Bake Along #25 - Bake Along 1st Anniversary Layer Cake - Black Sesame Seed Cake with Golden Syrup Cream

Hello everyone!!! I am going to add in another layer cake for the Bake-Along #25 - Bake Along 1st Anniversary Layer Cake - Black Sesame Seed Cake with Golden Syrup Cream.

I was browsing at the supermarket one of the day, and this cake recipe caught my attention. I have yet to own an Alan Ooi's recipe book, and I'm not too sure if his recipe will work fine for me... So I snapped shot a picture of the recipe.... hehehe... typical aunty's doings... :-p

I am supposed to use a square pan of 13"x13"x1", but I do not have such a big one. As my oven is rather small, my bigger pan was 10"x10". Well, yesterday I went shopping, and I was looking at the bigger oven, so I told hubby that perhps I should change to a bigger oven??? He was like, "What???" OKOK, back to the point... Instead, I used a rectangular pan, and thought I could just sliced the cake into 3 layers when it was baked... Hmmm, don't attempt it, use the square pan as stated:-D

As you can see, the bottom layer of my cake as shown in the above picture, (which was actually the top part of the cake), was well baked. But the top layer of my cake wasn't, and it became dense as it wasn't baked properly... So the square pan will allow the cake to bake evenly, and to have a soft texture of the cake. Also because the texture of the batter was rather thick. Lesson learnt:-p

Piping of the cream decoration was absolutely in a mess and an anyhow design, as I have yet to master my skills to pipe beautifully... hahaha...

Cake taste...??? Hmmm, I did not really fancy the golden syrup cream, taste abit weird... Perhaps it was just me. We had all felt that the cake was abit hard, the cream abit too sweet.... Maybe I should try baking the cake once again, this time using the square pan, then at least my cake will come out softer, and more yummy... hehehehe...

Hope you will have fun trying out this cake too:)

Recipe adapted from Alan Ooi

(Ingredients & Method as adapted from his recipe)

Ingredients:

(A)

5 eggs

165g sugar

160g super fine flour

80g black sesame seed powder

40ml fresh milk

1 tsp ovalette (i replaced w 1 tsp condensed milk)

(B)

200g soft butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line a bottom of a 13"x13"x1" baking pan, set aside.

2. Whish A at a high speed for about 5 mins till light & fluffy, set aside.

3. Add in B, whipped until thick & creamy, gradually fold in batter.

4. Ppur batter evenly into the prepared pan and baked for about 10-15 mins.

Icing cream

100g shortening

120g butter

150g golden syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

coloring as desired

Method:

1. Cream butter until soften, fold in shortening and whip till fluffy. Add in vanilla essence and golden syrup, mix well until well belended. Scoop out a small portion and add yr desired coloring, stir well and set aside.

Assembly of cake:

Cut the cake into 3 layers, spread icing cream over the 1st layer, follwed by 2nd layer, and continued for the 3rd layer. Cover the whole cake with icing cream.

Decoration:

Decorate as desired:)

Have fun!!!

Happy 1st Annivesary to Bake-Along once again:)

Bake Along #25 - Bake Along 1st Anniversary Layer Cake - Macadamia Chocolate Cake

I hadn't had much time recently as I was busy with Missy's school homework. I had baked this cake a couple of weeks back, and I had saved it for this Bake-Along #25, 1st Annivesary Layer Cake theme, as I thought I would have much time to bake when the time comes.. Luckily I came into my blog today and saw the other bakers' posting for this Bake-Along 1st Annivesary Layer Cake theme... hehehe.... Else, I could have missed it out....

Wishing Bake-Along a very Happy Happy 1st Anniversary...

And from this Bake-ALong, I was glad that I had known the Bake-Along hosts, Joyce, Lena & Zoe. I have gotten to meet more Bakers whom bakes are so wonderful, and a great sharing place:))

Here is my bake, the Macadamia Chocolate Cake.

It was a really easy recipe to bake and try out.

I am very bad with slicing my cake into layers as they usually turns out to be out of shape or they are not evenly sliced... I have yet to find the perfect solution or the easiest way to slice them into layers.. hahaha... But I was glad, that this time, the layers were kinda equally thick... oops...:-p

This chocolate cake I made this time, was by steaming. The outcome of the cake was not too bad. I had actually expected it to be slightly hard after refrigeration, but it was still in a perfect condition.

The recipe was using hazelnut, but I do not have any, thus I replaced it with macadamia, which works fine as well. As for the side of the cake, I have mixed with some almond for the "browning" color of the nuts.

This cake was a hit among my family... We all love it sooooooo much... The macadamia nut cream was very good too. Not too buttery nor too rich, with the not-too-sweet and soft, steamed chocolate cake, it did compliment the whole cake as it should be...
I simply LOVE this cake, plus my layers were nicely sliced this time... hahahaha....

I could resist but to have a slice of the cake everyday, which usually I don't... Sinful as it was, it was worth it:))

Here is the recipe I adapted from Alex Goh's Steamed Cake recipe:

(with slight modification)

Steamed Chocolate Cake

(A)

320g sponge mix flour (we can use chocolate sponge mix as well)

4 eggs

(B)

30g water

(C)

1 tbsp chocolate emulco (can omit this if you use choc sponge mix)

(D)

50g melted butter

Method:

1. Whip (A) untick thick. Add in (B), whip until light & fluffy.

2. Add in (C), mix until well blended.

3. Add in (D), mix until well blended.

4. Pour into a greased and line 20cam round mould.

5. Steam for about 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Macadamia Cream

(A)

Butter cream

500g butter

150g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

*Cream butter & icing sugar until light & fluffy.

(B)

Custard

90g instant custard powder

220g milk

*Mix all ingredients until well combined. Leave aside until thicken.

Ingredients:

300g butter cream

300g custard

60g toasted ground macadamia nuts + extra for the side of the cake

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients until well-blended.

Assembly of the cake:

1. Slice the cake into 3 equal layers.

2. Sandwich the cake layers with the macadamia cream.

3. Cover the whole cake with the cream andcover the side of the cake with the toasted ground macadamia (i added some almond nuts for the "browning" effect)

4. Refrigerate until firm. Decorate as desired.

As I wrote this blog in the office, I wasn't able to load up the Bake-Along icon in here, due to some security blockage that our office had set... The pictures of my cake was loaded up at home, and I had totally forgotten to load up the Bake-Along icon.

So Bake-Along Hosts, do pardon me for this:-(

Happy 1st Anniersary to Bake-Along once again!!

Let's take a look at the other bakers for the wonderful recipes too:))

Sweet Dots Swiss Roll

Hello everyone, it has been quite some time since my last post??? Hmmm, I guess I was rather busy at work recently, plus I don't have much time to blog as I was also planning for my upcoming holidays and stressfully teaching Nic her Mathematics... Sigh... Seems like time wasn't enough sometimes, till I felt I haven't had some time for myself...

This Sweet Dots Swiss Roll was baked a couple of weeks ago, and here, and I posting up this swiss roll finally. I had bought the swiss roll recipe book since last year, but I wasn't so "hardworking" to try any of these pattern swiss rolls. They are more of a, suddenly switch-on mode to try baking a swiss roll... Not knowing if my swiss roll will roll up nicely as it should be... hahaha...

Pretty isn't it??? Well the taste is more or less the same, using my previous bake of the Bery Berry Roll, I had adjusted the taste to strawberry, which is the girls' favourite... It was a pity that I did not had fresh strawberries to put them in the roll... else, I would think it will make this roll an even sweet, pretty roll...:-p
Would you think so too?

I had taken out some white batter out before mixing in the strawberry paste. Separating the white batter into 2, of which 1 was mixed with chocolate paste. Piping the white batter and chocolate batter into dots onto the baking paper, and I bake them in the oven for about 3-5mins before pouring the strawberry batter onto the baking pan.

The girls were pretty excited as they thought it was fun seeing me piping the dots... hahaha...
For the cream, I had used buttercream, adding some strawberry paste as well. I was glad that my roll did not cracked...:-p

The swiss roll all sliced and packed nicely for the girls' convenience...

And of course, here are Nic, Nat & MiMi, having their fair share of the swiss roll...

Here is the link to the BERY BERRY ROLL I had used..:)

Have fun:))

Happy Mother's Day

Nic got this plant from school for Mother's Day...

And Nic & Nat make & drew these cards for me...

Wishing everyone a happy Mother's Day today:)

Toblerone Marbled Cheesecake - Revisited

Natalie has requested for a toblerone cheesecake for quite sometime. So I decided to make one for her, a marbled one...:-D

How about a slice of this toblerone marbled cheesecake?

Here is Mimi, as usual, trying out her cake...

This Toblerone Marbled Cheesecake looks good....

If you will like to try one, please click HERE.

Prawns & Spare Ribs Noodle Soup

I had been putting this dish on my KIV list for quite a while. I had wanted to try it out but I was just palain lazy sometimes... Probably just need the mood on that particular day. I was talking to my house mate on Saturday, and I mentioned to him that I intend to make prawn noodles, so he had requested me to make for him on the following Saturday. Well, I thought, alright, I shall make on the following Saturday, so that everyone can try it...

My hubby loves prawns & spare ribs noodles very much. Yesterday he asked me , "Ain't you gonna cook prawn noodles today???" Hmmm, I guess hubby comes 1st, so there I was, making my 1st attempt in this dish.

What do you think of my noodles?

This is my soup base. I have slow-boiled it for a few hours. Using the dried cuttlefish, dried oysters, garlice cloves, red dates, wolfberries, spare ribs and prawn heads to cook the soup base... Very delicious...!!! Adding some bean sprouts & kang kong vegetables make it even more tempting. Of course, it will be even better if you have fried shallots:))

I am unable to give you the amount of ingredients used, as I had based on my own estimation... Unlike baking where there are specific weights for each item, but for my dishes, I usually cooked according to my own taste & liking. The ingredients for the soup base will be the ones that I had mentioned in my earlier lines.

Bake Along #23 Honey & Walnut Cake

Joining Bake Along #23 again with the favourite Cake Keeper Cakes recipes, Honey & Walnut Cake.
I had never baked with honey before and I was a little worried that this cake might be abit too sweet... Who knows, the cake turns out quite well, and in fact, this is my 1st cake that did not erupt on the top:-p

This is what I meant, a smooth round top after my cake was being baked... I was very pleased with it... hehehehe... My 1st ever smooth top...:-D

I guess this was the 1st time that I had ever followed the recipe temperature's guide...oops! :-p

Ok Ok, let's get back to this Honey & Walnut Cake... Recipe stated that honey will burnt out faster and it might brown the top. But for mine, I think it still looks pretty alright to me... Perhaps, when I was putting in the honey, I had actually miscounted the number of spoons of honey that I had added in... I must be getting old and forgetful... haha!!! So this cake might contained the actual amount of honey as required, otherwise, it is under-ed honey...

This cake has a very soft, moist texture. Sweetness is just right. I was quite impressed with the combination of this cake.

The only thing about it was that, I do not own a food processer to grind the walnut till fine powdery texture. I had use a hand-held blender instead, but it seems to be clotting up as in chunks as the walnut released oil upon grinding... So while mixing the walnut into the flour mixture, I had to mix it well, to release the crumbs. But nevertheless, this cake turns out fine. I am still able to taste the teeny weeny bits of the wanuts.

The testers had some opinions. For some of us, we love this cake very much, with its soft, moist texture, and the combination was just right for us. And for the rest, it wouldn't be a cake that they will want to eat again as they find it is too sweet:-p

So what would your choice be? Do try out this wonderful cake, and perhaps, it might be one of your favourite too?

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups walnut pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
6 tbsps honey
3 large eggs
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
confectioners' sugar

1.Preheat the oven at 350F. Grease a 9 inch round cake tin. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment , dust the sides of the pan and parchment with flour. Spread the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely.
2. Combine the cooled walnuts and 1 tbsp of sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until the nuts are finely ground. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and pulse to combine.
3. Add the buttter, honey and remaining sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat on medium high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl . Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the zest and vanilla. Add the nut flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time and mix until just incorporated.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry, 35 to 40 minutes. If the cake starts to brown too much around the edges, loosely tent with foil after 25 minutes.
5.Let the cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, invert it onto wire rack and then turn it right side up again to cool completely. Dust heavily with confectioners' sugar before cutting into wedges and serving.

Here, let's join along the Bake-Along hosts, Joyce, Lena & Zoe, and other bakers whom had join along in this bake too:)

P.S: I have seen everyone's bake piece, but sometimes I am just not able to leave a comment in your blog to let you know how wonderful your bake piece looks too...

So sorry...:(