Yuzu again: Yuzu Swiss Roll

I had a lovely time this afternoon baking with a friend whom I made during my work stint in Shanghai. She was interested in baking but due to health concerns, she has to reduce on butter and cream. We had lunch last week and she wanted to learn some healthier cakes. I suggested chocolate cupcakes with buttermilk and Yuzu Swiss Roll without cream as she loved the Yuzu Log Cake which I gave her.

We had so much fun chatting while baking that I almost forgot to add the vegetable oil to the Swiss roll. We added the oil after folding in the stiff white egg and luckily the Swiss roll turn out successful.

In the past, I had problems rolling swiss roll without cracking or having the swiss roll stick to the baking paper. After doing some research online, I finally managed to make a beautiful swiss roll. Today, I will be sharing with you the tips I have learnt.

Yuzu Swiss Roll (serves 8-10)
50g milk
30g vegetable cooking oil
50g caster sugar
3 large eggs (separated, ensure there is no trace of egg yolks in the egg whites)
1/4 tsp cream of Tartar
50g cake flour (sieved)
5 tbsp Yuzu tea
Some icing sugar

1. Pre-heat oven at 160 deg C
2. Heat 15g caster sugar, vegetable oil and milk in a pan. Stir till sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
3. Add in the cake flour and stir till well mixed.
4. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and Cream of Tartar till frothy. Add in remaining 35g of caster sugar and beat till stiff.
6. Fold in 1/3 of stiff egg white to the egg yolk mixture. Take care not to deflate the egg whites. Continue folding in the rest of the egg whites.
7. Line a 9" by 13" tray. Pour the batter into the tray.
8. Bake at 160 deg C for 20-25 mins.
9. Once the cake is baked, take out of oven immediately and drop the tray from a height for a few times (to prevent shrinkage).
10. Prepare a sheet of baking paper similar in size to the tray. Sprinkle some icing sugar on the baking paper.
11. Invert the baked cake onto the new sheet of baking paper and remove the old baking sheet.
12. Roll the cake while it's hot and leave it to cool rolled up.
13. Once the roll is cooled, unroll the cake and spread the Yuzu tea onto the cake. Roll up again and chill in the fridge for an hour before serving.

Optional: You can spread some whipped cream onto the cake prior to spreading the Yuzu tea and for the Christmas season, you can frost the outside with whipped cream and decorate it into a log cake.

This is the cake without the whipped cream which we made today. Pardon the poor lighting. Due to the rain, I couldn't take nice pictures. We sprinkled some icing sugar on top of the swiss roll instead of frosting the roll.

I am enjoying a slice of this soft, fluffy and Yuzu filled goodness while writing this post :)

Yuzu Chiffon Cake

Rain rain rain...... This is the 2nd week that we are experiencing rain in the afternoons. Very cooling weather though the wet weather is a damper for any outdoor activities... the poor school children who are cooped up at home during the school holidays.

While posting the last post, I noticed that I haven't posted any cakes or cookies recipe for some time. I have been baking quite regularly these past weeks but somehow haven't posted them. This has been a rather productive baking week for me. I was perfecting the cookie recipe for my Christmas Goodies baking class and have also managed to create a new flavour for Christmas Log Cake. I should probably name it the Baker's Favourite as the log cake was created especially for me :) I have been trying to control myself not to finish the whole cake. I have also been busy organising my very own first baking class and also a 1st birthday party for Chocs & Cheeze. How time flies!

As mentioned in previous posts, I love citrus and Yuzu is one of my favourites. I have Yuzu wine, Yuzu honey and Yuzu tea at home! My newly created log cake is Yuzu Log Cake! Been wanting to bake a Yuzu Chiffon Cake for the longest time and I glad I baked it a month ago when I had an overseas guest over at my home for dinner. It also gave me a chance to try out my new heart-shaped Chiffon pan from Tokyo. The cake is very soft and fluffy, my overseas guest gave it a thumbs-up and packed some for her colleagues and breakfast the next day!

I followed the recipe from here with some slight modifications.

Yuzu Chiffon Cake (21cm Chiffon pan)
4 large Eggs (separated)

1/4 tsp Salt

80g Caster Sugar

5 tbsp Vegetable oil

100g Yuzu tea 

 5 tbsp Hot Water

120g Cake flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

1. Pre-heat the oven at 170 deg C

2. Mix the Yuzu tea with the hot water and cut the yuzu peels into small pieces.
3. Beat the egg yolks, 30g sugar and salt together till well mixed.
4. Add the Yuzu tea mixture into the beaten egg yolks and mix well.
5. Sieve the Cake flour together with the baking powder and add to the egg yolk mixture using a hand whisk.
6. Beat the egg whites and Cream of Tartar till formy and then add the 50g sugar and continue beating till peaks formed.
7. Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture at a time into the egg yolk mixture gently. Be careful not to deflat the egg whites.
8. Pour the batter into a Chiffon pan (no need to grease and line pan) and bake at 170 deg C for 45 minutes.
9. Once the cake is baked, take it out of the oven and invert it immediately to prevent sinking.
10. Remove the cake from mould once it's cooled.

I love this cake so much that I baked it again the next day :) The baking of the cake is not difficult but sometimes the un-moulding is a little tricky. Have a try.

Creamy pumpkin soup (without cream)

It has been raining everyday for the past few days here in Singapore and we are experiencing some of the coolest days in the year (about 24 deg C at night). No need to turn on the air-conditioner at home..Hooray! Despite the wet weather, I had a lovely week. I was busy baking away on weekdays and had a lovely catch-up with an friend on Sunday. I spent the last 2 days baking and decorating children's cakes and find them such a joy to make.

Pardon the poor lighting as I had to take them without natural sunlight due to the rain. I finally got a chance to use the teddy bear bread tin that I bought from Tokyo. 2 cake tins used, 2 more to go.....
I actually wanted to make a Rilakkuma cake for a friend who loves the bear but drew the mouth incorrectly so this is just a teddy bear cake :) Both cakes were made with 2 different flavours; chocolate and coffee. Interesting? Just received an order for an Elephant cake next week... looking forward.

Since it was rainy and cool, I wanted some hot soup for dinner tonight. Decided to make myself some creamy pumpkin soup since I have some carrots and potatoes leftover from last week's Chicken and potatoes stew. I used to dislike creamy soups as I find them too heavy and prefer the clear soups. Usually I can hardly finish half a bowl of creamy soup. However a friend, K taught me this recipe a few years back and started me cooking more western soups.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup (serves 4)

500g pumpkin
2-3 medium carrots
3 russet potatoes
1 white onion
1 tsp Italian mixed herbs
2 bay leaves (optional)
1 litre water
1 stock cube
salt and pepper

1. Wash and peel the pumpkin, carrots and potatoes.Cut them into cubes
2. Peel and chopped the onion
3. Heat up a pot and 1 tablespoon of oil.
4. Fry the chopped onion till soft. Add the mixed herbs, pepper and bay leaves and fry till fragrant.
5. Add the potatoes, carrots and pumpkin and mix well.
6. Add the water and stock cube and bring it to a boil.
7. When the soup comes to a boil, lower the fire to simmer till the potatoes are soft.
8. Use a hand-head blender or transfer the soup into a blender and blend till smooth. If the consistency is too thick, add a little hot water.
9. Season with salt and pepper and served with warm bread.

You can add a little smoked paprika and cumin if you like while frying the mixed herbs. There are no hard and fast rules for the proportions of the vegetables. I find this soup which is thickened by potatoes much lighter and have made this soup numerous times. Hope you like it too.

Chicken and potato stew

Hello! Sorry to miss the posting last week. I was busy catching up with friends and preparing for a cupcake baking and decorating class which was held last Sunday. In between that I also had to plan and design 3 cakes which I have not done previously. They turned out beautifully. I will share pictures of those cakes in my next post.

This is my first time teaching a class. I had in mind a tea party where we could relax and let out creative juices flow. Thank you to friends who gave me tea and cupcake stand sets so that we could all have a nice tea party. We all had a great time including the assistants and the participants. I'm sure you have heard about expressing yourself through drawing and painting and now you can express yourself through cupcake decorating. We were amazed and blown away by the decorations done by the participants. They were beyond our expectations. You may not necessarily excel in Art but can still be fantastic in cake decorating. It's just a different type of canvas.

Here are the pictures from the class:

Amazing isn't it? Most of the participants have no prior experience in piping and decorating. This is such a wonderful way to express your love for your family and friends. The first picture shows that goodies I have baked for the participants. Quite a few of them including the owner of the kitchen we used couldn't stop munching on the Chocolate Cookie Slice.

Despite my crazy schedule, I managed to cook some meals with the help of my thermal pot.
Today I am going to share with you the recipe for a Chicken Potato Stew. Be warned to have plenty of bread or rice to serve with this stew. It's really good and you won't be able to stop at one bowl.

Chicken Potato Stew (serves 3-4)

1 medium size chicken (about 800g to 1 kg)
2-3 carrots
3-4 potatoes (I like to use russet potatoes)
1 white onion
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
4-6 dried chilli (soaked in water)
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2-3 tbsp corn syrup

1. Wash and cut the chicken into pieces. Remove the skin.
2. Wash and peel the onions, carrots and potatoes.
3 Cut the carrots and potatoes into chunks and slice the onion thinly
4. Cut the dried chilli into pieces
5. Heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil in the thermal inner pot. Fry the onion and dried chilli till fragrant.
6. Add the chicken pieces and fry them till light brown.
7. Add the potatoes and carrots chunks and fry them for a while.
8. Add the oyster sauce, light soya sauce, sesame oil and corn syrup and mix well.
9. Add in 400ml of water and cover the pot. Bring the stew to a boil and turn off the fire. Put the pot into the thermal outer container and leave it to cook in the thermal for about an hour.
10. Garnish with some roasted sesame seeds. Serve the stew with rice or bread.

* For those who do not have a thermal pot, you can use a non stick pot to cook the stew and let it simmer till the potatoes are soft.

This stew is good for a picnic or as a meal in itself. I made a pot of this stew for a picnic 2 months back and we almost finished the whole pot even without any rice or bread.