Simple Vanilla Chiffon Served In A Cupcake

Today we decided to try a simple recipe. I wanted a chiffon cake texture but easily served. An easy to make basic vanilla chiffon served in cupcakes. I did not have to turn the cake upside down for an hour while waiting for it to cool. It takes lesser time to bake, lesser time to cool and the best thing is, it can be served immediately. The cake did not shrink while cooling too. Fantastic!

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Cooking Time : 22 minutes
Yields: 12 cupcakes size

Pre-Steps
Preheat the oven at 165 degrees Celcius

Ingredients
(A)
1 cup of sifted cake flour
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt

(B)
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sunflower oil
1/3 cup of water
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

(C)
3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1/3 cup of granulated sugar

Steps
1. In a large bowl, sift ingredients (A) together. Mix well.

2. In another bowl, whisk ingredient (B) together. 

3. Pour ingredient (B) into the (A). Mix them together thoroughly.

4. In a mixer, beat the egg whites. When it starts to get foamy, add in the cream of tartar. Continue to beat the egg whites for 1 minute. Then start to add the sugar a tablespoon at a time while continuing to beat the egg whites. The egg white should form stiff peak at the end.

5. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture in 3 portions. Fold them in large strokes to prevent the egg white from being deflated.

6. Scoop the batter into 12 lined cupcake pan evenly.

7. Bake for 20-22 minutes until the cake is cooked.

8. Once cooked, leave it to cool before you serve or frost with your favorite frosting.

Simple Banana Chocolate Cupcake

Seems like cupcake is the latest craze. You see cupcakes nicely decorated everywhere. With all those flavors that we can choose from, let's try Banana Chocolate Cupcake today.

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I found a Banana Chocolate Cupcake recipe at Joy of Baking - Banana Chocolate Cupcake. This seems like a simple recipe to attempt. I reduced the sugar amount as I find the original recipe a bit too sweet to my liking. I have also reduced the oil by half. The cupcake remains soft.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Pre-Steps
Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius

Ingredients
(A)
1/2 cup of granulated white sugar
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt

(B)
1 large egg (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of mashed ripe banana (I used 2 medium size banana)
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of milk (I used Farmhouse low fat milk)
1/8 cup of sunflower oil
3/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Steps
1. In a large bowl, mix all the (A) ingredients together using a whisk.

2. In another bowl, mix all the (B) ingredients together using a whisk.

3. Pour ingredient (B) into (A) and mix them together with a whisk. This will form into a thin batter.

4. Divide the batter equally into 12 lined cupcakes cup.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. If you wish to frost the cupcakes with your favorite frosting, leave the cupcake to completely cool before frosting it.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I went to a baking ingredients shop and found some pandan paste. Yay, no need to make it on my own. Decided to make pandan chiffon cake with it to test out the pandan paste. I found a simple chiffon recipe here, which I adapted it to make the pandan chiffon cake.


The chiffon turns out a bit too green to my liking. Overall, the texture and the taste of the chiffon cake is good. I will use this as the base for my future chiffon cakes. However, I will stick with homemade pandan paste in the future.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Pre-Steps
Preheat the oven at 165 degrees Celcius.

Ingredients:
(A)
2 1/2 cup of cake flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of castor sugar

(B)
7 egg yolk (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of sunflower oil
2 tablespoon of pandan paste (store bought)
1 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of water (at room temperature)

(C)
7 egg white (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/4 cup of castor sugar

Steps
1. Sift (A) together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Mix (B) together in a separate bowl. Mix well.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient. Mix well and set aside.

4. In the mixer, pour the egg white in a dry mixing bowl.

5. Whisk it for about a minute until it is slightly foamy.

6. Add cream of tartar at this stage and continue to whisk for another minute.

7. Gradually add the sugar in small batches and whisk at medium to high speed until you have reach hard peaks.

8. Add this egg white to the egg yolk mixture. Add in 3 batches, using large folding strokes.

9. Pour into the un-greased baking pan.

10. Bake for 50 minutes.

11. Once baked and tested with cake tester, turn the cake upside down for an hour until cool. 

12. Remove from the baking pan and serve.

Simple Chocolate Brownie with Walnut

The chocolate craving continues.. this time with chocolate brownies. This recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking's brownie recipe. It taste great when served chilled, and when the chocolate ganache sets.

Recipe Ingredients Edited on 5-May-2013

Preparation Time :  20 mins

Baking Time: 20 (On the second try, at 20 minutes the cake turns out moist as compared to 23 mins. I will stick with 20 mins. But do remember to test with cake tester before removing the cake from the oven)

Ingredients: 

Chocolate Base

70 gm of raw walnuts (I love lots of nuts. However, you can reduce to 40gm if you do not wish to feel the nuts at every bite)
150 gm of baking chocolates (I used sweetened)

125 gm of salted butter

1/2 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of plain flour

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup of thickening cream (increased from 1/3 cup)

1 tablespoon of butter

Steps:

1. Crush the walnuts and lightly toast them in the oven for 5 minutes at 100 degrees Celcius. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

2. Put a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water.

3. Add butter into the mixing bowl and allow to melt.

4. Add the baking chocolate and stir the mixture together. Allow to melt and smoothen.

5. Remove from the pot of boiling water and allow to cool.

6. Once the mixture cooler, add sugar and vanilla extract and mix well.

7. Add eggs and mix well.

8. Add flour and mix well.

9. Add toasted walnut and mix well.

10. Line the baking pan with parchment paper. I am using a 7 inch square shaped baking pan. 

11. Pour the mixture into the pan.

12. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees Celcius for about 23 mins. Test with a cake tester. It should come out moist with only a few crumbs sticking to it. DO NOT OVERBAKE.

13. Leave it to cool. Once it is cool to touch, prepare the chocolate ganache. 

Chocolate Ganache
14. Put the mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water.
15. Add the thickening cream, chocolate chips and butter into the mixing bowl. 

16. Stir continuously until everything is melted and smooth.

17. Pour the mixture over the brownie base.

18. Leave it to cool.
19. Once cool, move the brownie into the fridge to chill. Once set, cut and serve.

Barley Dessert Soup with Dried Bean Curd Sheet and Egg

A simple dessert, which is easy to make and all time favorite.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
1 packet of barley (about 100 gm)
1 piece of dried bean curd sheet
1 egg
1.4 liter of hot water
Sugar to taste

Steps
1. Wash and rinse the barley.
2. Clean the dried bean curd sheet and tear into pieces
3. Put the barley and dried bean curd sheet into the slow cooker pot.

4. Add the hot water into the slow cooker pot.
5. Boil for about 2.5 hours.
6. Beat the egg and add to the slow cooker pot. Stir the mixture to make flower egg.
7. Boil another 30 minutes.
8. Add sugar to taste and serve.

Mini Sausage Roll

Sausage roll is an all time favourite. May it be for kids or adults, everyone has tried them at least once and craving for more.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (excluding waiting time for dough to rise)
Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup of bread flour
1 cup of fresh milk
1 cup of all purpose flour
50 gm of butter
1 teaspoon of yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoon of honey
1 egg

1/2 cup of all purpose flour for kneading
10 sausages (cut into 1/3 to make 30 mini sausages)
1/4 eff for eggwash 
Some black sesame for decoration

Steps
1. Using the steps in an earlier post for Chocolate Bread, mix and knead to form the dough until 1st rising process. Proceed to knead the dough for 5 minutes before shaping the dough.
2. To shape the dough, flatten out the dough. Cut a strip out and roll to form a long shaped dough. The length will be around 8-10 cm.

3. Wrap the long shaped dough around the sausage and place on the baking sheet. Ensure that there are sufficient space between the sausage rolls to allow the rolls to grow.
4. Cover the sausage rolls with cling wrap and let it sit for 15 minutes.

5. Coat the sausage rolls with eggwash. 
6. Sprinkle some dark sesame on top.

7. Bake the sausage roll in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celcius for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Simple and Moist White Bread

Part of my continuous experiments in baking the moist and soft bread, I altered slightly the recipe that I used to make Chocolate Bread. The methods is still the same, except that I used honey instead of sugar and increased the amount of butter.

The bread turned out softer and moist. What a delightful experiments !

Preparation Time: 30 mins (excluding waiting time)

Cooking Time: 25 mins

Serving Size: 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of milk

1 egg

2 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoon of honey

1 teaspoon of yeast

2 cups of bread flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of bread flour for kneading (try not to use more than that)

Steps:
Follow the steps as in Easy Chocolate Bread Recipe