Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

Just in time to bake a cake for hubby's birthday after getting back from a golfing holiday in Hainan Island, China. Great golf courses, food and fun with a bunch of golfing buddies from the club. Weather this year was extremely hot, unexpected. Last year, all of us were unprepared and caught in an unusually cold weather. So we thought we'd better bring warmer clothing. But weather turned out otherwise .....

I can't remember when was the last time I baked a birthday cake for hubby, not to mention mine as our birthdays coincided with travels. I'm determined to bake one this year. Wanted to make a simple and fuss-free one - chocolate and coffee flavor. That's easy - chocolate genoise sponge cake with coffee-flavored fresh cream frosting, something I've not tried before. The closest one was coffee swiss meringue buttercream.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with assorted cream cheese frosting

 

Pardon me for my tardiness in updating my blog. I baked these cupcakes around the time of baking the Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting but did not update them into my blog. But better late than never .... Here they are - with two types of frosting - salted caramel cream cheese and strawberry cream cheese. Both frosting are deliciously good and go well with the bitter dark chocolate cupcake. The caramel frosting is sweet and salty while the strawberry frosting has a slight tartness to it and it's refreshing.

Chocolate Addiction - Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

How time flies! It seems like just not too long ago that I baked a Royal Chocolate Praline cake for my son's 13th birthday. He's 14 now. It's a chocolate cake again that he requested. Deliberating between a genoise sponge cake, chiffon sponge cake or butter cake, I finally decided upon a Devil's Food Cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Sweet & Salty - Salted Caramel Sauce

Honestly speaking, I've never like caramel, be it in chocolate or ice-cream. In chocolate, I hate the feeling of it being stuck to my teeth other than the sweetness. As for ice-cream, it's one flavour that I will not choose. My favourites are rum and raisin, strawberry, D24 durian and Mao Shan Wang durian. Until one day, I chanced upon sweet and salty caramel sauce ......

Fried Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice is also known as sticky rice or sweet rice. It is commonly used in asian dishes such as fried glutinous rice as featured here, steam glutinous rice (also known as 'lor mai kai' commonly found in places where different kinds of buns or 'bao' are sold), chinese dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and Thai mango sticky rice. Unlike regular jasmine white rice, its grains are slightly shorter and rounder and of opaque color. It is sticky when cooked, hence the name sticky rice. You cannot eat too much of it at one go as it fills up your stomach pretty quickly. So go easy on it even though it is tasty. You do not want to end up with a bloated stomach.

French Dessert - Creme Brulee

What is creme brulee? It's simply soft and smooth baked egg custard with a burnt, crusty sugar topping. The French called it Creme Brulee. The British called it Cambridge Burnt Cream. The Spanish called it Crema Catalana. All three claimed they were the ones behind this sensuous creation. But I think the French made it famous as we normally associate creme brulee as a french dessert. The Chinese has a similar dessert too - the egg tart. Of course it doesn't have the burnt top but a baked crust pastry holding the egg custard.

Pandan Chiffon Cake II

Pandan chiffon cake is one of my forte. I would like to say that family and friends have given me the thumbs up for this cake. This time round, I experimented with taking out the pandan paste. I used pure pandan juice instead. Make it more concentrated by blending more pandan leaves to water, like about 10 leaves to 5 tbsp water. You can refer to my previous pandan chiffon cake post here for the recipe. Omit the pandan paste and change the pandan juice to 4-5 tbsp depending on the concentration. You would see from the pictures posted here that the color is lighter due to the absence of pandan paste. But they still look lovely and natural. Don't you agree? The taste is equally good, if not better, without the artificial pandan paste. Give it a try and share your comments with me.

The recipe is based on a 23cm tube pan. To use a 21cm tube pan, reduce the ingredients by 2/3.

Good Old Butter Cake with Prunes

In the mood to have some good old butter cake for coffee break. The kitchen was filled with the tantalizing aroma the good old butter cake and I just can't wait to sink my teeth into a slice of it when it's fresh out from the oven. So fragrant and so soft and moist to the touch. Have it with a cuppa with family and friends during leisurely afternoon break is such a wonderful, simple pleasure. I used the recipe from my Light Butter Cake and added prunes to it. Be sure to coat the prunes with some flour to lighten it before adding to the cake mixture. This is to ensure not all the prunes will sink to the bottom of the cake when baking. I love this lighter version. Using whole eggs instead of just egg yolks means there's lesser cholesterol and fat. A plus point, can indulge a little more. Haha ..... And I used the separate eggs method (whisk the yolks and beat the egg whites to stiff peaks separately) to create this lighter feel. To indulge, use brandy instead of vanilla extract. Delicious .... yummy .... 

Prune Yoghurt Cheese Cake

It's a cheese cake but not exactly like those heavy american cheese cake we know. I would say this is a healthier and lighter version. There's more yoghurt than cream cheese. Good news to those who love cheese cakes but are wary of the amount of calories that go into it. It has a tangier taste due to the introduction of yoghurt and lemon juice. I would have preferred it to be a little sweeter. Perhaps I should increase the cream cheese portion to make it 50% cream cheese and yoghurt next time.

Fruity Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

This cake looked so lovely, so kawaii. Don't you agree? The base is a Japanese Cotton Cheesecake and beautifully adorned with fresh cream and fruits. This cake is specially made for my daughter's sweet 18th birthday. You see, my daughter is a baker herself and she has requested me to buy her an assortment of petite cakes from Antoinette. She has always wanted to try those pretty cakes (and they sure do look so pretty). You can visit Antoinette to look at their array of cakes. And she actually did not want me to bake a cake coz she said I always bake the same cakes (but I want to perfect my skills in those cakes ....) I guess that's the difference between a youngster who wants to try baking a variety and someone older like me who wants to sharpen her skills and perfect it. I've never baked a Japanese cotton cheesecake (it was a craze many years back) and I wanted to try it this time. She agreed with my choice and I started reading up .....

Sinfully Chocolate 'N' Crunch

As the title implies, this cake is oozing with chocolate and crunch. It may be too rich and sinful to those who are watching their waistlines. But it's for my nephew's 16th birthday. He loves chocolate cakes. I suggested manago mousse cake because Thai honey mango is in season and I have been baking chocolate cakes for him the past few birthdays. Nope, he said. Chocolate cake still wins and it is to be filled with crunchy chocolate pearls between the 2 layers. Okay, his wish is my command.

Pandan Gula Melaka Cake

This cake is specially baked for my mother's 77th birthday on 2 March. I wanted a cake that is simple and easy to bake due to time constraints. My father has been sick and I was busy shuttling between my parents' house and mine. It was tiring. I'm sad to say that my father has gone home to be with the Lord on 20 March 2014 after a short battle with lung cancer. He was so brave all these while, no complaining about his illness. But I'm so comforted that he accepted Christ and was baptized by my cousin-in-law pastor while in the hospital. His mind was crystal clear and he accepted Christ willingly. I thank God for His grace, love and mercy; that my father need not suffer the pains of end-stage cancer. He is now safe in the arms of Jesus in heaven, where there's no pain and suffering; no sorrows and tears.

Pierre Herme's Chocolate Eclair

It has been a long time since I updated my blog. So sorry about it. I'm without a domestic helper for some months now. That explains my tardiness in baking and updating blog. Baking has taken a backseat as I have to allocate priority for mundane household chores & preparing meals for the family. I will now most likely bake for special occasions like birthdays, gatherings and requests from family and friends. And if I really want to bake, it will be simple fuss-free types like muffins, cookies and cakes without any frosting.