Magic Custard Cake (1) - Lemon Magic Custard Cake

"What magic? Where's the magic?": asks one of the customers. "It's all in the cake. Buy the cake and you will know." says Aunty B.

"I don't like custard." says another. "The custard refers to the texture of the cake." I answered.

The name of this cake is certainly eye-catching. When I first saw the name of this cake on several blogs, that was the same question I had. I read a few of the recipes and was amazed to learn that we can create 2 different textures with one cake batter. One batter! Not three. I wanted to try the cake but couldn't finish the cake all by myself so I sent the link to a blog to my dear friend and we arranged to have a baking session at my place last week.

I have used the recipe from Anncoo Journal and used lemon zest instead of orange zest.

Lemon Magic Custard Cake

113g Butter
480ml Milk
4 large Eggs
1 tbsp fine Sugar
140g icing Sugar
1 tbsp Water
115g plain Flour
zest of one Lemon
1 tsp Vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven at 160 deg C. Grease and line a 8 inch sq pan.
2. Heat the butter till melted and set aside.
3. Heat the milk using low fire till warm and set aside.
4. Separate the egg yolks and whites.
5. Whisk the white eggs till frothy and add the fine sugar and beat till stiff. Set aside.
6. Hand whisk the egg yolks and icing sugar till pale and thick.
7. Add the melted butter and water to the beaten egg yolk mixture and mix well.
8. Sieve the flour and add into the egg yolk and butter mixture in batches together with the orange zest.
9. Test the milk with your little finger and make sure it's not too hot. Add the milk into the egg yolk mixture and mix well.
10. Fold in the stiffen egg white in batches. The egg white will not mix in very well but it's ok. Just try to fold in as well as possible and minimise any visible lumps.
11. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 45-60 mins.
12. The cake will be still a little wobbly when done.
13. Remove from cake pan when completely cooled and slice after chilling.

I have used my brand new stencils and snow powder to decorate the cake after it cooled.
 Voila! Look at the 3 different layers! There's a dense bottom layer, a soft custard middle layer and a light sponge top layer. I simply love the texture of this cake! My baking kaki and her brother loved it too.

I couldn't help but googled more magic custard cake recipes and made different variations of the cake for the next 3 days, including 2 cakes for sale at our weekly church bake sale :) That was where the conversation at the beginning of this post happened. Stay tuned! I will be posting the other recipes in the next few days.

Dulce de Leche again: 2 Milk Chiffon Cake

Hello, I'm back after a short getaway to Phuket with girlfriends. We had quite an adventure renting a car and driving all around Phuket without any GPS or google maps. The resort we stayed at was amazing and they were very attentive to our needs. They served us freshly home-made ginger tea and pad thai which weren't on their breakfast menu. We even upgraded to a pool access room for a very good rate. I will definitely be going back to Ayara Kamala Resort again.

I bought some new toys for baking :) Got these cake stencils for less at S$4 each at Robinsons in Jungceylon! Many thanks to my good friend who saw them.

I mentioned previously that I have been researching on recipes using Dulce de Leche. Found out during the trip that a friend's daughter also feel in love with milk jam when she visited Argentina last year and she still has stocks at home. Hmmm... more and more people are getting to know Dulce de Leche. Here's another recipe using Dulce de Leche. I have modified my usual chiffon cake recipe to use the milk jam.

2 Milk Chiffon Cake (18 cm Chiffon pan)

100g Cake flour

3 large Eggs

60 ml Dulce de Leche

1 tsp Baking powder

75ml evaporated Milk

40g caster Sugar

50ml vegetable Oil

1) Pre-heat oven at 160 deg C.

2) Separate eggs into yolks and whites and put them into 2 clean mixing bowls.

3) Hand whisk the egg yolks with the Dulce de Leche.

3) Drizzle the vegetable oil into the egg yolk mixture and mix well.

4) Add the evaporated milk into the egg yolk mixture and mix well.

5) Sieve the flour and baking powder and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Set aside.

6) Using a electric beater, beat the white egg till frothy. Add the caster sugar and beat till just before stiff.

7) Fold the white egg mixture into the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches.

8) Pour into a chiffon pan (no need to grease or line) and gently tap to remove bubbles.

9) Bake for 40 - 45 mins. Test with skewer.

10) Once baked, take out and stand the pan upside down till it cools before removing from pan.

Schokoladen-Brote: Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I was away over the weekend visiting a friend and exploring a different side of Penang. We had a good time looking for the murals and eating our way around.  Finally bought my cake stand for RM29.90! It was such a steal! Many thanks to my host for driving me to the 2nd Tesco to get the stand (it sold out when I finally made up my mind to buy). I wanted to buy the cupcake stand too but thought better of it. I will post a picture of the stand when I bake a cake to display :)

I was in Penang when the World Cup finals were played. We were way too tired after the whole day of walking to stay up to watch the game but there were fireworks going on at 4 plus in the morning when Germany won. Congratulations to Germany! As promised to my friend, Ben, I would post a German recipe when Germany wins.

I got the below recipe from my German boss when I was working for a bank. She actually gave me a photocopy of the recipe which is in German and only translated the ingredients in English so I have to guess the method myself.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

200g dark Chocolate
90g Butter
115g caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla essence
215g all purpose Flour
25g Cocoa powder
1/2 tsp Baking powder
A pinch of Salt
175g icing sugar

1) Pre-heat the oven at 160 deg C
2) Melt chocolate and butter together using a double boiler method
3) Remove the melted chocolate and butter from heat, add the caster sugar and stir till melted.
4) Add the eggs one at a time, stiring till well mixed
5) Add vanilla essence.
6) Sieve the flour, cocoa powder,salt and baking powder together.
7) Add the sieved flour into the melted chocolate mixture.
8) Chill in the fridge for an hour.
9) Shape the cookie dough into small balls. Coat the cookie balls with icing sugar.
10) Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. Cool before storing.

Dulce De Leche Cake

Dulce de Leche....hmmm sounds pretty exotic. I came across this caramel 2 years back but didn't have the time or the courage to try it. To make Dulce de Leche, you need to boil cans of condensed milk for 3-4 hours to get the nice caramel colour and taste. Since I love Latin music and dances, I thought I should give this a try.

Last week, I made some Dulce de Leche finally and have been searching through the internet for recipes that use Dulce de Leche. I boiled the cans of condensed milk using my trusty Tiger Thermal pot so that I don't have to watch the water level or the fire.

I have bookmarked a number of recipes to try and was attracted by the texture of this cake on the photo. I found this recipe on the tough cookie website and have made some slight modifications.

Dulce de Leche Cake

150g Brown sugar
180g salted Butter (I used unsalted butter as I have added some seasalt into my Dulce de Leche)
4 large Eggs
200g Dulce De Leche
1 tsp Vanilla essence
200g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder

1) Pre-heat the oven at 160 deg C.
2) Line and grease a 8 inch loaf pan.
3) Using a double boiler, heat the Dulce de Leche till it becomes runny.
4) Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
5) Add the eggs one at a time to the beaten butter.
6) Mix in Dulce de Leche and Vanilla essence.
7) Sieve the flour and baking powder together and fold into the above mixture.
8) Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 45-55 mins.

I have decorated the cake with some leftover Chocolate ganache and chopped hazelnuts.

I love this cake and the friends whom have tasted this cake have also given their thumbs up.

PS: You can drizzle Dulce de Leche on your cakes or use them as jam on breads. If you would like to buy them off the shelves, Seasalt Caribbean at Pasar Bella is selling them.

Guinness again: Guinness Beef Pie

It's Guinness again! Although this time around, it's a savoury pie and not a cake. You must be thinking that I really like Guinness but the opposite is true. I don't like the taste of Guinness as a drink, but somehow it adds a different taste when added to food.

I don't make pies often as I find them quite tedious. You have to make the filling and then the crust and assemble the pie.  I have been wanting to make my own pies since I visited Pies and Coffee about 2 weeks ago. They really have amazing pies there, some with very local flavours like Laksa Seafood.

I have always wondered how Guinness Beef Pie tasted like so have decided to try making my own after searching through several recipes online. I made the filling as a sort of soup/stew the day before for dinner and made the pie the next day for lunch. I have also opted to use ready-made pastry as they save time.

Guinness Beef Pie

800g Beef chuck (diced)
1 large white Onion (diced)
3 medium carrots (diced)
1 can plum tomatoes
250ml Guinness
5-6 bay leaves
salt
black pepper
Olive oil
Ready-made puffy pastry sheets
1 egg for egg wash

1) Using some olive oil and a non-stick pan, brown the diced beef chuck. Set aside
2) Using the same pan, stir fry the white onion till soft and fragrant. Add carrots and bay leaves.
3) Return the browned beef and add the plum tomatoes and Guinness.
4) Once it comes to a boil, lower the fire and let it simmer for 2 hours (or use a thermal pot like I did) till the beef is tender.
5) Add salt and black pepper to taste. (This would be your beef soup/stew, can be served with bread and salad)
6) Add some cornflour to thicken the soup/stew
7) Ladle some beef stew into ramekins and cut the puffy pastry to slighter larger than remekins. Cover the ramkeins with the puff pastry (do not defrost your puff pastry sheets before use)

8) Brush some beaten egg on the puff pastry.

9) Pre-heat your oven at 180 deg C.
10) Bake the pies for 30 mins till the pastry has turned golden brown.

You can make this pies in advance and freeze them before baking. Just pop them into the oven and serve.
I have a few pies now in my freezer for my guests on Wednesday.

Updated 18 November: Heated up 2 frozen pies at 200 deg C for 30 mins and enjoyed hot beef pies on a wet rainy day!

Chocolate Orange Cake

I love chocolate and I love orange!

My closest friends know that I love anything citrus. I have shower gels, lotions, perfumes and room diffuser all in orange scent. I find the scent very refreshing and uplifting and wonderful as a wake me up when you shower with orange scented shower gels. When Baileys came out with the limited edition Orange Truffle Baileys, I had to stock up a few bottles at home!

As for Chocolates, hmmmm... need I say more? Just look at the name of this blog :) So when I came across several blogs mentioning Nigella's Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake, I just had to give it a try. When I first tried this recipe, I found that the orange taste was much stronger than the chocolate. That wasn't the taste I was looking for. I did some modifications and managed to achieve the Chocolate Orange taste that I love. I even baked an Owl cake for my sister's birthday with this same cake.

Chocolate Orange Cake

320g unsalted Butter
4 tbsp Honey
140g Brown sugar
200g Cake flour
86g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking soda
4 large Eggs
Zest of 1 large orange
120g orange juice

1) Preheat your oven at 160 deg C
2) Beat the soften butter with honey and brown sugar till smooth.
3) Sieve the cake flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together
4) Fold in one scoop of the flour into the butter mixture and followed by one egg. Continue till you have folded in all the flour and eggs.
5) Add the orange zest and orange juice into batter and mix well.
6) Pour the batter into a 7 inch sqaure pan and bake for 45-55 mins.

You can eat this on its own or you can decorate it with some chocolate ganache.

1st Blog: Guinness Chocolate Cake

Hello everyone

This is the first time I am writing a blog. I love cooking and baking and have always posted photos of my dishes and cakes on Facebook. A friend have asked me several times if I have a blog as she would love to replicate some of the recipes but I have always been too busy to start blogging. Since I am currently on a career sabbatical and trying out new recipes very often, I thought I will give this a try. Char, this is for you :)

I am starting my first blog with a decadent cake: Guinness Chocolate Cake by Nigella Lawson (with some modifications). I love Nigella's recipes and was introduced to her by a close friend in 2010. I have tried this recipe once last year for a baking contest in the office and the judges love the combination. The cake is moist and the taste of Guinness is not very obvious. I would probably try making a Guinness buttercream to go with the cake next time to increase the taste of Guinness.

Guinness Chocolate Cake

1 can Guinness Stout (320ml can)
250g Butter
45g Cocoa powder
80ml Yoghurt
100g Brown sugar
50g Caster sugar
2 large Eggs
1/2 tbsp Vanilla essence
275g Plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1) Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg C
2) Melt the butter and Guinness Stout together on low fire.
3) Remove from the above mixture from heat, whisk in both types of sugar and cocoa powder. Set aside.
4) Beat the yoghurt, eggs and vanilla essence together using a hand whisk.
5) Add the yoghurt mixture into the Guinness mixture and mix well.
6) Sieve the flour together with baking soda.
7) Add the sieved flour into the Guinness mixture and mix till smooth.
8) Pour the batter into a greased and lined cake tin
9) Bake for 45mins - 55 mins

I have used a bundt pan this time and have drizzled some Dulce de Leche over the cake.

Hope you enjoy this cake like I have.


Update: The Guinness taste is much stronger after 2 days. So patience, patience, patience. Look at how moist the cake is! For this slice, I have spread on some leftover chocolate frosting! Double chocolate!