竹碳抹茶奶冻卷

竹碳抹茶奶冻卷~Charcoal Matcha milk Jelly Swiss Roll
(Recipe adapted & modify from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)

Matcha milk Jelly:
Ingredients:
1.5Tbsp Gelatine dissolved in 2 Tbsp water
125g milk
15g castor sugar
10g corn flour
1.5tsp matcha powder
1 tsp Osmanthus
75g whipping cream

Method:
1) Put all ingredients except gelatine in a saucepan. Whisk them over low heat on the stove & add in gelatine.
2) Pour it into a rectangular mould & fridge for later use.

Swiss roll:
Ingredients:
(A)
80g egg yolks
20g castor sugar
40g vegetable oil
40g whipping cream
80g plain flour
2 tsp charcoal powder

(B)
160g egg whites
80g castor sugar

Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, castor sugar, vegetable oil & whipping cream until combined. Sift in flour & mix until smooth & well combined.

2. In another bowl, beat eggs whites until soft peaks. Add sugar slowly & continue beating until egg whites are nearly stiff.

3. Fold 1/3 of egg whites mixture into egg yolk mixture. Add the rest of the egg whites & fold gently to obtain a smooth batter.
4. Pour batter into a tray lined with parchment paper & bake @ 180 deg C for 12mins.

Grand Marnier Pound cake

Pound cake (Recipe adapted & modify from J3ss kitchen)

Ingredients
90g sugar
1 orange zest & juice
2 tsp grand marnier
85g butter, softened
1 egg
240g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
40g whipping cream

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly coat a baking pan with butter & dust with some flour.

2. Cream the butter & sugar until it is light & fluffy.

3. On low speed, add the egg to the butter mixture. Mix in Grand Marnier & orange zest.

4. Sift plain flour & baking powder in a medium bowl. With the mixture on the lowest speed, add the flour mixture & whipping cream & orange juice alternately, beginning with one-third of the flour mixture & half of the whipping cream & orange juice; repeat, then finish with the flour mixture.

5. Pour the batter into prepared pan & smooth the top. Bake for 45mins, until firm to the touch & passed the skewer test. Transfer to a rack to cool completely before serving.

I guess I had overmix the batter ;P
The pound cake looks slightly dry but it is very soft when eaten

Opps, I must confessed.... I had forgotten to tap my baking pan after pouring my batter, resulting in big ugly bubbles ;P

Cheesecake Pops

I wanna join in the cake pops craze~

Hehehe, these are simply to cute to resist.. so I bought a set of these sticks from HK. I love Doraemon! ;)

Cake Pops (modified from Anncoo Journal)

Ingredients:
Cheesecake (recipe here)
some chopped peanuts
1 Tbsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp melted semi sweet chocolate

Extra chopped nuts & melted chocolate

Method:
1. Put cheesecake into mixing bowl, beat until cake pieces crumbled.
2. Add in chopped peanuts, vanilla essence & melted chocolate, mix well using a spatula.
3. Use your hand to knead the cake crumbs into small balls & place on a silpat mat.
4. Dip the tip of doraemon stick in a little of the melted chocolate & insert into the cake balls.
5. Place them in the freezer for 15mins.
6. Coat the cake balls with melted chocolate & sprinkle chopped peanuts or decorate as desired.


I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from 'Noms I Must'.

Cheesecake

I received this luggage from SIA this afternoon as compensation. It is my favourite pink! Even though it is slightly bigger & lighter compared to my damaged luggage, the hard casing is actually quite thin. :( My damaged luggage was bought at USD90, but I supposed this luggage is cheaper & quality is not as good also. What is your opinion on this compensation?

I came across this cheesecake recipe from a book in giant. However, I did not take note of the title & author of this book ;P

P/S: I modified the recipe slightly.

Ingredients:
(A)
250g cream cheese
150ml milk
55g butter

(B)
20g plain flour
20g corn flour

(C)
5 egg yolks

(D)
5 egg whites
90g sugar

(E)
1 Tbsp Kahlua
1 Tbsp Cocoa powder

Method:
1) Double boil cream cheese & milk until it combined. Add in butter & leave it to cool.
2) Using a balloon whisk, add in (B) & whisk until combined. Add in (C) slowly.
3) Whisk (D) till stiff peak. Combine with cream cheese mixture & add in Kahlua.
4) Remove 1/3 of the batter & add in cocoa powder.
5) Pour the batter (alternating the plain & chocolate batter) into a 8" square pan
6) Bake @ 160 degrees for 1hr in water bath.

Verdict: My cheesecake is definitely not as pretty compared to other bloggers' featherlike cheesecake, but it is extremely soft!

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from 'Noms I Must'.

Black Beauty Charcoal macarons

Charcoal Macarons with orange curd fillings

Orange Curd (Recipe adapted & modified from Quay Po Cooks)

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks
80g castor sugar
50ml Orange juice
1 grated orange zest
100g cold salted butter

Method:

1. Whisk egg yolks & sugar in a metal bowl placed on top of a saucepan over simmering water. Add in orange juice & zest until combined & smooth.

2. Stir the mixture constantly with a spatula until it thickens. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter slowly. Spoon mixture into clean glass container & allow it to col with a piece of plastic wrap laid on the surface to prevent a skin from forming.

These orange curd macarons taste extremely great! My hubby came into the kitchen (I was busy washing up after baking) & showed me with both his thumbs up right after he ate one of my black beauties ;)

Give this a try.. you will fall in love with it ;)

Green Tea Cheesecake

I am using my new 20cm tart pan with removable base & green tea powder which I had bought in HK for this bake. This tart pan is really a best buy! Why? Because PH is selling this exact 20cm tart pan for $18+! But I got this in HK for just $5! ;)



Green Tea Cheesecake (Recipe adapted & modified from Anncoo Journal)

Ingredients
An 20cm tart base

Fillings:
250g Cream cheese
80g castor sugar
50g Whipping cream
4g Green Tea powder
2Tbsp Gelatine powder dissolved in 150g water
200g Whipped fresh cream
1 satchel Jasmine tea powder

Method:

1. Cut open the satchel & put the tea powder into the whipping cream. Add in green tea powder & warm for a few minutes. Set aside to infuse for around 10 mins & strained the mixture.

2.Beat cream cheese & sugar together. Slowly add in whipping mixture until smooth, then add in melted gelatine, mix well.

3. Lastly fold in whipped fresh cream with a spatula, fold well and pour onto tart.

4.Let it set in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

5.Remove cheesecake from tart case, mix 1/2 Tbsp green tea powder with 1/2 Tbsp of icing sugar & dust on cake.




I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from 'Noms I Must'.

Black Beauty Charcoal Bread

Yippee, I finally made my own Bamboo Charcoal Bread!

About a month ago, Jess (from Jess kitchen) & I went PH 'shopping' together & saw Bamboo Charcoal Powder, 250g selling @ $24+ & the staff there claimed that it is their smallest package. Huh? 250g is smallest package? Ridiculous, isn't it? I can't imagine how long it is going to last. I guess I gotta add the powder in all my bakes from now on before I can finish up the 250g! Even if jess & I were to share the powder, 125g seemed too much as well especially when most recipes only call for 1-2tsp of powder each time.

I mentioned this to Eelin (the batter baker) in msn previously about how badly Jess & I wanted the Charcoal Powder. I even joked to improvise our own by pounding those charcoal pills that we took for diarrhoea instead & add more sugar to the dough to 'camouflage' the unpleasant medicine taste. Then we will have an anti-diarrhoea bread instead! Woohoo! But, on a second thought, I reckoned whoever ate the bread will have their mouth stained as they chew on the bread! Hahaha ;P Opps!

Thus, one of my 'mission' is to hunt for smaller packages of charcoal powder in HK! I was glad to find them after searching a few baking shops. Without hesitation, I grabbed two packs off the shelves (one for Jess of coz!).

Bamboo Charcoal Powder packed in 20g each!

Charcoal Bread (recipe adapted & modified from Frozen wings by Lena)

Ingredients:
Bread flour 300g
Bread improver 3g
caster sugar 20g
instant yeast 1 1/4 tsp
milk 130ml
butter 20gm
Bamboo charcoal powder 1.5 tsp

Method:
1. Combine flour, sugar, bread improver, yeast & milk in a mixer & mix well till smooth dough is formed.
2. Add in butter till dough is smooth & shiny.
3. Divide dough into 2 portions. Add in the charcoal powder into one portion & mix till dough is even colour.
4. Shape both dough into round shapes. Divide each dough into 2 portions, so now altogether 2 portions of plain dough & 2 portions of charcoal dough.
7. Roll them out & shape them into rectangle
8. Stack the layers alternately, flatten the dough & roll them up tight.
9. Place in a lightly greased loaf tin & let proof for an hour .
10. Bake in a preheated oven @ 170C for 30 mins.

Do you like my black beauty like I do?

Chocolate Friands

Woohoo~ Open ceremony of my new baking toys! These chocolate Friands are baked using one of my new silicon moulds! Cute huh?

Chocolate Friands (Recipe adapted & modified from dailydelicious by Pook)

Ingredients
110g Almond meal

250g Icing sugar

75g Plain flour

30g Cocoa powder

½ tsp Baking powder

5 Egg white

200g Melted butter

Chopped Peanuts, for sprinkle on top of the friands

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C

2. Place almond meal, sifted sugar, flour, cocoa & baking powder in a bowl & stir to combine
3. Add egg whites & stir to combine. Add butter & stir to combine
4. Spoon the mixture into moulds & bake for 20mins

Don't these chocolate Friands look like bars of soap? ;)

Award & Cookies

I would like to express thanks to the following bloggers who had given me this lovely award. I'm so honored & happy to receive this award from them! Do hop by their yummy blog if you have the time!

Jean from Noms I Must
Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake
Honey boy from Cozy bakes
Yummy Koh from Yummy bakes
Nancy from Bake for a queen

Here are the rules to abide for accepting this award:
1. Post linking back to the person that gave you the award
2. Share 7 random things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered blogs
4. Drop them a note & tell them about it

7 random things about me:
1. I am call Cathy because I am a cat lover! I do not own any real cats but I do have a very cute & hugable soft toy cat at home.

2. I am DIL (Deadly In Love) in baking & will bake as often as I can. Guess what? My cat's paws feel itchy if I can't bake!

3. I simply heart cheesecakes, be it baked or non baked. Any flavours are welcome EXCEPT durians! I'm so glad that cheese is the topic for this month Aspiring Bakers, which means I can try out different recipes & have a variety of cheesecakes in future!

4. I don't eat durians (pls refer to no 3). In fact, I can't tolerate the durian smell :P

5. I am a morning person who 'auto' wakes up everyday. Very disciplined huh? Yeah but no no, I guess I am deprived of zzZZzz.... turning into a panda now ;P

6. I love all cartoon characters! I wish I can live in a 'cartoon world' with Doraemon, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Carebears, Smurfs, Puss in boots, Marie, Chip & Dale etc as my neighbours! How fun will that be! ;)

7. I can't swim. Oh well, expected isn't it? Have you ever seen a cat that swims? ;P

P/S: I won't be passing the award at the moment as most of the bloggers out there have already got this award.

Alright, last but not least, let me present you my home made cookies. My colleague wanted to give these to her students as it is our last day of lesson tomorrow!

Aren't we cute?

Granola Chiffon Cake

When I came across this interesting chiffon cake in HHB's blog sometime back, I knew that I had to give this a try. I'm really glad I did. This is my first time baking a chiffon with toppings!


Granola Chiffon Cake
(Recipe adapted & modified from Happy Home Baking)

Ingredients:

(A)
70g egg yolks
20g sugar
60g water
60g vegetable oil

(B)
15g cocoa powder
70g plain flour
10g corn flour

180g egg whites
80g caster sugar

100g chocolate chips
25g chopped peanuts
25g oats

Method:

1. Using a manual hand whisk, mix ingredients (A) together in a mixing bowl till well combined.

2. Sieve in ingredients (B) & whisk till the flour is fully incorporated into the batter.

3. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy & foamy. Turn to high speed & gradually beat in the sugar until soft peaks forms.

4. With a spatula, gently fold in 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture until just blended. Repeat with 1/2 of the remaining egg white. Finally, pour the resulting batter to the remaining egg white. Fold in to combine. Next, fold in the chocolates chips.

5. Pour batter into a tube pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter. Sprinkle peanuts & oats over the surface.

6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 60mins or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

7. Invert the pan immediately & let cool completely before unmould.

I got to agree with HHB that one downside of making chiffon cakes with toppings is, upon inverting the pan to cool the cake, some toppings dropped all over the table!

This cake is really soft & moist. I love how the chocolate chips melt in my mouth & add a tinge of sweetness to the cake. Enjoy!

洋芋咸酥脆饼

洋芋咸酥脆饼
(Recipe adapted & modified from The First Book of Baking for Beginners by Carol)

Ingredients
200f Mashed Potato
60g Cornstarch
30g Vegetable Oil
Black Pepper
Salt

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients together till it becomes a soft dough.

2. Place a piece of cling wrap onto table & roll out the dough out into 0.3cm thickness

3. Use cookie cutters to cut out into desired shapes.

4. Bake at preheated oven @ 180 degrees for 25mins.

Ta-daa! You got your own potato chips now!