Raisin Bread Pudding

I 'm a  fan of bread pudding and found a cafe that sells the bread pudding just the way I like it in town. This cafe ' Fook Yuen' has many outlets but only the one in Jalan Gaya (Gaya Street) sells it by the 'loaf'. I surf the net to find recipe for bread pudding and found one from 'Kuali' that 'looks' similiar to the one sold in the cafe.

Previously I attempted one using the 'Nestle' recipe card but I found the texture to be rather dry. You can see below  the first bread pudding I made.

Now, the one below is more like pudding texture. If you want it to be drier, please cover with an aluminium foil when baking a little longer to avoid the top from becoming dry & darker.

Ingredients

16 slices bread
1 cup Raisin
2 can (12 fl oz) Evaporated milk
4 Eggs
55g Butter
3/4 cup packed brown Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

- Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease a 12 x 8 baking dish. (I baked in 2 aluminium baking loaf foils)
- Combine bread & raisins in a large bowl.
- Combine evaporated milk, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla essence, cinnamon & nutmeg.
- Pour liquid mixture over bread mixture. Combine well.
- Pour mixture into baking dish and let stand for 10 mins.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a knife inserted in cake comes out clean.

Cheesy Cheese Cake

Few weeks ago, one of my classmate from my Japanese Language class brought some cakes to share with us as it was her birthday. I liked the taste and texture of the cake as even though she said it was a cheese cake, it was not like the normal 'cheese cake' that I have eaten or made like the 'Japanese Cotton Cheesecake', ' New York Cheese Cake' or any other baked 'cheese cake'. Instead it was sort of like a sponge cake sandwiched with cream cheese frosting.

I remembered having this type of cake recipe in one of my cookbooks so I flipped through them and found it. This recipe is taken from the book 'The Joy of Baking' published by Bake with Yen. It was not very difficult to make and my children and friends loved it. I'm definitley going to make this again.

Ingredients for the Chiffon Cake

(A) 4 egg Yolks                                                     (B) 4 egg Whites
      60 ml Corn Oil                                                      60g Castor Sugar
      120g Cake Flour                                                   1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
      1 heap tsp baking powder
      60g Castor Sugar
      4 1/2 tbsp Milk
      1/3 tsp Vanilla Powder (I used vanilla essence)

1) Sift flour with baking powder.
2) Mix the flour with egg yolks, oil, sugar, milk & vanilla. Stir until well mixed and smooth.
3) Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and sugar until stiff.
4) Fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites.
5) Bake in a 9' round tin at 180 degree C for 40-45 mins.

* You can use any of the sponge cake recipe that you normally use.


Ingredients for the frosting

227g Butter
113g Cream Cheese
60g icing Sugar
1/4 cup milk
Cheddar Cheese, grated (for sprinkling)

1) Beat Cream Cheese & butter together.
2) Add icing sugar alternating with milk.

To Assemble: - Cut the cake into 3 pieces and sandwich each layer with frosting and Cheddar Cheese. Spread frosting on top and sides of cake, sprinkle cheddar cheese all over the cake.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake for Mothers Day

Mothers day is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of the month of May every year and this year, I baked a mini cake for my mother whereas previously I buy them from the local bakery. When I took the cake to my mother's house, she grumbled about wasting my money on buying cakes but when I told her that I baked the cake, she accepted it readily....(^.^).Mothers! They do not want to see her children wasting money unwisely....

This was the first time I baked using green tea aka matcha as an ingredient. I dare not try any recipe using green tea as I thought they might taste bitter but at first bite, it was aromatic and tasted like pandan cake....I picked Green Tea chiffon cake as my mother do not like sweet cakes and also not fond of chocolates.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

70g Cake Flour                                          5 Egg Whites
10g Green Tea Powder                              90g Castor Sugar
5 Egg Yolks                                     
20g Castor Sugar
70g Water
60g Oil

1) Combine egg yolks & sugar. Mix well.
2) Add in water & oil. Blend together.
3) Sift the cake flour & green tea powder together and add into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well and set aside.
4) Beat egg white till frothy and gradually add in the sugar and beat until stiff peak.
5) Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture.
6) Pour into a 20cm tube pan and bake at 160 degree C for 40 - 50 mins.

* I divided into 2 small pans (a 6' round pan & 6' heart shape pan)

The original recipe actually suggested frosting with red bean cream but I frosted it with cream cheese & another one for myself (^o^) with fresh cream. I will definitely try this recipe again and this time frost it with red bean cream.

Pandan Cheesecake

Oh dear......oh dear! Been lacking in updating my blog again. Also I didnt attempt any 'new' recipes for the past few weeks. I had been trying out old recipes just to perfect them like the apple pie and the classic butter cake.

I still had some left over cream cheese in the fridge so I thought of baking a cheesecake that is lighte in texture. Something like the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. I dug out my favourite recipe book 'Fantastic Cheesecake' by Alex Goh and found this easy recipe.

The taste of coconut and pandan is refreshing and I add just a tiny drop of colour as it was for own consumption.

Ingredients

(A) 500g Cream cheese
      100g Castor sugar
(B) 3 Egg Yolks
(C) 20g Flour
      20g Cornflour
(D) 200g/ml Coconut milk
      1 tsp pandan leaf juice
      few drops of green food colouring
(E) 3 Egg whites
      75g Castor Sugar

1. Cream (A) till light. Add (B) and cream till smooth.
2. Add (C) and mix till well combined.
3. Add (D) into the mixture from step 2. Mix well.
4. Whip (E) till soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step 3. Mix until well incorporated.
5. Grease and line bottom of a 23 cm springform pan. Pour the cheese filling onto the tin.
6. Bake in water bath at 160 degree C for 60 -70 mins.
7. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
8. Refrigerate for 5 hours or overnight.

Quiche Lorraine

Hmmm what is a quiche? In French, a quiche is an oven-baked dish made with eggs, milk or cream in a pastry crust. Quiche is generally an open pie and it may be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is a savoury pie and you can use any meat for its fillings. This was my second time making this pie and I find its good for using up leftover chicken meat or ham.

The recipe is taken from "In the mood for Pastries & Tarts" by Alan Ooi and published by Seashore.

You can use any short crust recipe. The one I used was also taken from the same book.

Short Crust Pastry
200g Plain Flour
110g Butter
1/4 tsp Salt
21/2 tbsp Water

Mix all ingredients except water till crumbly. Slowly add water to form a dough. Wrap it in a plastic and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Quiche Loraine
1 portion short crust pastry

(A) 25g cooking oil
      150g onions, sliced

(B) 100g Chicken meat, cubed (I used ham & chicken franks)
      1 Egg
      100g Fresh Milk

(C) 60g Cheddar Cheese, grated
      50g Parmesan Cheese Powder

(D) 2 Eggs
      200ml Whipping Cream
      70g Fresh Milk
      1/4 tsp salt
      1/2 tsp pepper

Dough: Rest the short crust pastry for 20 mins. Roll into 3 mm thickness. Press dough into pie mould. Prick some holes in it. Rest for 20 mins. Bake in preheated oven of 175 degree C for 20 - 25 mins.

Fillings: Fry (A) till fragrant. Add (B) and fry until chicken turns white. Remove and set aside to cool.
            Place into the baked pie pastry. Place (C) and pour (D).
            Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for 25-30 mins or until fillings turn golden brown.

Oreo Ice Cream 'Cake'

Hmmm Oreo again. Who doesnt love oreos. I think I've used Oreos countless times in baking as crust, fillings, decorations, etc.

I was thumbling through you tube searching for clips on making ice cream cake and found this easy recipe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOecLVgUTZ8 . The ingredients are very easy to get and my children loved it so much that it was gone in seconds..(^.^)

1 tub of Vanilla flavour ice cream
2- 3 pacts Oreo cookies
Caramel Syrup/ Maple syrup, optional

- Leave the ice cream in room temperature to soften it for easy handling.
- Line a spring form pan with plastic wrap and place the oreo cookies around the sides and bottom of the pan.
- Crumble few oreo cookies and mix into the ice cream.
- Squeeze some caramel syrup and mix to combine.
- Pour the ice cream mixture into the pan and freeze for at least 4-6 hours.

Irish Coffee Caramel Cake

Irish Coffee Caramel Cake..Hmmm thats a mouthful. If you are a coffee lover and like caramel, this one is for you. When my brother from USA came back for a short trip end of last year, he brought some baking stuffs for me and one of them is the Jell-O Mousse Caramel flavour.

While cleaning up the pantry, I noticed that it was nearing the expiry date and rather than making it as a mousse by itself, I decided to use it as a cake filling. I was deciding between a chocolate or a coffee cake and since I have a recipe for an Irish coffee cake from my baking class which I attended last year, I decided to give it a try....Hence the "Irish Coffee Caramel Cake.(^.^)

Sponge Cake
(A) 9 Egg yolks                                                        (B) 9 Egg Whites
     110g Cake Flour                                                       150g Castor Sugar
     30g Cornflour                                                            1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
     70g Optima Flour
     40g Cappuccino Powder
     3 tbsp Nescafe
     1/4 tsp Salt
     1/4 tsp Baking Soda
     80g Water
     80g Corn Oil

-Mix all ingredients (A). Set aside.
- Whisk Egg White & cream of tartar of (B) till foamy. Add Sugar and beat until stiff.
- Fold in Egg white mixture to Egg yolk mixture & mix well. Pour into an 11' round pan.
- Bake at 150 degree C for 45 - 50 mins.
-Let cool and slice into 2/3 layers.

* I halved the recipe and used a 9' round pan.

** Prepare the Jell-O mousse as directed. Lay a piece of sponge cake and pour the caramel over it. Top with another layer of sponge cake.
    Chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before frosting with fresh cream.