recipes using leftover egg yolks: cantonese egg tarts

What to do with leftover egg yolks? This was the question on my mind since the weekend. I made meringue buttercream on Saturday and ended up with 10 egg yolks leftover.  I made lemon curd earlier this month with my leftover egg yolks (would post the recipe soon). Since my egg tart craving last week wasn't satisfied by those sold at the foodcourt, I decided to modify the recipe to substitue egg yolks for whole eggs in this recipe.

Cantonese egg tart (recipe from Christine's recipes) makes about 12 egg tarts
Tart cases:

200g plain flour
25g cake flour
125g soften butter
55g icing sugar
dash of vanilla essence
1 egg whisked (1 used 2 egg yolks)
1) Pre-heat oven at 200 deg C
2) Beat soften butter together with icing sugar till creamy
3) Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well
4) Sieve the cake and plain flour together.
5) Add the flour in 2 batches into the beaten butter
6) Form into a dough and roll out to about 2 cm thick.

6) Cut into circles smaller than the tart mould and shape pastry on the mould.

Egg custard:
150g boiling water
70g caster sugar
2 eggs (I used 4 egg yolks)
75g evaporated milk
 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1) Add the sugar to boiling water and stir till dissolved
2) Add the evaporated milk and mix well
3) Add whisked egg and vanilla essence and mix well
4) Transfer to a jug for easy pouring into the tart cases
5) Fill the tart cases about 75% full

6) Bake the tarts at 200 deg C for 10 mins till slightly brown
7) Lower the temperature till 180 deg C and continue baking for another 10-15 minutes (watch carefully) till custard is cooked (when a toothpick can stand in the custard)

8) Cool and serve on cupcake cases

The colour of the egg custard is more vibrant using the egg yolk recipes vs the whole egg recipe. The tart cases are also more crumbly using only egg yolks. I love egg tarts and this is one recipe that I always use for egg tarts. For this post, I have used photos from both whole egg and egg yolk only recipes. Serve the egg tarts with hot tea or coffee for a lovely tea or breakfast.

Moist Jewish Honey Cake

Hello! It's been almost 2 months since my last post. Been busy as I have returned to the corporate world after a year's break. It took me a while but I finally found a job that allows me work-life balance. I am now 6 weeks into the job and still enjoying it. I have another HR colleague who is into baking and did took his sabbatical to do baking 2 years ago so we have been exchanging tips and ideas. Now I mostly experiment with recipes in the evenings and bring them to my colleagues the next day. Yay! A group of people to help finish the cakes! I still take in orders for cakes and cookies mostly over the weekends.

Back to the cake I am introducing today. This is a Jewish Honey Cake and is typically eaten during the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. A Jewish colleague of mine baked a cake for us 3 years back and I loved the cake! Being a baker, I asked her what are the ingredients as the cake was moist and full of flavour! She told me there's coffee, orange juice, honey and various spices in the cake. It sounded very interesting. I had always wanted to try baking it but never got round to it. I finally tried it about 2 weeks back and fell in love with it. It was a very easy cake and wonderful for those of us who are busy. Everything gets thrown into one bowl and mixed together. I only have to wash a bowl, a measuring cup and a sieve! Greats news for people like me who hate to wash.

Moist Honey Cake (recipe from here)
31/2 cups plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
4tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground allspice
1/2tsp ground cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey
3 large eggs
1 cup warm coffee
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup whiskey (optional - replace with orange juice for non-alcoholic version)
1tsp vanilla extract

1) Pre-heat oven at 175 deg C
2)Sieve the plain flour, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, cloves together in a mixing bowl.

3) Add in the brown and caster sugar
4) Make a well in the centre and add in the rest of the ingredients.

5) Whisk till everything is well mixed.

6) Pour into a oiled and floured 10" Bundt cake pan

7) Bake at 175 deg C for 60-70 mins.
8) Cool in the pan for 15-20 mins before unmoulding
9) Decorate with icing sugar if desired.

As I am typing, the smell of the baking cake is wafting in from the kitchen. I am baking it this time for a church event tomorrow. I find that spiced cakes usually takes a day for the flavours to develop so it would be good to bake the cake a day in advance. My friends loved the Honey Cake and it reminds me of Christmas! This is certainly a cake I will bake for the Christmas Holidays, easy and delicious. Lovely when served with a cup of coffee or tea.