipe quite challenging (coming from a girl who burnt herself in too many occasion from trying to remove the heavy water-bath-filled pan). But this water bath is the key to achieve it's creamy texture.

We were given total freedom to change the recipe this month. In fact, that is part of the challenge, creating different flavour combination or ways to serve the cheesecake. Me being the indecisive that I am, of course couldn't decide on one flavour, so instead, I did it three ways. The three most favourite ways of how I do dessert. Fruity, chocolatey and not forget the very best, cookies and creme. You can say that my love of desserts are summed up in this three cakelets. Eventhough I adore figs, but this is not actually my first preference, but my all time favourite, the berries and cherries are long gone since we are well in the winter season now here in downunder. And figs seems to be at it's top of the season, so I paired it with a lovely bush honey for my fruity cheesecake.

Before I forget, this is the official blurb that needs to be posted:
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecakeletes:
(2/3 of recipe) I use three ramekin dishes

crust for the honey and marble cheesecakelets:
120 g graham cracker crumbs
74g butter, melted
16g caster sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Oreo crust:
60 g Oreo biscuit, set aside the white parts for the cheesecake
37g butter, melted
8g caster sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecakeletes:
450g cream cheese, room temperature
2 large eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

Honey & Fig:
25g sugar
25g bush honey
3-5 dried figs

Plain:
50g caster sugar

Cookies & Cream:
25g sugar
white cream leftovers from crust
3-4 oreo biscuits, roughly crushed into big chunks

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Thai Sunday

2009-04-26T15:01:00.003+10:00

When the wind is gushing outside with a speed that can blow you away and a house that feels more like the inside of a fridge, spending your time in front of the oven actually feels like heaven. Another excuse to keep pending my assignment. Yes, I have yet another assignment lined up next week. But this time, is a group one, so the work is shared.

I have defrosted a nice fillet of fish in the fridge that is ready to be prepped. When it comes to savoury food, a combination of sour, salty and a nice kick of heat is always my favourite, especially when it comes to seafood. That's why I always cook my fish, Thai style.

To make it even more Thai, I also made a fresh pot of Thai milk tea. Eventhough I always tried to make everything from scratch, this time, I chose to go the instant way with a sachet of ready made thai milk tea. I always loved this rather bright orange coloured drink. Not just because it's attractive colour, but also from it's sweet and fragrant take on the ordinary milk tea. And it complements Thai style dishes perfectly. However, this is the first time I drank it hot. With this weather, I certainly didn't feel like for ice cold drinks.

For the fish, I decided to bake them instead of frying them. Making them healthier and fuss free from dealing with hot oil splats. It uses all the traditional Thai spices like lemongrass, ginger, coriander and kaffir lime leaves. I did cheat a bit by using store bought red curry paste.. but you can always make them yourself if you like. A little warning, I can handle a little bit of heat, so this recipe is quite hot, however, if you like to mellow the heat, you can deseeded the chilli or leave it out all together.

Thai chilli fish
adapted from here
2 fillet of white fish
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
about 2 cm of fresh ginger, grated
1 lemongrass, chopped
1 tbs of red curry paste
2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
2 tbs of sweet chilli sauce
3 tbs of lime juice
2 chillies, chopped
3 tbs fish sauce
1/2 tbs palm sugar

Clean the fish and make 3 or 4 large score on the skin. Combine all the ingredient in a shallow oven proof dish. Mix in the fish and combine the marinating ingrediant to completely coat the fish. Refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 C. Bake fish covered in aluminium foil for 20-25 minutes. Remove foil and place fish on the top rack of your oven and grill until the skin are crispy, usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Serve with jasmine rice and Thai milk tea.

A hearty breakfast when time is on your side

2009-04-18T10:00:00.000+10:00

Nothing can make my day brighter like a good hearty breakfast in a lazy weekend. For once, time is on my side this morning and the rainy weather is perfect to be spent with a hearty comforting vanilla rice pudding. Rice puddings are not hard to make, but it can be quite time consuming. A good one will take at least one hour with constant stirring. I have been looking for a recipe for making it in a slow cooker, but I haven't had much luck.

I first tried making rice pudding when I bought the Marie Claire breakfast book. It calls for a lot of spices like cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, just the way I like it. But when I cooked it, I ended up with a mess. It seems to need almost double the quantity of milk as what stated in the recipe, but the rice was still undercooked at the end. What a disappointment from what seems to be a very promising start. Not until I tried making Aran's arroz con leche when my faith is restored. Her version is so simple with only cinnamon and milk but it was soooooo good. To satisfy my need of spice, I added the spices from Marie Claire's recipe and cook it using Aran's method. I end up cooking it for almost 90 minutes to 120 minutes to achieve a thicker rice pudding. I have some left over of fleur de sel caramel sauce from the pancake I made a couple of days back, so I add it to the vanilla rice pudding. yumm yumm yumm.

Vanilla rice pudding

1 litre milk
100g arborio rice
50g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp freshly ground cardamom
pinch of fleur de sel or sea salt
1 vanilla bean, seeded

In a heavy based pan, heat the milk, salt, spices and cinnamon stick to a gentle simmer. Try to keep the heat very low. Add sugar and rice, stir to combine. Stir every 5 minutes or so and cook gently until it thickens. It took about 90-120 minutes for me to get a thick consistency. Serve with any sauce or on its own with a dash of freshly grated cinnamon.

Fleur de sel caramel sauce

250g brown sugar
400ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, seeded
60g butter, chopped
1/2 tsp fleur de sel

In a heavy based saucepan, cook sugar, cream, vanilla and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stirring constantly, cook until it boils and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in fleur de sel. Set aside until it thickens to the desired consistency.

Happy belated easter

2009-04-17T23:22:00.004+10:00

I had macaroons for Christmas, hot cross buns for Good Friday, and now red velvet for Easter. In the shape of eggs of course. Eventhough it's almost a week too late, I hope everyone still in the mood for Easter spirit. Sorry, life keeps getting in the way and I'm behind on my posts. Now you know why I made the red velvet cupcake the other day.

I got my hands full with all the hot cross buns and church on Easter weekend, so I didn't have time to properly decorate the eggs. Colouring chocolates is just not the extra work I needed when I'm trying to juggle between masses, bread baking and catching up on some much needed sleep after a crazy week. If you've been paying attention, I had a super hectic week before Easter. That's why my single most important mission during the 4 days Easter long weekend plus 2 extra days of annual leave was to do "absolutely nothing". Well, nothing that I don't like anyways. Sipping coffee in a quaint little cafe with a good book or a good company and sleeping in is what I intended to do for the whole Easter break.

So, to avoid more work with the chocolates, I did what I do best, paint. I used oil candy colouring to decorate the eggs. I was so lazy, I only painted these 5 eggs and left the rest plain white and brought it to the Easter dinner on Good Friday.

I used Stephanie Jarowski from joyofbaking's recipe for the red velvet cake and Jennifer Graham from Crabapple Cupcake's for the cream cheese frosting.

Happy belated Easter everyone!

Cream cheese frosting

125g unsalted butter, softened
400g cream cheese, softened
1.5tsp vanilla essence
6 cups icing sugar

cream the butter for 1-2 mins. Add cream cheese, vanilla and 3 cups of the sifted icing sugar and beat for a further 3 mins or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and of a spreadable consistency.

Red velvet Cake Chocettes

Red velvet cake. you can find the recipe here
Cream cheese frosting
1 packet of white chocolate (use compound for a shortcut, so you don't have to temper the chocolate)

Bake the red velvet cake.
Make frosting.
Both of them can be made one days in advance. Keep in the fridge in an airtight container.
In a large bowl, crumble cake using your hands or a mixer. Mix in frosting gradually until the mixture is moist. Carefull not to add too many frosting or not you will have trouble shaping the chocettes. Take one teaspoon at a time and shape the dough into egg shaped. Put in the fridge for an 30 minutes to firm it up. While it's chilling in the fridge, melt the chocolate using a double boiler or in the microwave. Dip the chocettes in the chocolate and put in a baking tray to set. Try to place the eggs with the bottom of the egg touching the tray so you will end up with a nice smooth egg-shaped chocolates. Decorate by colouring chocolates and piping it or if you're too lazy, just paint some design with oil colouring.

Perfect buns for Good Friday

2009-04-10T18:10:00.004+10:00

In an Easter fashion, especially on Good Friday, it's only natural to have hot cross buns. This year, I decided to try my hands on making them. I tried two recipes that I found interesting. One is Meeta's from What's for Lunch Honey and the other one is the one I found on this month's Delicious magazine, my favourite cooking magazine.
I actually made this one yesterday and brought it to work as a trial. I need to try the recipe first before I make the real one for our Easter get together today. Even with all my traumatic experience with yeast, this buns are quite easy to make. And a good recipe that offers windows of opportunities to alter. On the first one, I made the traditional one with lots and lots of raisins. It became the talk of the office. My 'buns' was the hot topic of the day. =)

On the one I made for our get together, I substitute the raisins with chocolate chips, because one thing I know for sure about my friends are if there's raisin or dried fruits in them, there's no way that they're touching them. I made 1.5 times of Meeta's recipe and after adding the chocolate chips, I divide the recipe in half and put all water in one and half water and half coffee on the other one to make a mocha hot cross buns.

One thing I learned from this, is when making it with choc chips, add them last after you mix in the yeast and the water, so the chocolate will not melted through the dough.

the right to vote

2009-04-09T17:59:00.001+10:00

In a patriotic spirit to my country, I decided to dedicate this red velvet cupcake to this democratic day where all Indonesian in all corners of the earth share their rights to vote in the hope of a better future for the country. Well, actually, that's just my excuse to make red velvet cake and made a simple icing decoration in the shape of our red and white flag. Any excuse will do, right?

I didn't even share my vote today.. hey, not my fault they decided to do it on Holy Thursday. I was planning to vote before work or before church, but it turns out they only open the ballot from 9.30am to 7.30 pm, I start work at 9 and there's no way I can take time off work since this will be my last chance to catch up with my boss before her trip to China, and the mass is at 6pm - 7.30pm. What a girl to do?

I have a strong opinion on the fact that they held it on Holy Thursday, but I decided to spare you my rant, anyways, today is Holy Thursday..

cake scraps = cake chocettes

2009-04-08T17:06:00.001+10:00

I have some cake scraps from the baby block cake I made last weekend and whole lot of cookies and cream frosting from the cupcakes. Not wanting to waste any of this, I decided to make same cake chocettes. I know I know.. I should have been relaxing and catching up on some sleep after being sleep deprived for more than a week, but I just hate to waste all this up. It's very simple to whip these babies up anyways, and by using compound chocolate to dip it, takes the hassle from having to temper the chocolates.

I made some into choc-kabobs and gave it to some friends as an early easter treat.

Special cake for a a special one year old

2009-04-07T12:22:00.000+10:00

A very close friends of mine is having a birthday party for their beloved one year old. Zio along with their parents are some people I hold dear to my heart. I have always been there since this baby was brought to this world, a tiny 600grams premmie to the chubby boy that he is now. So, when the mother asked me to make the cake, it's a task I take very seriously. This will be my first baby cake and since this will be a big party, I can go all out. I'm planning to make a baby blocks cake as the centerpiece and also cupcakes. What's more perfect than cupcakes for a kid's party. For the flavour combination, I decided to make chocolate mud cake for the block cake, and chocolate cupcake with cookies and cream cheese frosting. You can never go wrong with chocolate.

If you can think of things that can go wrong in baking and decorating a cake, I have just experienced it all at once when making this cake. If you think that I didn't think it through enough or plan it enough, you were wrong. I planned the whole thing more than a week in advance starting from getting all the ingredients, the decorating tools also the reference pictures to help me in creating the decoration. I even scheduled the whole thing to the last second. Create the figurines on Monday - Wednesday, bake the cake on Thursday, make the chocolate ganache on Friday night, colour the icing on Saturday morning, decorate the cake on Saturday night and make the cookies and cream frosting for the cupcakes and finally, bake and decorate the cupcakes on Sunday morning just before the party so everything will be nice and fresh. Up until Friday night, everything was on schedule and went according to plan. Even my essay was on schedule I even felt proud of myself for creating the figurines (the first time I ever made one I might add). Not until Saturday morning when the series of disaster began. One, I found out that the essay was 3000 words, not 2000 words as I thought it was. Panic mode: on. And this is not due to my ignorance to the brief, the lecturer have been saying it's 2000 words in class all the time, so I just take her word for it, but the official brief states 3000 words, so to be safe (and it's too late to write an angry email to her asking which is the right one), I decided to aim for 3000. So I have to put my essay first over the cake. Assuring that everything is in place, if I just wake up really early on Sunday, I can finish decorating the cake and the cupcakes. Or so I thought...

Starts off with the ganache not sticking to the cake.. I have worked with chocolate ganache before, but this is the first time this ever happen to me. Have any of you experience the same thing? The ganache is just very oily and paste-y. It's really hard to get it to stick to the cake, and when it's cold, it set hard like a chocolate block, not soft as it should be. So, it's impossible to get that sharp edges on the block cakes. Pressed for time, I just have to live with it. It looked more like a blob than a baby block. Of course, without the ganache having sharp edges, it would be impossible to get it from the fondant. While waiting for the cake to set, I decided to move on to the cupcakes. Another disaster! The cupcake paper I bought yesterday was too big for my cupcake pan. I have moved beyond panic mode to nearly hyper-ventilating. M tried to calm me down by driving me to the homeware store to get some. We stopped to get some coffee in the hope of it calms my nerve a little bit.

When I got home, it only have gotten worst. the blue fondant was too soft to work with, so I tried to fix it by adding some CMC to it. It helped a bit, but it's still very tricky to work with. By this time, M has moved to become my sous chef. Poor him, I was actually turning into Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen. I have seen my version of a mad woman.

Eventhough we were an hour late to the party (hey, we're Indonesian, being on time is not in our blood), we manage to get the cake there in one piece. It still looked cute on display. The proud parents still very impressed. Thank God for the figurines, it manages to make the block cake still cute. I ended up not putting the block cake on top of the cupcake tower, because it was too heavy.
I need a lot more practice with fondant decorating. Hopefully I can be a lot better at it. Just glad it's all over, and I manage to finish my essay on time. This essay has been a wake up call for me. The very reason why I was done with being a student. Only 3 more months to go till I graduate. I think I'm going to take 2 days off after easter. I really need to unwind after a very stressful week.

Things to wake up to - Dorie Greenspan's plum dimply teacake

2009-03-30T17:04:00.001+11:00

When you are not waking up to a gorgeous man beside you, this might be the next best thing. During assignment time, instead of the usual all-nighter, I prefer to pull an earlybird-er (is that even a word??). My brain usually works better on odd hours. But after a long day at work, my brain usually shuts down, so I prefer to catch up on my beauty sleep, and wake up really early instead and try to cram in as much research or typing as I can before I go to work. Other than that, all nighters usually equals to my face on top of the keyboard during the day anyways.. so I don't think I want to loose my job over uni. In the spirit of assignment week, I made a morning teacake to pull me from my blanket in the morning. Especially lately the mornings has becoming colder by the day. I smell winter is around the corner.

I bought Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours from Amazon a month ago and been waiting for just the right moment to use it. One of the very first recipe that caught my eye was the plum dimply teacake. I first intended to make this recipe when I still have some apricots in the fridge, but never got around to it until the apricots went mushy. So this time, equipped with 7 almost over-ripenned plum, I'm determine to make this recipe before another fruit get wasted in my pantry.

The recipe is a breeze to make and it doesn't require fancy ingredients, the plums were as fancy as it gets, the other ingredients are basically staples in a typical home baker's pantry. It made quite generous servings. I divided mine in 2 medium sized loaf pan since the only rectangle pan I have still have lasagna in them.

at 5am in the morning

Paired with a pot of tea or coffee, this teacake makes the perfect treat to waking up at 4 or 5am in the morning.

Lasagne of Emilia Romagna - DB March 2009

2009-03-29T15:48:00.000+11:00

That's right folks.. It's that time of the month again. Time for another tasty challenge. Daring Bakers went the savoury route this month instead of the usual sweets. Lasagne of Emilia Romagna.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Lasagne was the first dish I asked my mom to teach me before I moved out of my parent's house to fly 3000 miles away to Melbourne 7 years ago. I barely know my way in the kitchen back then. Baking brownies and cookies was as far as I get in the kitchen. I always loved her lasagne for its extra cheesy, creamy taste from the bechamel sauce she made from scratch. She always use packet of dry lasagne and bottled tomato pasta sauce, but it was still sooo good.

There's a couple of stages to this challenge. One, we have to make homemade lasagne sheets, then we have to make the beef ragu sauce and the bechamel sauce. A long and lengthy process, but it was worth the effort and I actually find it quite therapeutic. Especially when I needed to escape from my assignments even just for a while. And to think that I have dinner/lunch sorted for a couple of days, is just what I need when I'm planning to bury myself in my books to do this essay due next week. It's only a minor one, but coming from a design background, essays, especially a marketing one, is not a minor thing to do. I need colours!! not words.

I decided to change a couple of things to the recipe. I don't like veal, and too lazy to go to the store to get some facon (M won't speake to me if I put pancetta in this one, he loves lasagne), so I opt out these two and use only minced beef in the ragu. I also added heaps of mushrooms in the ragu. As I said before, I love my lasagne very cheesy.. so only natural for me to add heaps of cheese to the beschamel sauce. Was quite surprise when I saw the bescamel sauce does not include cheese! Sorry if I crossed anyone for changing the recipe =).

The main thing that went wrong in making this recipe was when I was about to make the lasagne sheet.. got my dough ready.. and when I was about to take out the pasta machine, only then I realized it was GONE! The very moment I actually need it and it wasn't there. The pasta machine doesn't belong to me you see. It was my housemate's boyfriend's. But it had resided here in my kitchen since last November, and I thought it was staying here for good. I did notice that my housemate stopped by at the house last Friday, but didn't think she took the pasta machine (eventhough we're housemates, we rarely see each other at home). Oh well, back to rolling pins and a lot of elbow grease then.. I had some doubts about the spinach pasta since I hate spinach, but in the end I decided to have it a go and boy it tasted good!

I'm eating a plate right now while writing this. Yumm yumm.. Thanks again ladies for the tasty challenge! Can't wait for next month's.

A lesson in sugar - Planet Cake's cake decorating 101

2009-03-28T14:11:00.000+11:00

I might have mentioned a couple of times my lack of experience working with icing sugar. Let alone decorate a whole cake with one. That's why this beginners course in cake decorating is perfect for me. Hopefully it can avoid any more dramas like when I made this bow. I've been an avid admirer of Paris Cutler's work and her uber fabulous cake shop, Planet Cake in Sydney. So when I found out that they're doing cake decorating courses here in Melbourne, I signed up straight away without realizing that I would actually be on the first class in Melbourne.

So I spent my Saturday kneading icing like there's no tomorrow. My petite figure made this process quite hard as I don't have as much strength in every turn as a normal person does, and there's always the issue with the bench height =(. Nonetheless, it was a super fun day! and the fact I manage to escape from the scorching 33 degrees weather outside is always a plus.

I won't bore you with my ramblings, I'm just gonna show you with the pictures of the cake and our class that day. Thanks Handi, Fran and Paris for the amazing day and all your tips. Hopefully I can come back to do the other courses. =)

My heart actually aches when I cut the cake. But the chocolatey goodness of the cake instantly soothes it down. I can't say the same for my arms though. For the next two days, I feel like I'm armless.. Seriously can't feel anything from the shoulders down to my finger tips, very sore!

Me & my cake with Handi & Fran

the class and their cakes

To see other wonderful creations from Planet Cake, buy their newly published book.

Sweet Source

2009-03-27T14:11:00.002+11:00

The day was Saturday, March 14th 2009. Second Saturday of the month. Start of the weekends, the highlight of my week. Or so I thought it was. Melbourne has shown one of it's craziest weather moods with pouring rains and bone chilling wind with a speed that almost blew this tiny figure away. I can safely said goodbye to my pocket umbrella as the wind has turned it sideways. Say goodbye to that strolling around Collingwood's farmers market stuffing my face with just about anything available for sampling while going crazy buying veggies and fruits. I normally love rains.. but when you have to be outdoors in the rain, there's no feeling more miserable than that. Being the hard headed that I am, I refused to cancel all my plans, so M and I went to Victoria market instead where it's covered.

This day is unfortunately also the day I made reservations at Oyster little Bourke for the Express Lunch thing, part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. But this time, I won't be talking about that lunch, I'll blog about it another time.

We finished shopping way ahead of time. I had more than 1 hour to kill before lunch. A sweet treat and a good cup of coffee is in order to lift my mood a little bit. I always wanted to try Sweet Source in Carlton North, a little sidetracked, but it was so worth the trip.

Their coffee is quite good, perfectly roasted with perfect amount of milk and a caramelly after taste. After a long prowling at their fabulous array of cakes and desserts, I gave in for the cupcakes and raspberry linzer torte. Soft vanilla cupcake with generous amount of vanilla frosting... yummm. If you like Vanilla as much as I do, you will absolutely love this cupcake. You can see the specks of vanilla beans in the frosting. I end up taking the linzer torte for takeaway, and had it with my morning tea the next day while reading Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets. Perfection!

Vanilla cupcakes

Chicken pie

Linzer torte

Fleur de sel caramels

2009-03-26T10:00:00.000+11:00

Been feeling a little less inspired lately. Eventhough there has been a lot of things happenning in my kitchen, just couldn't find the energy nor the mood to write it up. Here's one from the archive.. I actually made these a little over a month ago for the Melbourne Food bloggers' get together.

Caramel must be one of my favourite flavour of all time. Caramel cakes or caramel sauce smothered in ice creams, pancakes.. you name it.. I don't know whether it's existed here in Australia, Alpenliebe caramel candy are still my favourite.

I've been meaning to try to make fleur de sel caramels ever since I've seen it in blogs everywhere. I tried looking for fleur de sel here in Melbourne, but so far hadn't had any luck. I tried Essential Ingredients, Simon Johnson and the newly opened Jones the Grocer at Chadstone, but still empty handed. Before my trip, I made a special mission for myself to look for fleur de sel when I'm in Singapore, since I've seen a couple of patisserie in Singapore had mentioned some fleur de sel desserts. I found a couple of gourmet food store in Singapore that I haven't heard before.. To my liking, Singapore has transformed into a foodie heaven!! Perhaps the high number of Western expats residing in the country has lead this small country into it's development. There I was, dragging my parents to the different food stores from Paul de Gastronomie in Paragon, Culina in Robinsson Walk, Jones the Grocer in Denshaw St and finally found one jar (the only one left I might add) at Culina on Denshaw St. I actually jumped up and down when I saw the jar. I also picked up a Vanilla fleur de sel, tempted to buy the lemon one, but I can always made one myself from the plain fleur de sel.

This caramels are quite soft.. Not exactly what I thought it would be. I was kind of expecting that Alpenliebe type of hard candy, not the soft toffee. But the caramelly taste is very addictive! Seriously, M had to hid the jar to keep me from finishing it all by myself. Perhaps next time I will cook it a little bit longer to make it harder. This recipe is seriously easy to make! The only thing you need to be carefull of is not to burn your sugar. A good quality thermometer will do the trick. I made two batches, one with plain fleur de sel and one with vanilla. Really hard to differentiate the two other than a speck of vanilla beans on some of them. Perhaps I should add one vanilla bean to the sugar to make the vanilla taste even stronger.

Fleur de sel caramels
from Gourmet, October 2004

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel*
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly oil parchment.

Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.

Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

Cabinet Bar & Balcony - another Melbourne's hidden gem

2009-03-24T10:45:00.000+11:00

This is why I love this city so much!! It's filled with hidden alley ways with fabulous street murals and home to some of the best place to hang out. I first discovered Cabinet Bar & Balcony when I was searching for a relaxed restaurant to meet two of my bestest friends. It's been too long since we last meet, so a lot of catching up is in order.

I've been craving for tapas lately, however, my wallet is not liking the sounds of Movida or Match Bar & Grill. A little over my budget at this time of the month.

The bar is neatly tucked in an alley just in between L'incontro the Council House. It has a relaxed atmosphere and a homey feel to it. Decorated with Victorian regalia, Cabinet successfully blends essence of the past with aspects of today in both its environment and their food. Large blackboards in change for the traditional paper menu, and spare seats hanged on the wall give this place a retro-chic feel.

Chef Kath Lunny's brilliant share menus are perfect for nibbles and perfect compliment to the delicious cocktails and wide range of Australian wines. For a more serious snacks, they offer flatbreads treated as crunchy thin pizza crust with various toppings such as roast duck, mushroom and plum sauce or Tandoori chicken with red capsicum and cashew nuts. We had the antipasto platter to share and I tried their mini steak sandwich. The beef are very tender, but I had trouble popping it in my mouth at one go, but when you tried to bite it in half, I just end up with a mess. Perhaps I need a bigger mouth.

Tandoori chicken flatbread

Mini steak sandwich

Chocolate fondue platter

I am yet to try to sit in the balcony since it seems to be used for private functions everytime I stopped by. Perhaps third time's a charm?

Cabinet Bar & Balcony
11 Rainbow Alley
(cnr little collins & swanston) Melbourne, Victoria 3000 ph. (03) 9654 0915

Pomegranate & passionfruit icy pops - ITB february 2009

2009-03-09T00:07:00.000+11:00

Pomegranate might be one of the fruit that I least have contact with. I actually quite like the taste, I just don't really like the gritty texture of the seeds. One thing I like the most from participating in these food blogging events are the chance to try to cook with new ingredients and try new recipes.

I first discovered ITB (In The Bag) event during one of those blog surfing. What makes this event even better is that it requires minimal commitment. I decided to give it a try this month since I'm in such a baking frenzy mode lately. This month's ingredients are pomegranate, passion fruit and white chocolate in honour of st. Valentine. I think I'm more excited about the chance to cook with pomegranate more than anything else. I hit the internet in no time. I don't have a lot of cook books, so I always turn to the online world for recipes. It's not that I have something against cook books, but it's just that I always find myself not knowing which one to buy, and if I end up buying one, it seems that it will only going to sit pretty on the shelf collecting dust rather than accompanying me at the kitchen. But i'm happy to say that after I start this blog, I'm more inspired to try new recipes than ever before. Mr. Amazon just delivered me 4 new cookbooks yesterday, and 2 of them are by Dorie Greenspan =). Don't be surprised if you see me doing a lot of her cakes in the near future.

Back to the ITB event.. I found some interesting salad recipes that uses pomegranate in them, but I'm pretty sure passion fruit and white chocolate won't go well with that. Eventhough you don't necessarily have to use all the ingredients, but I want to find something that can incorporate all of them. In this case, I think something sweet is the most appropriate. Then I came accross this icy pop recipe. It's perfect, quite simple to make and the yellow and red colour from the fruits will make one pretty icy treat. Enrobing the icy pop in white chocolate makes a nice touch to this dessert. You can say it's the tropical-white chocolate version of Magnum. I left some plain without the white chocolate. I actually prefer it like this, light and fresh.. the white chocolate tends to add a slight richness to it.

P.S: I got one more good news.. I finally found my charger!! turns out that I did leave it at my friend's place on new year's eve. I asked him to look for me coz that was the last time I used it, but he said he couldn't find it. M and I stayed over at his place last night after too many hours from playing Wii and there it was, sitting pretty beside the TV, still plugged in where I last used it. I guess he lied when he said "I've looked everywhere for it", he's just plain lazy!! hopefully this will cure my bad habit of leaving things everywhere..

Pomegranate & Passion Fruit Icy Pops
Adapted from POM wonderful recipes (http://www.pomwonderful.com/)

Pomegranate:
3/4 cup of pomegranate juice (from 2 large pomegranate)
1-2 ripe bananas

Passionfruit:
3/4 cup of passionfruit juice (from 4-5 passionfruit)
1-2 ripe bananas

Simple syrup:
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar

250g of white chocolate for coating

Prepare the simple syrup by boiling water and sugar in a heavy based pan. Set aside and let cool to room temperature. Blend the passion fruit and banana together until smooth, put in one bowl. Do the same with the pomegranate. Add about half of the syrup to the pomegranate juice and the other half to the passionfruit juice. Adjust the portion as you like, your passion fruit may need more sugar than the pomegranate, as it usually more sour. prepare moulds or plastic cups and fill about 1 tbs of pomegranate juice. put in the freeze till it slightly hardens. Add 1 tbs of passion fruit juice and return to freezer to harden again. when it's still quite soft in the middle but hard enough to keep the popsicle steady, insert the popsicle. You can create any pattern you want, you may want to create stripes, marble effect, etc. When it's frozen completely and you have reached the last layer, melt and temper your white chocolate. Dip the icy pops and let the excess drip. The chocolate usually will set straight away since the icy pops are cold.

Just another birthday cake

2009-03-05T14:22:00.000+11:00

Just something from the archive that I didn't get a chance to post. I made this cake for a friend's birthday a little over a week ago. The 24th February to be exact. If you've been paying attention, yes, this would be my 4th cake for February. This time I went with an all time classic, something I know everyone would like, chocolate cake.

My housemate first introduce me this chocolate cake around 3 years ago when she made it for a friend. She told me she got it while watching Oprah. It's one of those Oprah's favourite kind of thing. The cake is very dense, almost flourless bmaking it very rich and moist. What differentiate this cake from any flourless choc cake out there is the texture of the cake. Eventhough the mid section is moist, it has a crispy skin that surrounds the cake. This in my opinion is what makes this cake the best chocolate cake. Crispy outside, and moist chocolatey goodness when you bite through. That paired with the whip cream and chocolate sauce.. a true chocoholic dream come true. These texture is in result of the baking technique. It is first baked for 20 minutes in high temperature, then the temp is lowered every 30-40 minutes. Follow the recipe exactly, and you can taste the benefit later. ike the Valentino cake , the chocolate is the key ingredient here, so best to use the finest chocolate, and prefereably couverture. I used my all time favourite (after Valhorna), Lindt couverture 65% semi sweet chocolate.

When making a cake for a guy, I tend to find trouble in decorating the cake. Every decoration I made always ended up very feminine. So this time, I did something fun and quirky. I made a bunch of tuxedo strawberries and some chocolate scribbles for the side of the cake. Here's a video of detailed step by step instruction on making the tuxedo strawberries on YouTube.

The Man Who Took The Cake
by Barbara Kafka, as published in Oprah Magazine, October 2004

Cake:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter , cut into 1-inch pieces, plus extra for pan
All-purpose flour for pan
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate , coarsely chopped
6 large eggs , separated
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped cream:

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar

Chocolate glaze:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate , coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

To make cake: Preheat oven to 375° and position rack on lowest rung. Butter and flour an 8-inch springform pan.

Place chocolate in top of a double boiler over simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is almost melted. Add butter and stir until mixture is completely smooth. Remove pan from heat, discard simmering water and replace it with warm tap water. Place chocolate mixture back over water and set aside.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat egg yolks at medium-high speed until light and lemon colored. Gradually beat in 3/4 cup sugar until mixture becomes very thick. Switch mixer to low speed and blend in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar until soft peaks form again. With a rubber spatula, fold 1/3 of egg whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites until just blended. Pour batter into prepared pan; smooth top.

Bake cake 15 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 300° and bake an additional 15 minutes. Reduce temperature again to 250°; bake 30 minutes. Turn off oven, leaving door ajar and let cake stand in oven for 30 minutes. Transfer cake to a wire rack, cover pan with a damp cloth and let stand 5 minutes. Uncover and cool completely. Remove side of pan. Cake will have a crust that cracked and collapsed as temperature was reduced; gently remove top crust and discard.

To make whipped cream: Bring a small skillet filled halfway with water to a simmer. Fill a glass measuring cup with 1/4 cup cold water and sprinkle gelatin over it; let stand until gelatin softens, about 1 minute. Place measuring cup in simmering water and stir until gelatin completely dissolves. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream at medium-high speed until thick. Gradually beat in dissolved gelatin. Beat in sugar until stiff peaks form; chill.

To make chocolate glaze: Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium heat until small bubbles form around edge of pan. Pour hot cream over chocolate and whisk until chocolate melts and forms a smooth glaze; let stand until cool enough to mound slightly with a spoon.

Meanwhile, with a long serrated knife, gently cut cake in half horizontally to make two even layers. Place one layer on a serving plate and spread a 1/2-inch layer of whipped cream over it. Gently place remaining layer on top. Cover top and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream, making it as smooth as possible. Freeze cake for 30 minutes.

Remove cake from freezer and pour chocolate glaze over top. Smooth with a spatula, allowing excess glaze to drip down sides of cake. Refrigerate cake at least 1 hour before eating. Makes 20 servings.

Belated Valentine's dinner

2009-03-05T10:49:00.000+11:00

I tend to avoid doing restaurant reviews in this blog for a couple of reasons. One, there are soooo many others doing that, and they are much better at it than I am. Two, coming here as a student with a student budget & student friends didn't really equal to dining in interesting restaurants, mostly the usual cheap eats, chinatown or budget pasta restaurants where all the students seem to go to. Only now, with a steady income, I started trying new stuff.. plus, all my friends are generally working now, so we start to move pass that budget living and start enjoying life, still nothing too fancy I'm afraid. Something slightly better to satisfy my foodie appetite. Unless, in my case, when the parents come to visit. Or what I like to refer as "my walking ATM machine". Especially when my dad visits, he always love trying new restaurants, and what makes him my favourite is because he always said "let's go eat at some place that you normally can't afford, while i'm here", ahh, those words to me are magic. Extensive research through The Age Good Food Guide always in order before he arrives. He's the reason I ever set foot inside Vue de Monde. Finally, the biggest reason why I'm reluctant to do reviews is because I still feel awkward pulling my camera and snapping away everytime the food arrives at the table. Especially in fancy restaurants!!However, I felt I owe my restaurant knowledge to these blogs that do restaurant reviews. I felt that I should pay my contribution to pass on my experience, eventhough it's only my personal opinion.

Last Friday night, M and I had our belated Valentine's dinner. Not because we were too busy that we put it of almost a month later, we just like to avoid the Valentine's rush. This is how we normally celebrate Valentine's day, a flower for me, and a nice quiet dinner a week after. We always try to look for something new that we never tried before. Well, this would mostly be on my part, he is not fuss about the type of restaurants, as long as it's not gonna cost him and arm and a leg. After much consultation hours in various blogs and my trusty little foodie bible The Age Good Food Guide, I condures up a little list of restaurants I find interesting and worth trying. Amongst them are The Italian, The French Brasserie, Panama Dining Room and Matteo's. The French & Italians are quite pricey, and considering my budget this month, I decided to put it aside. I'm leaning towards Matteo the minute I read their menu and see "Oysters in six ways". My favourite!!

You can imagine my rage when I look at the menu on the day, and that appetizer is none existence!! What a way to ruin my mood! But I was already hypnotize from the ambience of the restaurant. From the outside, it's nothing to be impressed about, Matteo's is located in the middle of residential area in Fitzroy North where it's habitant is more quirky than posh. So to have a sleek decor with warm purple tone throughout is quite a nice surprise. Their food was fantastic too! I read in the book, Matteo's take pride in serving modern Western dishes with a slight Asian edge. Even the bread basket had an asian touch to it. Instead of the usual olive oil dip, there's a sprinkling of what it appears to be some dried wakame with toasted sesame seed. Sprinkle that on top of your butter on a crusty artisan bread and your tongue is happily dancing around in seaweed heaven.

We ordered the fish plate for appetizer served three ways (no photos of this I'm afraid, I was too busy eating). all three of them had a very unique and tasty dressing one is more thai oriented, one Japanese with a definite hit of wasabi, and one is chinese. yum yum yum.. For the main course I ordered the wagyu beef with pea mash and wagyu croquette and M had the sesame glazed Balmain bug tails, seared scallops & veal sweetbreads in a Yakitori sauce, Asian coleslaw with shredded pork & jellyfish (minus the pork of course). He didn't feel like ordering dessert, but being the sweet tooth, I ordered the warm, dark chocolate fondant pudding, coconut milk gelato. I had doubts of the coconut milk gelato, but boy was I mistaken.. It was DELISH! very creamy and light, a perfect compliment for the rich, sultry, gooey chocolatey goodness of the fondant. To wrap things up, M had a glass of latte and he said it was really good coffee. I can only sniff it's aroma since I'm giving up coffee as one of my things to sacrifice during lent.

Matteo's
533 Brunswick St
Fitzroy Ph: (03) 9481 1177

This is why...

2009-03-04T10:02:00.000+11:00

This is why I almost missed this month's DB challenge.
This is why I only get 2 hours of sleep last Saturday
This is why I have a huge dent on my savings
This is why I was happy last Saturday..

No... I didn't get married...

These are the two icing sugar figurine I made last Saturday. I found some great baking workshop at the Greensborough cake decorating centre. And this bride and groom workshop, was my first.. I never had any proper training in baking. The thought to become a professional patisserie chef had crossed my mind more than a dozen time. I have been passionate about baking and desserts for as long as I can remembered, but I'm afraid of taking the fun out of it if I become a professional and have to do it everyday, then it will become a routine. Or.. It's plain cowardliness... and.. I don't think I can say goodbye to the hustle and bustle of an office, the 9-5 work, dressing in stilettos and pencil skirts. I know, I'm a freak! So, these workshops and numerous cake, pastry & chocolate one day courses is my way to satisfy my passion in baking.

Since mid last year, I've done around 6 courses related to baking and dessert making. I enjoyed every last bit of them. Looking at the dent on my savings because of it on the other hand, I'm not particularly happy about. Finding these workshops as quicker & relatively cheaper version, makes me very happy.

I don't do a lot of work with icing sugar before. The bow I did for my wreath cake is about the most encounter with icing sugar decoration I have ever had. I did enroll for a cake decoration class that covers all sugar & fondant works, but it is not till April. So with little to no knowledge in working with icing sugar, I went to this workshop. It runs for 2 hours for 2 Saturdays.. and last Saturday was the last one. Even from the first class I felt lost. The minute she mentioned CMC, my mind goes "CM.. whaa?". Turns out that's the stuff that will make your icing to harden. No wonder my bow was slowly deflating even though I left it to dry for almost 2 days. But.. the confusion didn't stop there. I was sooo worried when my groom shows obvious wrinkles when he dries. The teacher said it might have been my kneading.. My favourite one was when she said "You all must know how to make a piping bag out of parchment paper by now?" I guess I can.. If you call making a cone out of baking paper and stapling the two ends together is a piping bag.. Didn't want to be a smart ass, I started shaking my head. She was quite stunned. Haha.. turned out 4 out of 6 of us didn't know how *phew*. Gosh, don't I have a lot to learn.

Though both of them turned out superrr cute, there's a lot of room for improvements. The grooms suit is a definite one with the wrinkles. Her dress is much better, but her boobs.. oh her boobs.. don't get me started on her boobs. Theoretically, putting her boobs so close together when she's naked is ok, but when you actually put the dress on stlightly higher than it should be and forgot to shape her body before the icing dried up, her boobs looked weird. It looked like she squashed her boob with a very bad push up bra!! One more thing, I wished I had taken more time drawing the eyes, the bride has eyes that are located on her cheeks, and the groom.. he looked a little too feminine. Oh hell, I can list ten more things that are not right about them. I'm just being too hard on myself. For a first try, I should be quite happy with myself. Just practice, practice, practice..

P.S: please don't mind the blue hue in my photos.. I was using my friend's camera since I still can't find my charger, and wasn't really sure how to set the WB.. but now I know how *too late like always*.

Valentino cake - DB February 2009 Part deux

2009-03-03T10:11:00.000+11:00

As promised, here's the one paired with the champagne sorbetto. I also managed to take some more pictures of the ones with the vanilla ice cream. Had fun playing with all the different ramekins. A good friend of mine gave me a champagne called "Asti" so I made the cork a feature in the photo. Apparently, "Asti" is a type of Italian sweet grape used to make wine and champagne.

My sorbetto turns out pretty white, not the same as the picture in the recipe book. Perhaps it's the type of champagne that I used or I may have whisked it too much. Anyways, it still tasted great, and a perfect pairing for the Valentino cake. Nothing spells Valentine better than champagne, chocolate and strawberries.

P.S: One thing I forgot to mention, I used Lindt Couverture 65% bittersweet chocolate for my Valentino Cake.
Champagne Sorbetto (I got the recipe from an ice cream book by Octopus publishing, it didn't really say who wrote it)

125g sugar
150ml water
150ml champagne
juice of 1/2 lemon

Put sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and cook until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool.
Stir champagne and lemon into the sugar syrup. Pour into a shallow container and let freeze. After a few hours, when mixture is starting to freeze in the edges, whisk or process until smooth to break the ice crystal. Put back to the freezer and repeat this step 2 or 3 more times until creamy, smooth and lighter in colour.

Valentino cake - DB February 2009

2009-03-03T06:19:00.000+11:00

I finally made it. I almost missed this month's challenge, but last night I finally squeeze it in. I was really excited about this challenge when I first read it on the daring baker's kitchen, but ended up pressed for time to actually get it done before the due date. These two days I have been going back and forth on participating or actually sit this one out. Last night, while watching CSI and waiting my bread to prove, I decided to make the cake.

I made champagne sorbet, but it is still currently sitting in my freezer. I wanted to take some photos with it this morning, but it was really dark & gloomy this morning. I couldn't get enough lighting in my kitchen to take a decent photo. I always avoid using flash, since I don't like the effect it's doing when it comes to food photography. And secondary lighting is just out of the question since I don't have a desk lamp that is bright enough to do the job. My house is very windom limited you see. The only windows are in the bedrooms, and my bed is positioned beside the window, it's very hard to set up a proper table with it on the way. There's finally enough light at around 8am, so I only have around 40-45 mins to spare till I have to rush to work. So, here it is with my leftover vanilla ice cream, I will post more pictures tomorrow morning. hopefully the weather is better.

The cake itself is very nice and very simple to make, not the best one I had I must say. But this month's challenge is very exciting as it opens to endless possibilities. I especially love it as it gives me a chance to experiment with different flavours of ice cream. I like the champagne sorbet better paired with the choc cake. The sourness and freshness of the sorbet balanced the cake perfectly. Whereas the vanilla ice cream tends to add more richness to an already rich dessert. But in winter nights, I wouldn't mind having this cake warm with a big scoop of melting vanilla ice cream. Yumm..

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.

We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped ½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration} 8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C 9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

For the Vanilla ice cream recipe, you can find it in David Lebovitz's blog here

For making the ice cream without an ice cream maker the David Lebovitz way, you can find detailed step by step instruction here

Please stay tune for the one with champagne sorbet.. Thanks again for the tasty challenge. Looking forward for next month's and hopefully my timing is much much better.

Mango mirror cake

2009-02-27T15:07:00.000+11:00

This is my third birthday cake this month. This time is for my all time friend, one of my first friend in Melbourne. We went to college together, took the same subjects in Uni, used to live 10 doors away, sometimes my personal shopper and chauffeur.. our fondness memories together would be sleeping on beanbags in the computer labs during our last weeks of uni.

He has been a sweet tooth, even worst than me at times, so he loveeesss cake. Last year I made him a passionfruit sponge cake, but this year he requested a mango mousse cake. I decided to try strawberry mirror cake and substitute the strawberry for mango.

I first saw this cake from the food blogs I have become addicted to when they did the cake for one of the Daring baker's challenge. The cake itself is quite fiddley to make, but the result is sooo worth it. The bavarian cream is so silky smooth and creamy without being too rich. And it is the perfect pairing for the light sponge cake base. I would say that this sponge cake is becoming one of my favourite as the base for cakes. The shiny gelee on top of the cake gives a sweet touch to the cake, and a perfect canvas for any decorations. I didn't have time to make chocolate decorations, so I decided to use leftover's from the green tea-ramisu. One thing that I found disapointing is how soft the cake is, first I wanted to put half cut mango for decoration, but the weight is squashing the cake, so I opt for slices of mango instead. Perhaps I should use a stronger gelatine next time.

I'm still kicking myself for loosing my camera's battery charger. It was on its final breath when I capture this cake. So the quality is seriously lacking. These two might be the better ones out of the bunch.

Mango Mirror Cake (Adapted from Cakes and Pastries At The Academy by the California Culinary Academy 1993)

3 eggs
3 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 TBSP sugar
2/3 cup sifted cake flour
½ cup water
1/3 cups sugar
2 TBSP cointreau or any fruit liqueur

Mango Bavarian Cream
2 ½ TBSP unflavored gelatin
1 ½ cups strained mango puree(around 1 mango)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 ½ cups milk
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 ¾ cups whipping cream

Mango Mirror
1 tsp lemon juice
1 TBSP kirsch
1 TBSP water
1 TBSP unflavored gelatin

Mango Juice

1 mango
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup water

1.Preheat oven to 450F. Butter and flour the sides of an 11-by-17 inch jelly roll pan(rimmed baking sheet). Line bottom of pan with a sheet of parchment paper cut to fit bottom pan exactly.
2.Beat eggs, egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar together in a medium bowl until thick and light. Beat in the vanilla.
3.In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, ad cream of tartar and beat until whites begin to form peaks. Add the 2 TBSP sugar and beat until the whites hold stiff, glossy peaks(do not over beat).
4.Sift flour over the egg yolk mixture and fold in . Stir in one fourth of the whites. Then carefully fold in the remaining whites.
5.Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake until light brown and springy to touch(7 to 10 minutes). Cool in pan 5 minutes. Run a knife along edge to loosen. Invert cake tin to cut out 8 ¼ inch circles of cake. Wrap the cake layers, separated with waxed paper, and set aside. Cake may be frozen at this point.
6.To make soaking syrup: Combine water and the 1/3 cup sugar in saucepan; bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Cool to room temperature; flavor with liqueur. Set aside or refrigerate in glass jar until ready to use.
7.To assemble cake: Brush sides of 10-inch springform pan lightly with flavorless salad oil or almond oil. Cut out a cardboard circle that is exactly the same size as the bottom inside of the pan; cover cardboard with aluminum foil and fit into bottom of pan. Center one layer of the cake bottom of pan. Brush the cake with some of the soaking syrup to just moisten(not drench) the cake; set aside.
8.Prepare Mango Bavarian Cream. Immediately pour about half of the Bavarian Cream over the first layer of cake in the pan. Set the next layer of cake on top of the cream. Pour remaining Bavarian Cream over cake and smooth top of the cream with spatula. Refrigerate until the cream sets(1 to 2 hours).
9.Prepare the Mango Mirror.
10.To serve: Wrap a hot towel around the outside of springform pan for a few minutes. Run a small sharp knife tip around the edge of the Mango Mirror to separate it form the sides of pan. Mirror will tear when sides are unlatched if it is stuck at ANY point. Slowly unlatch the pan and slide it off the cake. Slice cake in wedges and serve in upright slices.

Prep Work

Mango Bavarian Cream
1.Sprinkle the gelatin over the mango puree in a small bowl and set aside until spongy.
2.Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl’ beat until light. Bring milk to a boil in sauce pan. Pour hot milk into yolk mixture ans stir with a wooden spoon(it doesn’t say so but I would temper the egg mixture first to be safe). Return this mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon.(Do not boil or mixture will curdle.) Immediately remove from heat and stir in softened gelatin mixture. Pour into a stainless steel bowl places over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice and a few drops of red food coloring. Cool over ice water, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens to the consistency of softly whipped cream.
3.White gelatin mixture is cooling, whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks. When the gelatin mixture resembles softly whipped cream, fold the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture.

Mango Mirror
1.Prepare mango juice.
2.Place lemon juice, kirsch, and water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over this mixture; set aside until spongy and soft.
3.Measure 1 ½ cups mango juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer; pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve gelatin. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just beings to thicken(do not let jell); remove from ice water.
4.When mixture is syrupy, pour a 1/16-inch layer over the top of cake. Refrigerate until set.

Mango Juice

Peel and cut mango into 3cm cubes, coarsely chop. Place mangoes in saucepan; crush to start juices flowing. Place over low heat; add sugar and water; simmer slowly 10 minutes. Pour juice and pulp through damp jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander and drain into a bowl for 15 minutes(Do not press down on fruit).

ice tea: sugar high

Matcha polka dot angel cake

Ingredients

Directions

DB February 2009 - Heaven on a dessert plate

Caramelized Apple & Salted Caramel Nanaimo Bars - DB January 2010

French Macaroons - Daring Baker October 2009

Time to get the rolling pins out! - DB does vol au vent

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, “After one bite we could die and go to heaven!”

A lesson in Hungarian - Dobos Torte, DB August 2009

A musical birthday

A taste of home - Nasi tim ayam jamur (Chicken rice with mushroom)

Quince & Apple Crisps with Rum Raisin

Apple and Quince Crisp with Rum Raisins

Fish for dinner - whole baked salmon en papillote with Lemon & fennel

Baked whole trout en papillote with lemon and fennelOriginal recipe can be found at the Times Online October 3, 2007

Lemon sable cookies with Yuzu lemon curd

Marshmallowy goodness - DB July 09

A weekend getaway

Bakewell tart....er pudding - DB June 2009

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Vanilla / Green tea Frangipane

A cocktail to celebrate

Dumpling dinner party - DC June 2009

My first two tier cake

Method

Method

Asian night

Japanese Night

Sauce

My first cake order - Madagascar theme cake

Step-by-step chocolate cake (for this cake I made 3 times the recipe)Recipe taken from Notebook - September 2007, page 136

125g butter, chopped2 tsp instant coffee powder3/4 cup (185ml) water100g good-quality dark cooking chocolate, chopped1 cup (200g) brown sugar1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour1/2 cup (75g) plain flour1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder1/4 cup (30g) almond meal1 egg, lightly whisked

DC May 2009 - Ricotta Gnocchi

McBurger Birthday cake

Cheesecakeletes three ways - DB April 2009

Thai Sunday

A hearty breakfast when time is on your side

Happy belated easter

Perfect buns for Good Friday

the right to vote

cake scraps = cake chocettes

Special cake for a a special one year old

Things to wake up to - Dorie Greenspan's plum dimply teacake

Lasagne of Emilia Romagna - DB March 2009

A lesson in sugar - Planet Cake's cake decorating 101

Sweet Source

Fleur de sel caramels

Cabinet Bar & Balcony - another Melbourne's hidden gem

Pomegranate & passionfruit icy pops - ITB february 2009

Just another birthday cake

Belated Valentine's dinner

This is why...

Valentino cake - DB February 2009 Part deux

Valentino cake - DB February 2009

Mango mirror cake

Baked whole trout en papillote with lemon and fennel
Original recipe can be found at the Times Online October 3, 2007

Step-by-step chocolate cake (for this cake I made 3 times the recipe)
Recipe taken from Notebook - September 2007, page 136

125g butter, chopped
2 tsp instant coffee powder
3/4 cup (185ml) water
100g good-quality dark cooking chocolate, chopped
1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (30g) almond meal
1 egg, lightly whisked