Castella Cake

I've been hit by the Kasutera / Castella or better known as the Japanese Sponge Cake fever. My friend Cynthia of http://mumto4angels.blogspot.com/ started reviving the fever when she post it in her Facebook and everyone who knows how to bake started to bake this cake.

This cake uses 4 ingredients only -Flour, Sugar, Eggs & Honey. A good Kasutera is moist with a very fine texture and is very light. It does not have a speck of oil in it - no butter, margarine,or shortening. 

Ingredients:
5 Egg Yolks
4 Egg whites
125g Castor Sugar
100g Bread Flour (I used High Protein flour)
15g Turbinado Sugar (I used Brown Sugar)
50g Honey + 2-3 tbsp hot water to dilute.

-Line insides & bottom of a 7" pan with foil & add a piece of parchment paper to bottom. Sprinkle with turbinado/brown sugar.
- Preheat ocen to 160 degree C.
- Whisk egg white on high speed & start adding castor sugar in 2-3 batches. Beat till firm peaks form.
- Add in yolks one at a time & mix on low speed till well combined.
- Add sifted flour & mix on low speed. Add honey + water & mix on low speed.
- Pour batter through a sieve onto cake pan. Tap pan on counter to remove bubbles.
- Bake 50 - 60 mins until golden brown on top.
- When ready, immediately take out and drop from a foot high to counter to prevent shrinkage.
- Cool and wrap with parchment paper/ cling film and store in fridge at least overnight.
- Trim sides before serving.

Boston Cream Cheesecake

While surfing the net for interesting recipes, I came upon this recipe from the kraft website. I've heard of Boston cream pie but not Boston Cream Cheesecake so I thought of giving it a try.

This recipe calls for premix yellow cake but I used my favorite butter cake recipe for the base. You can use sponge or butter cake for this.

Ingredients:


1 pkg (1 layer size) Yellow Cake Mix         *  may use your own butter/sponge cake recipe
750g Cream Cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup Castor Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Essence, divided
3/4 cup Sour Cream
3 Eggs
2 squares bitter sweet Chocolate
3 tbsp Milk
2 tbsp Butter
1 cup icing Sugar, sifted

1) Grease a 9" springform pan. Prepare cake batter. Pour into pan and bake at 325 degree F for 25 mins. Cool.
2) Beat Cream Cheese, sugar & 1 tsp Vanilla Essence on medium speed.
3) Add sour cream, mix well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed. Pour cream cheese over cake layer. Bake at 325 degree F for 40 -45 mins or until center is almost set.
4) Run a knife around rim of pan to loosen pan. Cool before removing.
5) Place chocolate, milk & butter in medium bowl. Microwave on high for 2 mins till butter is melted. Stir after 1 min.
6) Add icing sugar & remaining vanilla essence. Mix well.
7) Spread over cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Crunchy Durian Cookie

As promised, here is the 2nd 'new' cookie recipe that I made for the Chinese New Year. I was clearing up my room and at the same time flipping through my cooking books ( I didnt realised I accumulated so many cooking books) and found this interesting recipe. It's taken from 'Cakes Pastries Savouries' published by Bake with Yen Sdn Bhd. Guests who came to my CNY open house totally 'finished' them up and it was a pity I didnt bake enough... I will definitely make this cookie again for next years CNY if I manage to 'store' durians in my freezer.

Ingredients:


225g Butter
175g Icing Sugar
2  Egg Yolks
1 tsp Durian Essence
250g Plain Flour
30g Milk Powder
50g Custard Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
100g Durians, mashed
some sesame seeds or almond nibs (for decoration)

Method:
1. Sift the plain flour, Milk powder, custard powder & baking powder together. Set aside
2. Cream butter & sugar till fluffy.
3. Add in egg yolks & durian essence.
4. Add in the sifted dry ingredients
5. Add in the mashed durian.
6. Pipe out with a noozle onto a baking tray and sprinkle sesame seeds or almond nibs on top.
7. Bake at 180 degree C for 25 mins or until golden brown.

Happy New Year 2012 & Gong Xi Fa Cai

Oh no!!! I've fallen behind in updating my blog again....:-(( The time flew past so quickly and before I realized it, it is already February 2012 . Hmmmm I actually did not attempt any new baking at end of 2011 as I had quite a number of orders from friends for the Christmas Celebration and then it was school opening time...Busy busy busy and Chinese New Year.

Before Chinese New Year arrived, I had planned to bake few types of cookies and all new recipes but with the last minute house cleaning (I actually used 3 whole days just to clean my Music Room which had became a 'store room' before attacking the kitchen) I just did not have the time to do any baking.  And just 2 days before CNY Eve, I had a baking marathon and I had to use last year's recipe...:-(( BUT! I manage to bake 2 new flavour of cookies just the day before CNY Eve. I had all the ingredients at home and it looked interesting. It even had the word 'MUST TRY' printed on that page. One of  the cookie is....: Butter Icing Cookie. This recipe is taken from the Yum Yum Magazine issue No 76.

Ingredients:
220g Butter
100g Castor Sugar
1 Egg
300g Plain Flour

Butter Icing:
30g Butter
70g Icing Sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degree C.
2.Butter Icing: Combine all ingredients and mix well. Place into a piping bag for later use.
3. Beat butter & castor sugar until creamy. Add in egg and beat until smooth. Add plain flour and mix into a dough.
4. Place into a piping bag and pipe onto a baking tray.
5. Use your fingers to indent the centre of the dough. Pipe a little of  the butter icing into the indentation.
6. Bake cookies for 15-18 mins or until golden brown.
7. Remove fromn oven and leave to cool before storing.

Fish & Chips

I seldom post my cookings as I cant cook very well...:-)) I almost always use premix ingredients to cook meals for my family as I find it very tedious to prepare from scratch. There are a few dishes that my children love it when I cook for them and usually its western food. This is one of the dish that they love and will usually have 2nd servings..:-))

Ingredients 

4 pcs dory fillets (pat dry)
Salt & Pepper
Oil for frying

Batter: 200g Plain flour
           2 tsp baking powder
           1/2 tsp salt
           1/2 tsp pepper
           4 tbsp oil
           280 ml water

Extra: French fries
         tartare sauce
         Lemon Wedges
Method:

1. Season the dory fish with salt & pepper and set aside.
2. Mix all the batter ingredients together.
3. Heat plenty of oil in wok. Dip the fish fillet into the batter & fry till golden brown.
4. Serve fish with french fries and tartare sauce &  lemon wedges by the side.

Red Cherry Baked Cheese Cake

Wow..another cheesecake recipe again....(^.^). I found that after baking so many cheesecake, they use more or less the same method but of course the texture varies on what ingredients are used. Some use purely cream cheese and you get this dense and creamy texture while some mix in whipped cream and you get this fluffy texture.

For this Red Cherry Cheesecake, I got this recipe when I went to attend the 'Anchor' products cooking demo in my local bakery shop and decided to try it out after sampling the cake during the demo.

Ingredients:
Base:
100g Digestive Biscuit, crushed
50g Butter, melted
        
Filling:                                                                                 
375g Cream Cheese
115g Castor sugar
100g Sour Cream or plain yogurt
3 Eggs
200g Whipping Cream, whipped
2 tbsp Cornflour
Red Cherry filling (from tin)

1) Base: Mix the crushed biscuit & melted butter together & press onto the base of a 9" springform pan. Set aside.
2) Beat cream cheese & sugar together till light.
3) Add in eggs one at a time.
4) Add in the sour cream & cornflour.
5) Fold in the whipped whipping cream.
6) Put few tbsp of red cherry filling on the biscuit base and pour the cream cheese mixture over. Top with few tbsp cherry filling.
7) Steam bake at 160 degree C for 1 hr 30 mins.
8) Refrigerate overnight before removing from tin.

Ooops! I did it again!

Ha..ha.. From the title, no, I'm not refering to Britney Spears song but rather on my neglected blog....Really, I do not know where the time went. It was a busy month for me in November because it was the end of the school year and also my daughter was facing her SPM examination. I did manage to do some baking and I will upload them one by one as soon as possible.

For this post, as promised previously, I'm giving you the recipe I used for making macarons. One thing I discovered when making macarons is that on a rainy day, the humidity is very high and the success of having a good macaron is slim. It was a waste of ingredients and time. Nevertheles, my macarons still have those 'feets' except that they are not as high as I want them to be nor are they dry on the inside.

110g Ground Almond
200g Icing Sugar
90g Egg Whites (best to age them overnight)
50g Castor Sugar

1) Sift ground almond & icing sugar together.
2) Beat egg whites till frothy, add castor sugar & beat till stiff peak. You may add some colouring at this point.
3) Add meringue to almond mixture. Carefully fold in till you get a sticky consistency. Do not overfold till its runny.
4) Pipe onto tray lined with parchment paper.
5) Bake at 130 degree C for 18 - 20 mins.
6) Match the macaron shells and fill it with buttercream or chocolate ganache.