Chunky peanut butter cupcake

Party time !

It may be another 9 hours before  daybreak but the pressing question at the dinner table is : What's for breakfast tomorrow ?

With all edible stuff, frozen or otherwise consumed because of a slow baking week, this issue escalated into an emergency. A family conference ensued and with the meager  pantry supplies surveyed , it would have to be peanut butter cupcakes. Which is just as well : 30 minutes later, the deep, rich aroma of peanut butter perfumed the house and had everyone anticipating. 

What a life - a home filled with the sounds of idle chatter and smells of baking.  I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world!

A peanut butter cupcake by any condiments ( or none ) tastes just as nice !

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Dry ingredients :

140g plain flour

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 T ground peanut

80g brown sugar

Pinch of salt

Wet ingredients :

1 egg, room temperature

4 T chunky peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

80g butter,room temperature

60 ml milk

Method :

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Prepare a tray with 12 cupcake holders.

Prepare dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter until broken up. Add the rest of the wet ingredients, except milk  and whisk at high speed until creamy.

Add half of dry ingredients and half of the milk. Whisk and incorporate batter.

Whisk in the rest of the dry ingredients and milk. Whisk until well mixed.

Scope the batter into the 12 cupcakes holders.

Bake at 180 C for 20 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of creamy peanut butter if so wished or a dusting of icing sugar.

Goes well with a cup of earl grey tea.

Coffee cake roll with filling of raisin-cream cheese

The most important component needed for my latest swiss roll is … a tea towel.

The towel is a clever but innocuous implement. Ever since  the case of my 'peeling' matcha roll, I had been reviewing my processes and decided to 'throw in the towel'. Now, I am a happy woman, with a perfectly rolled up cake and a concoction that is my own.

This coffee swiss roll has an alchoholic twist to it, with the introduction of raisins soaked in plum soju and a generous layer of cream cheese. The highlight was supposed to be the coffee cake but hubby thinks the cream cheese defines everything.

Makes one  9" x 9" cake for rolling.

Ingredient :

Yolk base :

1 T instant coffee + 1 T rum

25 g caster sugar

60g cake flour

1/4 t baking powder

1 T sour cream

3 egg yolks

1g  salt

50g corn oil

20g milk

Meringue :

2 egg whites

40g sugar

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

Filling :

200g cream cheese

1/4 cup fine sugar

4 tablespoon meijiu ( plum soju ) or sour cream if you prefer it non-alcholic

1/4 cup raisin soaked in plum soju

Prepare the baking tray by lining it with baking sheet.

Sift dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk all the other yolk based ingredients. Add flour gradually and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

In a clean bowl, beat  egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed until foamy. Add sugar gradually, beating until stiff peaks are formed, 3-4 minutes.

Add 1/3 of the meringue into the batter and stir with a spatula. Add in the rest of the meringue and stir in one direction, until well combined.

Pour batter onto the lined tray, spreading batter to fill all corners of the tray.

Bake at 180 for 18 minutes.

Remove from the oven, lift cake from the tray and invert the cake on a clean tea towel, sprinkled with sugar.

Peel off the parchment, now facing up, and sprinkle the surface with sugar. With the cloth towel below, roll up the cake and leave it to cool.

Whip 200 g of cream cheese, at room temperature, and 1/4 cup of sugar.

Unroll towel ( and cake ).

Transfer cake to a clean parchment sheet and spread the cake with whipped cream cheese. Sprinkle with raisins.

Roll up the cake carefully using the parchment. Secure both ends and chill for at least an hour before serving.

To avoid the pesky ants from attacking the spill over sugar bits, use a newspaper as a 'tablecloth'.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food

Coffee Oat Crumble Cheesecake

This coffee crumble cheesecake is good to go

My kind of Cheese cake : neither too dense nor airy

There is only one summary for this cake : Decadent !

How else should I describe a  cheese cake with buttery oat crumble?   But since I am going to prescribe present this to my favorite doctor, it is pertinent to highlight the fact that it has 40g of wholesome, beneficial oats on it.

The oat crumble also acts as a cover up for the pesky cracked top that often plagues my cheese cakes. So I might as well  have my decoration and eat it.

Now go and get a slice of the good life !

Makes  a 20 cm cheesecake .

Ingredients :

Cake base :

180g digestive biscuit crumbs

80g melted butter, unsalted

Filling :

400g cream cheese, room temperature

90g caster sugar

1.5 teaspoon of instant coffee powder ,the best you can get

3 eggs

120g whipping cream

 1 T corn flour

Crumble :

80g plain flour

40g rolled oats

40g caster sugar

60g cold butter

Method :

To make the base :

In a food processor, blitz the biscuit to very fine crumbs. In a separate bowl, stir biscuit crumbs with the melted butter. Transfer base mixture to a 20 cm spring form and compact it ( with your palm or any flat implement ). 

Chill until ready for use later.

To make the crumble :

In the food processor, blitz sugar, butter, rolled oats and  flour until it resembles bread crumbs.

Set aside.

To make the filling :

Whisk cream cheese until totally broken.

Mix in sugar and coffee powder. If using granules, dissolve them in half a teaspoon of hot water first.

Whisk in egg, whipped cream and corn flour.

Do not over whisk or risk a fluffy, airy cheesecake.

To assemble and bake :

Preheat oven to 170 C, with a baking rack in the oven.

Pour the cheese filling onto the chilled biscuit base. Level out the filling.

Sprinkle the crumble over the filling gently. If it is too much for your liking, use only 80% of the prepared crumble.

Bake at 170C for 45-50 minutes until the crumble is browned.

Cool the cake in the oven, with the door ajar. 5 minutes.

Cool the cake and chill overnight before serving.

If you are baking this cake to give away, try lining the base of the baking tin with oiled parchment. It makes it easier to transfer the cake from baking tin  to  cardboard cake base  before packing it in a cake box.

Remember to use a cake base that is at least 1 inch bigger than the spring form tin. This allowance caters for any 'slippage' during transportation.

Now go and bake  your cake and eat it !

Crumbly oats offers contrast to creamy filling

Adapted from Cheesecake Mania by Kevin Chai. This  book has  great cheesecake ideas for the intermediate baker although  austere description for cake assembly makes it  a cliffhanger for the more uninitiated baker.

Matcha red bean milk bread

Matcha ( green tea powder ) and red bean milk bread

This combination of matcha and aduki red bean bread is as Japanese as I can get.

If you are using a bread machine to knead the dough, like I did, it is almost a no-brainer.  Just roll in the red beans before the second proofing by hand and you are halfway to a sumptuous breakfast. Though made with the straight dough method, it still yields silky bread strands, due to all the sinful ingredients - whipped cream, egg, milk powder etc.

History has indicated that I am prone to consuming copious amount of Japanese-anything bread. To counteract this, I decided to go for a quick run in  my jogging circuit while waiting for the second rise.

But  I got 'distracted' and the run took more than an hour, surpassing the 1 hr rising time allocated for the second proofing. So it was to my horror when I saw green globs oozing out from the gap between the Pullman cover and base.  To add to my consternation, more green glob oozed during the process of baking. Nothing that a sharp pair of scissors could not solve but I lost 10% of the entire bulk as a result.

The majority of the recipe is adapted from that of the Hokkaido Milk bread recipe.

Matcha bread with Nutella is simply bliss

Ingredients:

Wet ingredients -

1 cup  milk ( room temperature )

2 T whipping cream

1  egg white (  + 1 egg, lightly beaten )

Dry ingredients -

1 tsp salt

4 T sugar

5 T milk powder

1.5 T matcha powder

4 cups bread flour

1/2 cup cake flour

3 t instant yeast

Additional ingredient -

1 cup red beans ( cooked to al-dente )

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In the bread machine, pour in milk, whipping cream and top off with dry ingredients. 

Use the dough function of the bread machine. Add red beans 15 minutes after the start of the kneading. This first cycle takes 1.5 hours.

Remove risen dough from bread machine . Stretch dough lengthwise and roll, sprinkling cooked red beans.

Divide it into 4 portions. Rest dough for 20 minutes, covered.

Grease with butter a Pullman loaf pan. Stretch and roll each dough again. Place  rolls into  loaf pan.  Cover Pullman, leaving a tiny gap. Let the dough rise up to double, about 60 minutes.

Cover Pullman pan completely. Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for about 35-40 minutes. I baked mine for 35 minutes.

Cool pan and remove bread to cool completely before serving. Pairs well with Nutella spread and a cup of espresso.

A cake on trial

This was a birthday cake trial bake, but it did not achieve the oomph I wanted - under-whipped cream that was too runny and sponge cake that was flattened by my rough handling. Which puts the blueberries to waste, a pity.

But since this was a trial bake and the problem areas were identified, I hope to see great bakes coming to fruition. Very soon, hopefully.

Ingredients for Cake

( 23 cm diameter cake pan )

- Sponge Cake -

150g Eggs

100g Sugar 

90g Cake Flour

15g Unsalted Butter

1 tbsp Milk

- Soaking Syrup -

2 tbsp Sugar

3 tbsp Hot Water

1 tbsp Kirsch - a type of brandy made from fermented cherries. I used Meijiu.

- Toppings -

400ml Whipping Cream with 35% fat ( I use Phoon Huat whipping cream )

3 tbsp Sugar

100g blue berries

Powdered Sugar

Parchment Paper 23 cm diameter

Parchment Paper (side): 6 cm high

Cake Pan 23 cm

* Let the cake cool down in the cake pan as it will keep the sponge cake moist.

Prepare water bath with temperature of about 40 C

Whisk egg for 30 seconds and add sugar.

Whisk until pale and transfer mixing bowl over bath.

Continue whisking for about 3 minutes. Egg batter should be body temperature.

Remove mixing bowl from bath if batter gets too warm.

Whisk batter until batter forms ribbons.

Place the butter and 1 tsp of milk in a bowl in the bath. Remove bowl when butter melts.

Sift cake flour over batter.

Use a spatula and stir in flour, about 30 times in one direction. Take care not to break up foam.

Pour melted butter to the batter, using the spatula.

Stir in  butter gently in one direction, about 50 times.

When batter is glossy and smooth, pour batter into prepared pan.

Knock off air bubbles by tapping the pan on the worktop.

Bake for 160C for 23 minutes or until skewer pierced into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Invert the cake onto a parchment on a cooling tray . Since my pan is large, the cake is not as domed, so this step is eliminated.

When cooled, remove the cake pan and parchment.

Invert the cake right side up again.

Meanwhile , prepare soaking liquid.

Mix liquor, water and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

Prepare whipping cream. Whip cold cream over an ice bath with sugar until soft peaks form. 1 minutes on the electric whisk should do nicely.

Do not over whipped or else you get butter.

Chill until ready to use.

Make marking at the halfway point at the side of the cake. Use a serrated knife and saw across the cake. You get 2 halves of a cake.

Dab soaking liquid on both cut surface of the cake.

Apply whipping cream on the first cut surface that is brushed with liquor. Put fruits of your choice. Apply  some more cream.

Complete cake by assembling the second half of the cake over the cream.

Spread cream on the surface and sides of the cake.

Chill before serving.

Matcha red bean cake roll

Strange bedferolls

Today, I came face to face with another baking demon. After all, I have psychological barriers as regards to making cake rolls, with their complexities and all.

To defeat it, I made one.

Now, I am just  one step short of my victory dance. The only shortfall is that the nicely baked skin got peeled off, even with my multiple precautions.  Aargh !

Maybe someone can be kind enough to explain why and how to circumvent this.

This recipe is greatly inspired by pengskitchen.blogspot.com

Let's roll in the good times !

Ingredient (fits a 9" x 9" tray )

Yolk base :

1 T matcha powder

30g + 1 T sugar

60g cake flour

1/4 t baking powder

1 T sour cream

3 egg yolks

1g  salt

50g corn oil

20g water

Meringue :

2 egg whites

40g sugar

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

The quintessential Japanese cake combination :  matcha and red bean

Method:

Oil baking tray and 2 pieces of parchment paper. Line the first parchment onto oiled tray, trimming off excess sides.

Sift dry ingredients for  yolk base into a bowl.

Combine sifted ingredients and the rest of it for yolk base until smooth batter formed, 1 -2 minutes.

Prepare the meringue. In a clean, dry  bowl, whisk egg whites & cream of tartar till foamy. Add sugar gradually and whisk  till soft peak forms, 1-2 minutes.

Take 1/3 of the meringue and stir into egg yolk batter with a flat spatula.

Fold  the remaining  meringue into the matcha batter.

Pour batter into lined cake tray and spread evenly. Tap the tray on the worktop to expel any bubbles trapped in the batter.

Baked in a preheated oven at 180  C for 15-20mins, until cake surface is nicely browed. I baked mine for 18 mins.

Remove cake from tray .Invert the exposed surface onto the second  oiled parchment. Carefully peel off the first parchment.

Cool cake thoroughly before spreading it with whipped cream and 1/2 cup of cooked red beans. Maintain a 1 inch border between cream and the edge of the cake.

Roll cake as like a swiss roll. Keep chilled with parchment intact for 1 hour before serving.

Note : Everything works out except the peeling of the nicely browned skin from the parchment. To cover up the defect, I dusted with a mixture of icing sugar and matcha powder ;-/

This post will be submitted to  Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times (July 2011) hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food 

Jasmine flavored cupcakes

It all started with the leftover whipping cream  from the last project. I would love to use up all the whipping cream but I have yet to find a cake that is made up entirely of just this. Even if I were to do so, I will fast forward my coronary issues by a good 20 years.

And Presto ! My solution came in the vague form of a  recipe in 'Wild about Cupcakes' by Rachel Lane. Although this recipe uses  single cream , I  replaced it with half whipping cream and half milk as well as replacing  rose water with jasmine tea . The sugar was reduced by almost half ( for health reasons, ahem ) but the impromptu compensation was 1 teaspoon of mango jam, which pairs well with jasmine tea.  The tweaks worked out perfectly.  The result were 24  mildly sweet mini cupcakes, rich even without the signature taste of butter.

The original recipe suggests buttercream frosting for creating  a rabbit face. I would have loved to make the rabbit face as in the recipe, but these little lovelies are meant as snacks  for my girl's recess tomorrow, so  there is the worry that the Rabbit's face may be re-arranged by the time she eats it. Thus, I do away with the ornaments and  I settle for a simple icing instead.

Verdict : this recipe is like baroque music : rich, fundamental yet capable of being diverse.  The cake texture is  fine, yet dense. In musical terms, it is almost contrapuntal.  The dual tone of egg and cream is  cause for a sapid overdrive.

I only regret : I should have used bigger cups for these. Like hubby always says : you never go wrong with cream !

This post is created for  a particular little girl , a foodie-violist,  whose appetite for life and music comes in equal measures.

Makes 12 medium or 24 small cupcakes.

225 g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon pink salt

120g fine sugar

2 eggs,  room temperature, lightly beaten

2 Tablespoons jasmine steeped tea

1 teaspoon mango jam

125 ml whipping  cream

125 ml low fat milk

( or use 250 ml single cream instead of milk and cream  )

Pink icing :

50g icing sugar

1 teaspoon water

1 drop red food color

Prepare 12 medium sized cupcakes or 24 small cupcakes on  a tray. Preheat oven to 180 C.

Combine milk and whip cream in a jug. Stir.

Sift baking powder, flour and salt. Set aside.

Beat eggs, tea, jam and sugar until very pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Beat in 1/3 dry ingredients and 1/3 milk cream. Whisk well.

Repeat this step until all the flour and cream are incorporated in the batter.

Transfer batter into a jug, for ease of pouring batter. Pour batter into prepared cups, only up to 3/4 full.

If you are baking in 2  batches like me, consider the temperature of the batter just before baking.  My  first was baked at 180 C for 19 minutes, the second batch for 20 minutes at the same temperature. This is because the batter was chilled while waiting for the first batch to cook. Baking powder is sensitive to heat, so it is preferable not to leave it near a warm place to compromise its leavening action.

Bake at 19 minutes at 180C. Cake is ready w hen skewer pierced into the center most cup comes out clean.

Transfer cups to a cooking tray. Cool completely.

To serve :

Mix sugar, food color and water in a bowl. Use a mini spatula and paint the icing over the cupcake.

Chocolate , black sesame and coconut cake

15 candles couldn't fit on this mini cake so we left it as that.

My family and  I have entered the next stage of my pastime. They now have to dispense with fancy store bought birthday cakes because the baking bug has me bitten hard and fast.

Of course, options are always available, but they are too polite to refuse my kind intentions. On my part, I try to be professional and cater to their wishes as much as my skill allows.

My kid's order list, dark colored, frosted and personal sized, is much like her : bold, adventurous with a hint of self restrain. I translated it to a East-meets-West cake with black powdered sesame,  coconut and dark chocolate.

Are 3 flavors too much for a little cake? Yes and no. The sesame was understated and the coconut which assumed some chocolaty identity gives her something to chew about.

Life is 'hard' when your birthday falls midweek at the beginning of the new school term, drowned by piano lessons and homework. Hope the cake will sweeten her day !

Look what happens when 3 hungry people devour a cake.

Choc component :

90 g dark chocolate

90 ml  double cream

Dry component :

100g plain flour

60g desiccated coconut

2T black sesame powder

1 t baking powder

1/8 t salt

Egg component :

60g softened unsalted butter

100g sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

Frosting :

100 ml whipping cream

Preheat oven to 170C.

To prepare choc component, melt cream and chocolate over a double boiler. Whisk until chocolate cream is liquid and homogenous. Leave to cool.

Mix dry components in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Now to the egg component : cream the butter,  beat in sugar until  pale and light. Whisk in egg, one at a time until egg batter is smooth and homogenous.

Final assembly :

In 3 batches, mix in dry component. Finally, add in melted chocolate cream.

Mix well. Batter will appear thick and gooey. Pour batter into 12 medium sized cupcake cups or a baking tray. I used a tray 8x26x5.5 cm.

Bake at 170C for 35 minutes for cake  in tray, 25 minutes when using cupcakes.

Cake is ready when skewer pierced into the cake center comes out clean. Cool cake in tray thoroughly before removing it to cool it further on a rake.

To frost, whip cream until fluffy. Scoop a dollop over the cake and garnish with black sesame powder.

We downed the entire cake in one go so I have no idea how many days this would keep. Enjoy !

I was over zealous with black sesame dusting and so the fresh cream was swamped by it!