Raspberry Tiramisu Cake

I warn you, with the abundance of berries showing at the farmers' market and grocery store, you would see a lot of berry-flavor cakes showing often :D. I'm such a sucker for berries, especially raspberry. It's really hard for me to resist really good-looking raspberries, super sweet strawberries, deep purple color cherries, fragrant stone fruits. I could very easily pass those things in grocery store, but when it comes to farmers' market, uh oh... I would be in a really big "trouble" :).

Again, I also made this a while back for my dear friend's birthday. I always use every opportunity I got to experiment with type of cakes I've never made before. I mean, this is the best way to learn new stuff, plus you have the people to eat it, right??? (assuming the end result is edible :D). Fortunaltely, I have friends who are willing to eat anything including failed or ugly-looking cakes (well, most of them at least).

I was determined from the beginning to make raspberry tiramisu cake. My other option was mango tiramisu cake (my two most ultimate favorite fruits or cake flavors). I believe that there are things that are meant for each other (flavor or ingredient-wise :P). This includes raspberry-mascarpone, raspberry-white chocolate, dark chocolate-rum-coffee, mango-mascarpone, I could go on and on and on about this. So here's a way to combine them, raspberry tiramisu cake.

I thought of regular tiramisu components, mascarpone, cream, savoiardi (italian lady fingers), coffee, rum, coffee soaking mixture. I want this rasp. tiramisu to have the same components that make up a tiramisu, a tiramisu :P. I decided to use the soft lady fingers, instead of the hard ones like savoiardi as I don't think that making a raspberry solution to soak the lady fingers is going to be as good as the original tiramisu with coffee. So I made my own lady fingers or what French called biscuit a la cuillere. Instead of piping the batter one by one to look like a "finger", I just spread it all in a sheet pan. It'll be stacked together anyway, so no one will notice :). The lady finger is then brushed heavily (not soaked) with raspberry solution with lots of framboise (clear raspberry brandy), just like you brush a cake with simple syrup. Then, a thin layer of raspberry jam that I thinned out a little with framboise goes on top of the lady finger, a layer of mascarpone cream, and lots of fresh raspberries inside. This process is repeated twice. I didn't use egg yolk for the mouse as I don't usually use raw egg yolks to make a fruit-based mousse/cream.

The end cake is a lot higher than I would have liked. After a quick trip to the freezer and trim all of the sides, the cake is now ready to be glazed. Now, this is where the problem started :(. I always have problem with glazing a cake, especially if I use Oetker clear glaze. I followed the direction carefully, but it just set up like a jelly in a minute after taking it off the heat. I kept reheating it, adding more water and raspberry puree, adding my own homemade glaze, etc but nothing works. You can see the really poor glazing on top. I was really frustrated, and I was already late to the dinner (hence the poor decoration :( ). I was a little dissapointed with the height and the glazing and the decoration, but hey, this is an experiment, I should have expected something like this.

But unfortunately, that's not the end of the problem. The real disaster followed 30minutes after. As I mentioned, the oetker glaze set up like a jelly layer on top of the cake that wasn't really "glued" to the cake. I wasn't really paying attention to this as I drove really fast (a little speeding and maybe juuussttt a tad "zig zag-ing" :P to the dinner place where all of my friends were waiting. When I opened up the box after I arrived, I was just speechless. The glaze/jelly layer on top was sliding down the cake and it looked like a mess!!! I just couldn't say anything at that point.

Here's a picture of the cake after the "accident":

I made a good note of the ingredients proportions (that I might need to try next time), and I will definitely make the lady finger layer thinner. But I'm not done with raspberries, I mean how can I be with lots of them lying around everywhere I go, tempting me to pick up a basket or two (maybe four). So, more raspberries or berry posts comiinnggg :)

Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme

I think it is the longest time I haven't updated my blog. My apology, and I would use the same excuse everytime :(, and I would blame it on...time of course!!! :D. But really, I wish I have 30hrs/day, and if I do, I'm sure I would have asked for 35hrs/day :).

Actually, I made this a while ago. I don't remember when exactly but I remember when I started to have my eyes on these little things. Back when I was in college, when I still had my own apartment in TX, I used to make lots of different custards and desserts, not so much for cakes though. I was more interested in fine cooking, desserts, and I would invited my friends to have a dinner together in my small one-bedroom apartment :). Pots de Creme is among all of the different custards I loved to make (and I still do). From the many times I baked different types, I started to notice the difference between all of them. Custard consists of eggs, sugar, and dairy, those are the main things. I would say pots de creme is nothing different than creme brulee, minus the caramelized sugar on top. The texture is supposed to be silky smooth and velvety.

About a few months ago, I visited my dear friend's house, Kiki and played with her adorable baby Max. The foodtv was on at that time and I wasn't really paying attention on what show is playing. But then I heard the words "dessert", "raspberry", "rose", and "cream", and you know me well that those words get to me very easily. As a HUGE fan of raspberry, rose, custard, I would be really interested in anything with those ingredients in it, among other ingredients of course. Unfortunately, the show ended before I got the change to know what was it. So I began my search immediately (thank to internet), and finally got this Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme recipe from Giada and immediately to my "to-make" list it goes. The plan was suspended for a while because I was waiting to have leftover raspberries and cream from other cake I made and finally got the chance!

I would say the ingredients are pretty standard for custard. I baked mine in 6-oz ramekins, while the recipe stated for 4-oz. No biggie, it will just yield less amount of ramekins, that's all. I didn't mash the raspberries however, I thought that it would make the appearance less desirable. I just put whole raspberries inside and I also omit the pop rocks candy.

I didn't really eat a lot of this as my friend gulped them all down, but it has a really nice floral taste in the back ground. Be careful not to use a lot of the rose water as it can be very overwhelming. The only thing I would have done differently though, is bake it a little longer. I forgot to increase the amount of baking time, and as a result, the texture was still a little too soft even after being refrigerated overnight.

I think this is a perfect dessert after a dinner party. It doesn't take too long to make, it's easy, and it certainly will wow your guest :)

Spring-Themed Birthday Cake

It seems like this blog has been more like a weekly update rather than a blog. My apology for not replying your emails immediately or your comments, but I'm working on it as well as posting more posts and recipe including the past recipes that I promised on the previous posts.

I think you know pretty well already how excited I am at this time of the year (despite the fact the I mentioned it over and over again :D). I've been going to farmers' market every Sunday for the last 1.5 months or so. Not that I always needed to buy something, but I just love being in the crowd, watching the fresh produce, sampling different things, especially under a warm California sun (although it has been raining lately :( ). Strawberry has been showing up everywhere and it's always hard for me to resist them everytime I go, but I've been good so far in terms of self-control.

For the past two years, I've been buying strawberries from the same stall every summer. They sell the best, the sweetest strawberries I've ever had, but I've been disappointed this year. Everytime I visit their stall, I expected the strawberries to be the same as the year before, but they're not as sweet anymore :(. Nonetheless, I will still excited anyway to see and always eager to make something with them everytime I see them. You see, strawberry is the kind of fruit that I enjoy more when I'm making something with it instead of eating it straight. Don't ask me why, but that's just the way it is. The same thing goes for raspberries, hmm... I guess all berries?? I always think of different ways, flavor combination to use berries for dessert.

Now, last Thursday was my boss' birthday. I've always wanted to make a birthday cake for him and so I did. He was a little shy about his birthday but we all had a short little celebration for him. The cake itself is a two-tiered cake, the bottom is 8" square and the top is 6" round. I thought it's gonna take me quite a while to make this, but surprisingly it wasn't. The top 6" tier has two layers of vanilla sponge cake that I already had on hand with mango cheesecake layer as the bottom filling (from the chilled mango cheesecake leftover filling the I froze in a 6" mold). I just made a layer of strawberry flavored cheesecake for the top layer and to cover the sides of the cake. The bottom tier has two layers of cream cheese cotton cake that I flavored with lemon zest, thin layer of fragrant blueberry filling and cream cheese mousse on top of each cake.

The decoration didn't take too long either. I just made white chocolate fence early in the morning, put them on and stacked the strawberries (this turned out to be the start of a disaster later on). So I drove away with the cake, thinking that everything is gonna be alright. When I got to work, the chocolate fence were falling off the cake, some of them were broken, the strawberries were all over the place, it was ugly. I tried to calm myself down, I didn't have time to fix it as I had work to do and I was late already (as usual). When I had the chance to fix it, it wasn't as pretty as it was before. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I thought they looked ugly, the strawberries were dirty from the cream, the chocolate fence wasn't straight anymore ; ;. I knew that I shouldn't put the strawberries at home, they're just too heavy, but I did the best I can to make it look acceptable.

Despite all the mess, it was very well-received by the crowd :P. I like how it looks, it doesn't look over-the-top, but simple and clean, and definitely scream Spring! I'm submitting this cake for Spring Cake Event for Monthly Mingle #32 hosted by Meeta. You can view the event on her blog or the official page of Monthly Mingle

Another Gathering, Another Tiramisu!

Spring has been gorgeous so far, although the weather changed quite drastically lately from 95F to 65 in just two days, but I'm not complaining. It's been beautiful and I'm enjoying every minute of it. The other reason why I enjoy it so much is because Spring is when the tulip is starting to show up everywhere. It's my ultimate favorite flower (especially the white and the soft pink color :D), but unfortunately, the season doesn't last for so long. I think it's only readily available mostly on April-May. So, I'm trying to spend most of my weekend outside enjoying the warmth of the sun and the cool breeze during the day (although my allergy definitely will not do me any good). You can definitely smell the Magnolia blooming at night, what else could you ask for.

In the middle of the craziness that has been happening daily, I saw an email on Wednesday morning that there will be another gathering for a group of people at work on Friday noon, called "Dip Day". It's basically everything dips, chips, appetizer, etc. and it's clearly said in the email that except for me, I have to bring a dessert, @_@. Hmm.... it was Wednesday and that means I have to come up with something to make (which is always the hardest thing for me), and when to make. I knew for sure that I would be coming home late on both Wed. and Thurs., so a plan is definitely needed of what to make, when to buy the ingredients, when to make it, and when to decorate it.

After a careful consideration, tiramisu came to be the winner. I had some of the ingredients ready, which are the lady fingers, rum and espresso (which are staples in my pantry), all I needed to buy were the mascarpone cheese and heavy cream. Tiramisu is probably the ultimate choice everytime I need to make something quick but will still please everybody. I've never met a single person who doesn't like tiramisu so far. Plus it is fairly quick to make as no oven needed and the decoration doesn't take too long either as tiramisu has that classic decoration look already. The downside is, since it is so popular and almost every single bakery has it, each person has what they each call the best tiramisu in their life. It is quite nerve-wrecking to serve something that's probably not going to matach up their high tiramisu standard. I must admit that there are a lot of bakeries and restaurants out there that have a really good tiramisu, and trying to make something similar or at least be the same level as restaurant standard for a tough crowd, is quite a risk, but I did it anyway.

Nothing new to this tiramisu as I make it quite often. Getting bored with the square look, I decided to finally make use of my hexagonal cake ring that I bought more than a year ago to assemble the dessert. This is also the first time I used my Valrhona cocoa powder and I'm in love with it. It has a deep chocolate flavor and the color is wonderful too. I'm glad that everybody enjoyed the dessert, it is always a great pleasure everytime. And I am so glad that in the midst of the heavy work-load that everybody has, we managed to set aside some time enjoying each other's company and enjoying good food. The food has always been great, I guess it's true that there's a chef hidden inside every person :D.

Pink Swedish Princess Cake

I think I need to remind myself over and over again, no more weekday cakes please, but I just couldn't resist. There were times when I just wanted to quit when I was making a cake in a time crunch. When you only have an hour everyday to pull together a cake, your planning must be good. But I'm no quitter, even if it means that I have to wake up super bright and early for a few days to finish it, you can't quit what you have started (there are exceptions of course :D).

Now, the cake. It was a request from a friend who likes princess cake so much for another friend's birthday (talking about selfish :P, j/k). Boy, do we have lots of birthday celebrations lately. The request was that it must be pink because it is the birthday girl's favorite color, despite the fact that traditional princess cake is green. If you follow my blog, you would see that I made this cake a few times before and everytime, I kept changing something whether it's the type of the cake base, the simply syrup, the proportions of cream and/or pastry cream, etc.

This time is no difference. I decided to make my own raspberry jelly instead of the usual seedless raspberry jam used in a princess cake. I always find that store-bought jam is way too sweet to my liking. Although, looking at the economical point of view, making your own is not too beneficial though as the cost of the raspberry itself is equal to the cost of a jar of jam (not to mention the time and labor put into it). Plus, you would still have plenty of jam leftover if you buy it. But I am such a hard-headed or stubborn person if you may call it, that I'd still make it myself despite that I know all the plus and minus behind it. It's not too difficult, just a little time-consuming because you have to puree the raspberries and strain it (the part which I like the least everytime I pureed something --> takes too much time and more dishes to wash) then heat it, add the gelatin, and finally let it cool down to thicken (may take a while). I didn't even use a measurement, just kinda go for it.

I followed the traditional filling for princess cake, which is three layers of sponge cake (usually genoise type), simple syrup to moisten it (I flavored it with raspberry puree-->can't you tell how much I love raspberry already?), a thin layer of raspberry jam (made my own) and cream for the bottom filling, vanilla bean pastry cream as the second layer of filling and more cream on top to cover the cake and to form the dome, and finally enrobed with marzipan. I can never get a soft pastel color for the marzipan, it has a natural brown almond color that whatever color you color it with, it will always be darker. But I found some white marzipan somewhere online the other day, had to try it someday. It's not a difficult cake to make as each filling is pretty straight forward. You don't even need a particular recipe, you just need to know the components that make up the cake.

I wasn't 100% satisfied with the decoration as I think I rolled the marzipan too thin that the cake inside is showing (you can tell from the picture). I also did a poor job on covering it. You can probably notice it too that the bottom part has some wrinkles. I just use the leftover marzipan to make pearls for the bottom border and brush it with pink luster dust to make it shiny. I also had to hunt for the roses though, luckily we have a mini rose plant at the front yard so I just had to pick out the best ones to put onto the cake.

I couldn't make it to the birthday dinner though as work was calling. But I was so.....glad and relieved after I heard that the cake had rave reviews, everybody really liked it. Pheeww.... talking about pressure. I was afraid that I would mess up something in the proportion since I keep changing something everytime I make the same type of cake. Unfortunately I couldn't taste it myself, thanks to my friend who forgot to save me a slice :P, but as long as everybody likes it, that's all I need :D

An Un-planned Chocolate-Tiramisu Entremet and Raspberry Macarons

Why the name? Well, it's because it was unplanned indeed. The story behind it was that it was initially meant as a birthday cake for a friend's birthday. I was going to use this "opportunity" to experiment with new flavor combination that I've never tried before. At least there would be enough people willing to be "the victim" for the experiment cake, I thought. That was the plan two weeks before the birthday. But little did I know that so many things will happen for the next two weeks. From family emergency which makes me to be in charge of feeding the whole family now, including the dishes and helping with the nephew and niece, work also has its way of adding my frustration. Going home at 9-10pm from work was a regular and I came home just wanting to throw myself into bed, not doing anything else. I hardly have time to breath (this is hyperbolic but you know what I mean :D).

But I didn't give up on the cake just like that. The cake I wanted to make has about 7 components including the decoration I was planning to put on it. I originally wanted to make a cake similar to what Aran had made before. She has been my inspiration ever since I found her blog. The minute I saw her post that day, I was in love and determined to make a replica of her creation. The many components that always challenge a part of my brain, the clean-ness of her cut, the decorations, you name it. Plus I still had an enormous amount of meyer lemon juice I had kept in the freezer.

I started on the planning, when should I make the cake base, lemon cream, mousse, and stuff. I woke up super early for two days just to try to beat the time. I made the cake base that she has posted on the blog, but I didn't satisfy me. I guess I'm used to Indonesian-type of sponge cake, which uses tons of eggs (particularly the yolks), very little flour and lots of melted butter, resulting in a light cake but yet so soft. So, I made another sponge cake the day after (this is the day before the birthday), and also the chocolate mousse and the milk chocolate cream. I used Pierre Herme's chocolate mousse recipe from his book "Dessert by Pierre Herme", where I saw the combination of lemon and chocolate for the first time. He has similar cake recipe which uses chocolate cake, lemon cream and chocolate mousse. I have bookmarked the page for almost 2 years now, but never get to it :P. So, back to the cake, I literally gave up the night before. I was really tired that I couldn't make another component. At that time, I was only able to make the cake and the milk chocolate cream.

I made PH's chocolate mousse the morning after and at that time I knew that I really need to buy a cake that day from a bakery somewhere. Which is not a bad thing really, as there are quite a few bakeries that I like around here. I don't normally eat my own cake but I would definitely enjoy it if somebody else made it. So, this is the chance for me to actually eat a cake on a birthday celebration!!! how cool is that?! I quickly changed my mind to not make the chocolate-lemon combination for a few reason. So, I grabbed two 8" layers of chocolate sponge cake I had kept in the freezer (don't you just love freezer? it's just a baker's best friend). The sponge cake I made the night before was too big to be used for anything I will decide to make with the mousse :P, so I kept it save and sound in the freezer. It was enough for a layer of filling and a few mini chocolate mousse cakes (which I did not capture). I kept the partially-done cake in the fridge for a few days as I hardly had time to do anything with it. Until about three days later that I finally forced myself to finish the cake.

So, after not-so-careful consideration and observing what I had in the fridge at that time, the cake was finally done! It was composed of two layers of moist chocolate cake, brushed with strong espresso simple syrup, chocolate mousse and cocoa nibs as the bottom layer, and tiramisu cream for the top layer. Then I piped the milk chocolate cream on top of the tiramisu cream. Thank goodness for the leftover chocolate shavings that I was able to quickly decorate it with the clock ticking. The chocolate decoration on the side as also super quick to make. You only need melted chocolate and a spoon, plus parchment paper or acetate sheet. A tiny white ribbon made it extra cute :P.

The macaron however, was specially made just to decorate this cake. I only needed one pair of course. I couldn't help it after seeing Aran's beautiful macaron she put on her cake that I just had to make it too :D. I filled both the pink and the chocolate macaron with raspberry buttercream. The raspberry one has a square of raspberry jelly in the middle of the macaron. Need to practice more on macaron though, can't get that perfect "feet" and smooth top.

Brought this cake to a friend's place where we all gathered to have this cake as an-after-dinner dessert. I was really nervous at first as I had no idea how this cake would turn out, but I was super relieved when one of my friend took the first bite and quickly said "this is REALLY good". He said that a few times just so that I would believe it (cause I didn't :P), plus "from the bottom of my heart, this cake is really good", haha....Okay....., so I tasted it the day after and to my surprise, I ate the whole slice! I can definitely taste the espresso and the tiramisu cream. The mousse was light, not too bitter as well, plus the addition of the cocoa nibs for that extra texture, it was definitely far from "too rich". Yummm.......The macarons too, were gobbled up pretty quickly. My friend was like munching it and said "hmm....this is good, should make this more often". It was definitely more than good enough for an un-planned cake :D.

On the last note, I'm submitting this for "For The Love Of Chocolate" event entry hosted by Poornima of Tasty Treats

Chilled Mango Cheesecake

I'm so thankful to be blessed to work in a company where the people are so friendly and so easy and fun to work with. I enjoy working where I do right now, it doesn't feel so much like working really because I actually enjoy being with the people around me and doing what I do (there are exceptional times of course :P). There are so much hospitality and laugh and stories shared each day, and work of course even with the people I don't really know. Instead of being my coworkers, they have become friends to me.

Today, we had a potluck party during lunch time for a group of people. I was so excited to try different foods from different countries and just experiencing the good food made by them. I was planning to bring an Indonesian dish (I know they'd love it) and a dessert (by request). Until the day or the night before, my mind was still blank, don't know what to make. There were so much things to be done at work and at home that I didn't even have enough time to sit down and just think about what I wanted to make. So, after forcing myself to concentrate, I wrote down some options for desserts that I can make at home, something light, fruity, and not difficult and take so much time to make, and hopefully fancy enough to meet their "high expectation" :P. I decided not to cook for time constraint since I only have few hours to prepare the dessert and also cook for the whole house too :)

I finally settled on chilled mango cheesecake after a careful consideration. I have one layer of chiffon-type cake left in the freezer, some mango pulp in the freezer as well, and there are so many fresh mangoes almost gone bad, plus unused heavy cream that I bought to make my brother's cake but ended up not using it at all. Besides, I absolutely LOVE mango, one of my all-time favorite fruits, so mango chilled cheesecake it is! I just need to make a stop on my way home to buy some cream cheese, and I'm all set.

I kinda measuring and mixing as I go. Adding the mango pulp while weighing it so that I can take a note for future, how much pulp I needed to make the mango flavor pronounced, thinking that lemon juice might help with discoloration and balancing the flavor, things like that. I tasted the batter, and I couldn't stop my finger from keep licking it (with different fingers excuse me). I poured the mango glaze in the morning and decorated very simple. It's not too pretty, but that's what I had on hand at the time.

When I opened the box at work, I was shocked to find out that the glaze was running down the side of the cake! oh no! I panicked but tried to calm down as I got work waiting for me. I admit that I drove a little too fast (I was late :D) and I completely forgot that there was a cake I need to take care of. But, I can't do anything to fix it except wipe off the glaze from the cake. It doesn't look pretty anymore :(, I should have taken a picture or two before I took it to work.

I was so sad about the appearance because really, it look so pretty before (well, at least for me) :(. But it all paid off after getting unexpected come back from my coworkers!!! I wasn't expecting that many compliments from them, but I'm so glad that they all LOVED it. Even the person who doesn't like mango at all finished a slice. One girl even printed the cheesecake she ate and put it outside her cube, I mean what could be more rewarding than that? I just hope that they didn't sing me that embarrassing happy birthday song when they asked me to cut into the cake (and no, it wasn't my birthday) :D

Strawberry Sponge Pudding Cake with Vanilla Bean Creme Anglaise

The title is a little bit confusing and super long, yeah I know but I can't think of other names that are suitable for this dessert. I want the title to represent the dessert, but of well :P

The term "pudding" in Indonesia is very different than what we call pudding here in the US. Here, we always know pudding as the Jell-o type pudding, at least that custard-like texture. But back in Indonesia, pudding is something that you make using agar agar. It's a gelling agent, almost like a gelatin, but agar agar is derived from plants, instead of animals. The texture it gives is also different than what gelatin does, it sets in different way. Pudding always reminds me when I was a kid. Everybody eats lots of pudding during the childhood, so pudding is often associated with childhood memories. It used to be made with just liquid (water, milk, coconut milk, you name it), agar agar, and sugar. Now, there are so many variation on puddings. People are getting more and more creative with this dessert and sky is the limit of what can you do with it. Another thing about pudding is, no one can mess it up. All you need to do is boil it and pour into mold for basic pudding. Even if it doesn't turn out like you expected, it'll still taste great anyway.

I was craving for one for quite some time, but again, didn't have the time to make it. So last Sunday, I had about three hours of free time. I usually take a nap on Sunday but it was pretty late for nap and I didn't want to stay wide awake at midnight. I remember I had some strawberry puree in the freezer. I pureed the leftover strawberries in the fridge since they showed some threat of going bad real soon. I love to keep fruit purees in the freezer all the times. It's a great time saver whenever I want to make mousse, or jelly, or anything. So I guess that time was reserved for strawberry pudding.

I make the sponge-type pudding this time, which I added beaten egg white (hence the name). I also added some egg yolks to the mixture to get a softer texture. I used a base of chiffon type cake that I had kept in the freezer for times like this. Everything will just be a breeze to make if you have some of the components ready to use. I also made clear jelly to pour on top of the pudding to have the shiny or mirror effect. It looks like strawberry mirror cake really with strawberry mousse filling, but believe me, the texture is nowhere close to mousse. I made vanilla bean creme anglaise for the sauce. It's very common to serve pudding with creme anglaise, or what we usually called "vla".

It happened that on Monday, we had a surprise birthday dinner for my brother and so I brought this dessert over. My friends went crazy over this, it was gone in a split second. Too bad it was a small size cake, about 8", but everybody got a slice at least. I brought the mini ones to work to share with friends and the pictures are again courtesy of Tony :)

I'm not going to type the recipe because I'm not sure if the kind of agar agar I used is readily available. But let me know of you want me to.

Cherry Blossom Birthday Cake

Spring has just arrived and the weather here in San Jose, California has been gorgeous lately. Flowers are blooming, plenty of sunshine, crisp air, it's like having a natural air conditioner. I know that the cherry blossom season had just passed a few weeks ago. I was planning to make a cake with a cherry blossom theme everytime I saw the tree in the street (which is a lot), but business got the best of me. And besides, it was mostly raining when the blossoms were at their peak :(. There's something about this flower that makes me wanting to take pictures everytime I see them. Imagine how many pictures I'd have if I did that.

So, the idea of making cherry blossom theme cake was kind of fade away along with the end of the cherry blossom season until about a week ago. It was one of my beloved brothers' birthday and also one of my dearest friends' birthday last weekend. It was actually on Monday, but we went out to dinner to celebrate two of our best friends. And of course I'd be more than happy to make the cake for them.

I'm a planner, I have to plan everything way before I have to actually do something with it. I always plan what to cook on Monday, Tuesday, and so forth the week before. I always plan wah beforehand what kind of cake I want to make, how will I decorate it, when should I start, what should be done first, etc. The reason is first, because I like everything well-planned and organized, second, because I don't have the time to make something in an instant, especially when it comes to a cake. There are so many steps involved that I just need to break them down and do them separately according to my time. Some inspiration usually comes to mind about what I really feel like making, what flavor combination I'd like to try and so forth, but not this time. I was still blank even the day before the birthday dinner (which is very unusual). But I bought some cream anyway. I will definitely need it for mousse cakes, bavarian cream cakes.

I kinda had something in mind at that time, but then I remembered that we're going to bring the cake to the restaurant, which means, no refrigeration for 1-2 hours. I switched gear immediately and decided to make something that can stand in room temperature without getting soft and becoming a gooey mess. So I went with vanilla and raspberry cake covered in fondant. And what could be more perfect time to put the cherry blossom idea into it! It consists of soft vanilla sponge, raspberry soaking syrup, raspberry buttercream, and raspberry gelee. I've been wanting to try Hidemi's Sugino raspberry buttercream recipe from his book that I got for myself two months ago. The problem is, it's all in Japanese. The ingredient part has French translation, which I can understand a little, but the direction is 100% in japanese. Luckily, it has some step-by-step pictures, so I can try to guess. I added gelee just so that I has some texture contrast. I figured the gelee won't melt or soften that much without refrigeration.

The buttercream recipe is based on creme anglaise. The creme anglaise is mixed with creamed butter, then added some raspberry puree, and lastly, fold in the italian meringue. It's a very lengthy process, but I was determined to make it. In the end, the buttercream was not as stiff as I expected, it's rather "soup-y". Definitely not good firm enough to be spread on the side of the cake and especially after I cover it with fondant later on. I refrigerate it for a while, and added another stick and a half of butter to it. It doesn't help much, but the refrigeration does. The amount of liquid added to the butter was a lot (the creme anglaise and the raspberry puree), so I should have guessed about the texture. Despite the texture of the buttercream, it tasted delicious!

It was a challenge covering the cake with fondant. The cream soften so quickly outside the fridge so I had to go back and forth to keep it firm enough to hold the fondant. So, here it goes. I'm not too happy about the result though. The cake could have been taller, the branches could have been smaller, I don't know, there were so many "could have" or "if only I do this". I'll just hope for the best that the cake will taste good :).

Apparently, we can ask the restaurant to keep the cake in their fridge! Bummer, I could have gone with some other cake selection (here we go with another "could have"), but it's too late now. I'm just thankful that they kind enough to offered their fridge so that the cream wouldn't soften. We ate the cake as a dessert in the restaurant and I was so relieved that it tasted great. The raspberry flavor was so intense, you know that I love raspberries more than any other berries and it's just the way I liked it! The gelee also provides some textural balance with a tad of tartness to it. Phew! at least the cake survived until dinner.

The restaurant was so dark that I couldn't take a good picture of the inside of the cake, and besides, my camera battery died on me. This is the only better picture I can take with the last breath of the battery.

Vanilla Bean and Pistachio Creme Brulee

It has been so long since I made creme brulees and I don't think I've ever blogged about it. This is one of those very simple dessert to make but yet very elegant, my kind of dessert :).

I wasn't really planning on make this really, the idea came last minute when I was thinking what should I do with the leftover cream that's almost gone bad and the leftover whole milk in the fridge (I don't usually drink it straight). Creme Brulee suddenly popped in my head and since it was so simple to make, I thought it's perfect to make on a weeknight after work, when I don't have much time or energy to do anything. I stopped by a store to buy a blowtorch since my old one leaked out on me :(. It has served me well over the years for not just creme brulee, it helped me brown meringue and take out the cake ring from a mousse cake too.

I was thinking of making pistachio creme brulee at first, but I changed my mind in the process and decided to go with two flavors, the classic vanilla bean and pistachio. I only need to make one batch of the cream batter and then divided it in half. Pour the plain vanilla bean into the mold, and add some pistachio paste on the other half. The vanilla bean flavor has a lot more vanilla bean seeds compared to the pistachio one.

The pistachio flavor wasn't as intense as I would expected it to be. The only pistachio paste I have is the brown color one, not the green color. I will need to get myself the green one, one of these days. But overall, I was really pleased with the result and not just me, but everybody who ate it. I gave one to my friend and he is begging for more (I only have one left at that time). My niece and nephew can't stop coming back for more and been asking me to make more of it. It's super creamy without being heavy at all, combined with the crunch of the burned sugar, I think it's just perfect

Plain, before adding the sugar and burn it

I used to make desserts all the time rather than cakes (although cake is dessert too). Things like souffles, custards (pots de creme, creme caramel, creme brulee, etc.), molten choc. cakes, cheesecakes, were regulars in my kitchen when I was in college. But I've been occupied more with cakes lately and I forgot how good it is and more satisfying in some way compared to multi-layer cakes, not to mention a lot simpler and faster to make. I'll remember to make desserts more often now.

(my friend thought it was cool to take a picture of the creme brulee next to an iphone)

Strawberry Tart

Life has been so busy lately. It has always been but I just feel exhausted everytime I come home from work. Those many late nights at work completely consume all my energy and by the time I got home, my brain feels like it's stop working.

But on the other hand, Spring has finally decided to peek a little. Weather in California has always been nice, but I just couldn't wait for what feels like a really long winter to pass. Flowers are showing everywhere, the warm sun, squirrels playing in the trees, birds chirping, words just can't describe how beautiful it is. I can't help but smiling everytime I go out of the house, or walking from the office building to the parking lot, I can smell the flowers through the air. It's still a little cold to let my windows open at night when I'm sleeping, but I always do on late spring to early summer. I just want to suck all the fragrance of the crisp air, combined with fresh spring flower smell, and keep it somewhere so that I can smell it when they're gone. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way :(.

A few days ago (two days to be exact), I saw a big box full of what seems like to be a very juicy, big, very bright and fragrant strawberries sitting on the dinner table. Apparently my brother has just bought it from a fruit stall on the street. My brain automatically started working hard thinking what can I turn those precious strawberries into. Then I remember that I had two mini tart shells, already baked, leftover from the lemon meringue tart I made a week or two before. I also got a little vanilla bean pastry cream in the freezer, and heavy cream in the fridge that has been waiting to be used for a while now. What could be more perfect than strawberry tart to welcome the long-awaited spring?

I was so determined to make it that I decided to wake up earlier in the morning and make it before leaving for work. All the ingredients were all ready to use, and all I needed to do was to whip the cream and fold it in the pastry cream, then fill, and arrange the strawberries on top. A quick brush of clear glaze and chopped pistachio give a nice touching finish to the tart. It's very simple but yet elegant, with a clean taste to it, definitely my kind of dessert :)

My friend Tony, just bought a brand new Nikon D90 SLR camera, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to put the camera into the test. The pictures shown here are from his camera and his "practice" at our cafeteria at work. I like the photos a lot, much better compared to my tiny Canon pocket camera ; ;. Now, I have a lot of money saving to do to get my hands on one of those SLR cameras :(. But in the meantime, I know where to go to for my pictures :). Thanks Tony!

Chiffon Cake Madness

There's not much to say really about this cake. I had to make eight chiffon cakes for our church's snack this past Sunday for about 150 people. With only two pans and another one borrowed from a dear friend, I thought it was gonna be frustrating, but it wasn't too bad. The thing is, you have to wait for the cake to be completely cooled before you can unmold and re-use the pan, that's the most time-consuming part.

I decided to make three flavors, the all-time favorite pandan of course, mocha rum (added some kind of very fragrant rum paste. gotta love coffee-rum combo :D), and trying out raspberry swirl flavor. I thought of the last choice mainly for the kids really. I used a kind of raspberry paste I bought from Indonesian that I haven't used for a while. I love the smell, very fragrant although it barely smells like the real raspberry :D. But I love this combination. Somehow, I get more excited to see plain white chiffon (swirled in this case) rather than mocha or pandan or anything. I don't know why but I just love the clean-ness of the color and you can really tell how light it is. I think it resembles clouds, which is exactly the texture of chiffon cakes, light as cloud.

After slicing, I think I got about 230 slices out of those eight cakes, which is surprising as I expected to get about 185 slices. I was a little worried at the time about having too much leftover cakes. But little did I know that this plain old cake went by so quickly. They were all gone before I had the chance to taste it. It's always a good thing, right? Always a great "unspoken" compliment :D

I wish I had gotten better pictures but I was already late for church that day. So, just took whatever available at the table at that time.

Happy Birthday Hachiko!

Hachiko is the name of my brother's beloved dog by the way. She's a Yorkshire Terrier or what most people called Yorkie. She turns one last Monday and the parents (a.k.a my brother and my sis in law) were super excited about this. They want to have a little celebration so that they could have a picture of it. And when she died 15 years from now maybe, they can take a look at the picture and cry. Okay, maybe it's not the best reason to have a celebration for a dog's birthday, but hey who needs excuse or special occasion to have a little gathering, or more importantly, for a cake! Here's a sneak peek of the dog. She's super cute, isn't she? not to mention super smart too.

So, I thought it would be fun to make a cake covered with fondant, and maybe a little doggie figurine on top. The dog was allowed to eat a small cupcake size cake for her special treat on her birthday. As long as it doesn't contain alcohol, grape, or chocolate, it should be fine. Since this is gonna be fondant cake, I don't have many choices as for the type or filling of the cake. It should be something that doesn't need refrigeration, but still tastes good. The standard filling is buttercream, but what a boring cake I thought if it's just a plain vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. After a long thought, I decided on super soft vanilla cake (the same one here), layered with a thin layer of very fragrant blueberry paletta (some kind of a jam and tastes like candy) that I mixed with blueberry preserves to cut down the sweetness that usually jam has, and to have texture. Then, on top of the jam, I layered cream cheese frosting that I had flavored with a little rum extract.

It might not the best decision ever because I forgot that cream cheese frosting is softer than buttercream. It took me a good 20 minutes probably just trying to smooth out the side and the top, making it even, not crooked. After a trip to the fridge for a couple of hours, I was ready to cover it with fondant. It became soft again quickly, but I tried to smooth it out as smooth as possible.

I made the doggie figurine the day before and it was my first time! I always said and thought that I would or could never made little figurines like that. I just don't have the patience sitting, kneading, coloring small fondant with multiple color, attach this and that, I just think it's too much work. But I tried last saturday with a laptop nearby playing youtube instruction of how to make fondant dog. I think I did a pretty good job on it :D. At least it looked like a dog, not bear, cat or some random animals. Luckily, I had a little piece of deep brown colored fondant from my last fondant cake and it was perfect for the dog.

I also made the paw prints. Now, I think this is harder than making the dog itself. I used small round fondant cutter to make the paw and shape it into oval by hand with the help of a toothpick. The little fingers were made using regular straw. The straw was a little bent, so it wasn't completely round, a little oval instead and it works very well for the job.

The morning after, I saw the front part of the cake was a little bent, not completely smooth anymore. It was because the frosting went soft and I guess it slide down a little :(. I can't do anything at this point, and besides, it's only for a dog's birthday and it's only 6-in just for the family to eat. So a little less pressure there. If it was a cake order, then I would really sweat it.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the cake. I think it's simple but cute. I baked some in cupcake pan for the dog to eat. She was only allowed to eat one though. I didn't go overboard with the dog's cake decoration, just a simple swirl, some sprinkles, and ribbon to make it extra pretty :).

She was hesitated at first, and just licking the frosting only (we removed most of the frosting though), but then she gulped it down in a split second. I could tell she was a happy dog that night :D.

As for the adult's cake, everybody loves the cake (including myself). The soft texture of the cake, the sweet and fragrant blueberry and a little tartness from the frosting, compliment each other perfectly. I always love the combination of blueberry and cheese anyway. They're just one of those coombinations that are meant for each other :). It's not as light as mousse cake, although it's not over-the-top kinda cake, but it's definitely comforting and the type of cake that you'd like to have one slice each day ;)

Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart

I have been keeping the lemons for two weeks now. I had to throw some of them away because they went bad :(. You can't imagine how bad I felt when did that. They were too precious to just go to waste. So, I was determined to fulfill their destiny by making a wonderful dessert with it. Lemon tart is definitely the perfect choice for this.

For those of you who are lemon tart fans, you must have heard Pierre Herme's lemon tart. If you haven't, you don't know what you have been missing my friend. The first time I made his lemon tart was actually about two years ago, and yes, it is a long time. But I only made the lemon cream at that time, and I don't remember what recipe I used to make the tart crust.

So this time, I was determined to make his recipe from start to finish. I have two of his books that contains a recipe for his lemon tart. One is Dessert By Pierre Herme, written by Dorie Greenspan. This book is modified to suit American home bakers. The amount of the recipe is written in cups, and tablespoons, which I don't really like as it is not accurate. But Dorie made the recipe sounds a lot easier. The other book I have is La Patsserie De Pierre Herme (the link is for the Spanish ed.). It contains Pierre's original recipe and has both French and English translation in it although the direction is very sparse. You have to scale down the recipe by a lot though, unless you are feeding an army with your cake :D. There are a couple of cakes featured in both books, although the recipe is somewhat different. It is a lot more complicated and some of the ingredients are hard to find here in the US. Dorie does make it A LOT easier on the other book, although it is not 100% PH original I guess. But it is more than enough if you want to re-create Pierre's recipes at home.

It took me approximately two nights and two mornings to make this from start to finish. I started by making the pate sucree for the tart crust. The crust is wonderful as it has vanilla bean in it, and a little almond flour for that extra texture. I made it with my faithful Kitchen Aid mixer, make the job a lot easier. You can also use a food processor, but the idea of cleaning it up doesn't really excites me. Cleaning the mixer bowl is a lot easier :D.

The pate sucree is pretty simple to make once you get all the ingredients ready. With the help of my trusty Kitchen Aid, it's a breeze to make. You can't make only for a single crust though. You will need to make at least the amount enough for three crusts to get the best texture. I halved the recipe from PH book.

I brought this tart to work of course, to thank my coworker for bringing me this wonderful gift (well, he kinda expected me to make something with it when he gave it to me anyway :D). I emailed him and a few other friends that I left it in the fridge. A couple of minutes later, they came to my cube saying everything is gone already. I didn't witnessed that, but from what I heard, they all liked it very much. I even had people (who weren't in my email list) saying how good it was, another also emailed me (not in my list as well) to thank me personally and to tell me how superb it was. He even asked me if I worked at a bakery before, hahaha (I'll take that as a compliment). Some other friends came to my cube 5 minutes later and said that he didn't get any. All he found was just the empty box. Hmm... I guess they did like it :).

Fortunately, I made a mini version of the tart and save it for myself and I completely agree with them (and also the rest of the world for that matter) that it was indeed wonderful. My niece and nephew kept coming back for more. I just wished I saved more :D

My piping is not that great. I was pretty dissapointed with how it looks (despite all of the compliments I got of how pretty it looks) :(

Pate Sucree
yield: three 101/2-in crusts or four 8-in crusts

300g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
190g powdered sugar
60g ground almonds
1 vanilla bean, scrapped
2 eggs, room temperature
500g all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt

• Put the butter in a mixer bowl and cream until smooth and creamy using a paddle attachment.
• Add the sugar, ground almonds, and vanilla bean seeds. Mix until combined.
• Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating the previous one before adding the next one (the dough might look curdled at this point but don't worry, it'll come together once you add the flour)
• Combine the flour and salt. Add to the dough in about three addition. Mix until just it comes together. Do not overwork! Like Pierre said, "it's better to have lumps of butter rather than to have an overwork dough".
• Divide the dough in the portions you need. Form each one into a ball and flatten it into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight (you can also freeze the dough at this point and thaw it in the fridge overnight).
• Remove one disk from the fridge, and roll it either between two sheets of parchment paper, or just well-floured surface. You need to move quickly though. You don't want the dough to be soft and overworked.
  
• Line your tart pan with the dough and put it back in the fridge for at least 1-2 hrs to rest.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• When you're ready to bake, put a parchment paper on top of the dough and fill the bottom with either rice or beans.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes. Take the parchment paper and the beans/rice off, then continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes until it's golden brown.
• Let cool in the ring.

Lemon Cream
Slightly adapted from La Pattiserie de Pierre Herme book.
You can view the recipe that Dorie has modified to American home kitchen here

4 eggs
165 g fresh meyer lemon juice
200 g sugar
zest from about 3-4 lemons
300 g unsalted butter, room temperature and cubed

• Rub the zest with the sugar using your finger until the sugar is moistened with lemon oil.
  
• On a double boiler, combine the sugar, eggs and juice .
  
• Whisk/stir constantly until the mixture reaches 85-86 C.
• Strain the mixture and let cool to about 55-60 C and put it in a blender (if you don't have a hand-held blender)
• Add the butter a couple of pieces at a time, to make an emulsion. The mixture will ligthen in color. Continue running the blender for a few minutes after all of the butter has been added to ensure the airy and light cream. Make sure stop and run the blender a few times to avoid over-heating.
• Pour the mixture into prepared crust and refrigerate.

The italian meringue is optional though. Both books have the recipe only for lemon tart, but Pierre also said that you can also add Italian meringue if you wish. If you're only making the tart without the meringue, glaze the top of the tart with translucent glaze, apple jelly or apricot jelly for that shiny effect.

Italian Meringue

3 egg whites, room temperature
150 g sugar
50 g water

• Combine the water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring the temperature to about 247 F on a candy thermometer. Brush the splatter on the sides using pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water to prevent crystallization.
  
• Meanwhile, beat the egg white until soft peak forms.
  
• When the sugar is ready, with the mixer running on a low speed, pour the hot sugar syrup on the side of the mixer bowl to avoid splatter (it will splatter eventually a little). Do not attempt to scrape the splatter on the sides of the bowl or you'll get lumps.
  
• Continue beating on a medium high speed until the meringue is almost at room temperature. The texture will be marshmallow-y, as light as cloud.
• Decorate the tart with meringue.
• Brown the top with blow torch or under a broiler for a few minutes.

Not wanting to trash more of the lemons, I decided to zest and juice them up and freeze it. I got a little more than 6 cups of juice and about 1 cup full of zest. I don't have to worry about not having lemons in spring or summer for desserts now. And I know exactly who to go to if I ever ran out of them :)

This tart is also my entry for Lemon Day event hosted by zorra at kochtopf.twoday.net
Here's the link the her post:
http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/announcing-ankuendigung-lemon-day/

I hope I will have more time in the next few weeks to come up with more lemony desserts :D

Vanilla Cheese Layer Cake

I know, another cheese layered cake. It might look the same as the ones I made many many times before, but this one is different.

I was craving for a simple yet satisfying cake lately. I've been working late for a while and I feel like I deserved to indulge a little. I don't want those fancy cakes with mousse, cream, gelee, chocolate. All I wanted was a simple and comforting cake, and the only thing on my mind was this cake. There's something about this cake that just very comforting, not to mention delicious, and a lot simpler to make than regular french gateau.

I'm trying new recipe this time. I usually use three layers of soft and moist sponge cake (with lots of egg yolks and butter), layered with simple buttercream, and cheese of course. This time is not that much different, except the method of making the cake and the frosting. A regular sponge cake method is beating the eggs and sugar until pale, folding the dry ingredients, then the melted butter at the very end. But this time, I used a recipe that calls to beat the butter separately, and folded in at the end. It uses more egg yolks than usual (although the usual has lots of egg yolks already). It's the same method as "Lapis Surabaya" cake, making the cake super soft and moist. Instead of regular buttercream, I used cream cheese frosting instead. I had about 165 g of cream cheese leftover and the amount is too odd to make something with it, but it is perfect for the cream cheese frosting I needed for that size of cake.

The verdict? I was surprised myself. The cake is super soft, the cream cheese frosting was lovely, not to mention the shredded processed cheese. The cake has to be good for this kind of cake because you will eat it the most, not the frosting, unlike any other french cakes I made where the cake is only the base. I know my friends would go crazy over this cake, but it was on Sunday night when I finished making the cake, so I didn't have time to share to them. I brought a slice or two everyday for snack at work. My little niece (she's 3 years old now) can finish two slices on her own in one sitting. I don't think the cream cheese frosting was that noticeable though, especially since I flavored it with the same thing (vanilla and a little rum extract). So next time, I think I will stick with this kind of cake, although it's more time consuming and more labor intensive, but just use regular buttercream for the frosting and filling.

Lemon Pound Cake

I found out recently that my coworker has a tree full of meyer lemons. I almost had a heart attack! I mean who wouldn't when it comes to meyer lemons? ok, maybe it's just me, but still...

He said that the tree has hundreds of lemons right now and they're big. I didn't believe him at that time, as from my understanding, meyer lemons are small, a little rounder that regular lemons and more orange than regular lemons, but more yellow than regular orange (does this sentence make sense?). But anyways, of course I wanted them, immediately! He said that he had to throw a lot of them away because they're just too many. For a slight moment there, my heart was aching when I heard that :(

So the next day, he showed up in my cube bringing a big plastic bag full of meyer lemons!!! The lemons were big, unlike the usual meyer lemons I saw.
My head was spinning, trying to think what wonderful desserts I can make with this.

It's been more than a week that I have abandoned those wonderful meyer lemons that my coworker gave me. It hurts everytime I opened the fridge and saw them waiting patiently for me to do something with them. My excuse is still the same, no time. I came home late and by the time I got home, all wanna do is just take a shower, eat, and sleep. I don't even think I have enough energy to do something else. Besides, the kitchen is always full of people at night, that I don't feel like juggling with space and everything to make a cake. I just don't like doing something in that kind of environment. I like it when the kitchen is empty, no dirty dishes in the sink, and lots of counterspace. Unfortunately, this rarely happens :(. But I should be thankful to be blessed enough to have a kitchen and all the necessary tools I need for baking :).

My coworker was certainly expecting something out of those lemons. A week had past, and not even one dessert I brought to work. So, I decided to just make something quick that we can all enjoy right out of the oven. Not those multi-component cakes, tarts, mousses. I settled down on lemon pound cake. I've never been a fan to a pound type cake, it's just not my cup of tea. But I baked lots and lots of lemon pound cake a few years ago. It seems like I was always excited to try a new lemon cake recipe. I can't count how many recipes I tried, not to mention lemon tarts, lemon meringue pie, and lemon bars. I was just that crazy with lemons. I just love the smell of fresh cut lemon in the kitchen. It's so refreshing and fresh, I just can't describe the feeling. It's been a while though that I didn't make lemony goodies anymore. I think I skipped last year's lemon season for some reason.

So anyways, I decided to try this lemon cake recipe by Lori Longbotham. I first read about it in tartlettte's blog. The way she described it, is just way too good that I had to try it myself. Besides, how can I resist something that starts with "the ultimate"? I didn't really read the recipe before I decided on this. I thought this is just a regular pound cake, with lots of butter, flour, eggs, etc. So, I prepared all of the ingredients on the night before and planned to bake it in the morning. When I started putting all of the ingredients together, I realized that the amount of butter is amazingly a lot, I also think the baking soda is too little for that amount of flour, but what do I know. I'll just follow the recipe to the tee.

So the next morning, I woke up earlier to bake this cake. When I was about to put it in the oven, I was super surprised when the recipe says that I need to bake it for 1.5 hours!!!!!! It's unusual to bake a pound cake at 300F for 1.5 hrs, but I followed anyway (and I was late for work that day :D).

It was pretty good, although may not be the ultimate for me :). I'm not even sure if I can find an ultimate pound cake if I don't even like pound cake. But I'm glad that at least I tried this recipe.

Here's the recipe taken from tartlette's blog:

Ultimate Pound Cake, adapted from Lori Longbotham:

Serves 12 (in theory)

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 TB lemon zest
1 tsp. pure lemon extract
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 300F. Butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together twice.
Cream the butter and 1 3/4 cups sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the lemon zest and lemon extract.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Poke holes all over the cake with a wooden skewer
Meanwhile, bring the lemon juice and remaining sugar to a boil over medium high heat in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Invert the cake onto a rack, position over a baking sheet and slowly pour the syrup over the cake, it will seep through the holes and into the cake. Let cool to room temp.

Cheese Thousand Layer Cake (Lapis Legit Keju)

I did it! I did it! yaaayy.............
This is my second attempt making this kind of cake and the first one was nothing but failure :(. I was determined to make it again until I succeeded and here it is my friend, I proudly present my Lapis Cake :D.

This is another traditional Indonesian delicacy, although Singaporean and Malaysian also have this same cake too. This cake is best known for its ridiculous quantity of butter and egg yolks, making it the number one cake that has the highest cholesterol level :D, not to mention the time it needs to make layer by layer. It needs a great patience and determination. But it's not like you eat it everyday, or you eat the whole thing, so moderation is the key.

Still being traumatic with the failure I had last time, I don't want to waste another 20+ egg yolks and a pound of good quality butter. This is one of the most expensive and labor-intensive cake in Indonesia. To get the best taste, you have to use the best quality ingredients. The freshest eggs, the best quality butter. I would say butter is the key to this cake. We usually use Australian butter that has higher fat content than American butter, and it also has "milky" taste to it that I love so much. The only draw back is that this kind of butter is so darn expensive, about $5 for less than 1/2lb.

I tried a new recipe this time, which uses cream cheese in the batter. You know I love anything cheesy and I still have a little cream cheese left in the fridge. And it only uses less than 20 egg yolks for 7x7in pan. So, it's perfect for another try. 16 egg yolks are not much at all if you're thinking of making this cake. I have a recipe that calls for 60 egg yolks. Yes, you read it right, it's the whole 5 dozens egg yolks and 1.5lbs butter. I'm not that crazy yet, so I'll save it for another time :), but I would be very curious to know how it would turn like.

I used a recipe from auntyyochana site, but I completely change the method. The usual method is you beat the butter and the egg yolk separately until they both bleached, then you combine them together, but the recipe doesn't suggest this. Somehow, I follow my instinct and use the method that I'm familiar with. I also added condensed milk when beating the butter (it's usually added for emulsifier I think? no?) and substitute the rum with Indonesian vanilla powder. It doesn't call for "bumbu spekoek" or mixed spice that's usually make lapis legit its distinct flavor. Some people like it and some don't. I'm okay with it as long as it's not too strong. A little of this spice goes a long way. But I would think it would completely overpower the cheese flavor if it was added. I would prefer it to be added in a regular flavor lapis cake.

I layered it one by one, taking the pan out once every 5 minutes or so, press the cake with fondant smoother, prick the air bubbles if there are any, and layer it with another batter. You need to weigh the batter or use the same amount for each layer to ensure the even finish layers. It took me more than 2 hours I think to finish layering (not counting the batter preparation itself) and all that time, I patiently waiting and sticking my nose to the oven window, watching it carefully like eagle's eyes :D. But seriously, you need to watch it carefully to prevent burning (at least for amateur like me), since you need to use broil setting to brown the layer.

I felt pretty confident when I was halfway through. The cake felt very moist and soft, unlike the first one I made. And I was filled with joy after I cut the four sides and see the pretty layers showing. The very top part was a little too brown than what I would have expected. I was holding a baby and then remembered about the cake!! (I didn't time it). Good thing I didn't burn it or else the last 3-4 hours would have been gone straight to drain :(.

It tasted very moist and soft when I tried it. I was really satisfied with the result, and it completely made my day even though now I'm left with this pain on my feet and my back, hehehe...The cheese flavor is not that strong, I can barely taste it. I think it's predictable, considering the amount of the cream cheese compared to the butter. I would make some adjustment to the recipe to make the ultimate "Lapis Legit Keju". I'm thinking adding more cream cheese, sprinkling each layer with shredded cheese, adding a little more egg yolk to have the usual yellow color in this cake. Some people added yellow coloring to it, but I think it's just fake. This cake is not as yellow as the ones sold in upscale bakery in Indonesia since this doesn't use as many egg yolks. And since I'm a big fan of "milky" flavor, I will substitute some of the flour with powdered milk. Now, it would really be "the ultimate" :D. But don't expect me to make it anytime soon. After this one, we need to work hard to lose that extra calories and cholesterol, not to mention the labor-intensive and time-consuming part. But I gues a multi-component cake would take much longer to make than this.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake for Valentine's Day

We had a small Valentine's gathering last Saturday on Valentine's day with just a bunch of friends. To be honest, it wasn't really for Valentine, it was just a get-together sorta thing. There were only ten of us, the rest of them had a three-day conference that they had to attend. It was a potluck party as usual and I automatically think of dessert whenever I can (who wants to waste an opportunity to bake something special anyway?).

I actually planned on making a heart-shaped cake that has six different components. A combination of flavor that I've been wanting to try for a while and been waiting for the perfect time to make it. The only heart-shaped ring I have is 9.5in wide, and I was planning to make it to feed about 20 people. When I found out that a bunch of them were not gonna make it to the gathering, I had to change plan. I didn't really want to make a cake just for the ten of us.

I remembered when I used to make desserts all the time instead of a cake, although cake is considered a dessert too, but you know what I mean. When I was still in college, living in Texas, I often made desserts and invited my close friends to have dinner together (I would cook the meal too), or I were too busy, I just invited them to have dessert after dinner at 9pm. It was fun, I miss those days. I don't make desserts often anymore. Most of the gatherings we have (Almost all of them actually), involve 15++ people, and there's no way that I would make individual dessert for each one of them. And we always have a very casual get-together, we eat while we're standing and chatting, watching TV. So, a pretty individual platted dessert is never an option. It's usually a cake, not a heavy cake, just a light fruity cake.

So I thought, this is the perfect time to make an individual dessert, instead of a big cake since there are only a few of us. Besides, it's usually a lot quicker than making a cake that has multiple components. After some time thinking and brain-storming, I finally decided on molten lava cake. I used to make it often when I was in TX and I made it once since I got back in CA for the last two years. I first ate it at Chili's I think and since then, I've determined to make it myself at home. So I began trying different recipes for it. Every recipe I tried was good, far from disappointing, but I finally settled on the first one I tried. The first one is always the one that strikes you the most, doesn't it? I believe I modified it from Emeril's recipe (I was a HUGE foodnetwork fan at that time). And this is Valentine, so something chocolaty would be perfect. Besides, chocolate is an aphrodisiac food anyway :D.

I only have 6 ramekins so that's how many I would make. It wasn't long at all whipping the batter up. The good thing about it is that I can refrigerate the batter and bake it just before serving it. If I baked it way before serving it, it would be just like a flourless chocolate cake instead of molten cake. I brought along Muscat wine and a soft red wine too for the after meal drink.

The cakes were gobbled up pretty quickly just minutes after coming out from the oven, and yes they have to share. It's best if paired up with some vanilla ice cream, but unfortunately the only ice cream my friend had on hand was cherry chocolate chip ice cream. So, we will have to make do with that and with some rum whipped cream and we thought it was still fabulous. I don't have any fresh red fruit to decorate it with, it would be much prettier if they were decorated with some raspberries, strawberries and mint leaves and also vanilla ice cream on the side. But my friends have never cared too much about decoration at all, as long as they can eat it (those barbarians tsk tsk tsk :D). I am so glad that they all LOVED it. I used 75% dark chocolate, making the cake sweet enough but has a bitter aftertaste from the chocolate (in a good way). It was definitely perfect for Valentine's dinner for those chocoholics and those who are not (even I liked it and also did my brother who is anything but chocolate fan).

I only baked five of them at my friend's house, leaving the last one to be baked at home and at least photograph it. So, here it is. The picture is not that much better than the one took at the party, but oh well.

Black Forest Cake

Another black forest post. It has been a while though since I made black forest. I don't normally make the same cake more than two times, unless if it's a cake order.

It was one of my dearest coworkers birthday last week and he requested black forest cake for his birthday cake a month before :), it is his ultimate favorite cake. Having made black forest cake many times before, of course I'd happily approve it :D

There are nothing much too say about this cake. Just the usual black forest cake components (my way) with three layers of dark chocolate sponge, moisten heavily with rum solution, filled with a layer of rum whipped cream, dark sweet cherries, a layer of chocolate cream, and frosted with the rest of rum whipped cream. Maraschino cherries and dark chocolate shavings make a traditional finish to the black forest cake. What I love about cake like this is that you don't have to think hard about how you're gonna decorate it. Black forest has it's particular look. Of course I can always decorate it all I want, but why would I? I want people to know that it's black forest cake inside, and not a mousse cake or anything.

So, here it is. I guess the most time-consuming part of this cake is the chocolate shaving part. I have never been good with chocolate. I don't usually temper my chocolate if I make some decoration with it (yeesss, I know how bad untempered chocolate can be), it was time consuming, messy, more bowls and spatula to be washed, etc. But I tempered it this time. The room temperature was too cold to work with chocolate that night, it was 17-18 C. I'm not a chocolate expert at all but I believe room temperature of 20-22 C is best to work with chocolate? Anyways, I wanted to have more long choc. curls but the chocolate set too quickly. The worst part of working with choc, is of course when it's time to clean up. I'm just glad I'm not a chocoholic which means that I don't make chocolate cake that often. But wait, umm...if I am a chocoholic, I don't think I would mind at all cleaning up the chocolate mess as long as I get one decadent chocolate cake, do I :D?

Mango Pudding

I actually made this about three weeks ago. But lazy-ness got the best of me and put it off until now :D. I absolutely LOVE everything about mango. I love everything that has mango in it, although I'm not a big fan of it in savory dishes though. I always think that fruits are meant for sweet stuff.

I've been wanting to be able to make a killer mango pudding just like those in dim sum place. I tried making it once before using agar agar (a type of gelatinous substance just like gelatin, but derived from seaweed). It was far from perfect though. The color was pale yellow, and the texture was nothing close to smooth and silky. The flavor of the mango was very vague too. So, I determined to continue my search for the perfect mango pudding recipe.

This recipe is using gelatin for the gelling agent. Although agar and gelatin are both gelatinous substances, but the texture they produce are different. I used heavy cream for the liquid to get that silky texture. I also used mango pulp leftover from the rainbow cheesecake I made before. If I haven't told you before, this is one of my absolute favorite ingredients. The taste of the mango is so intense, not to mention the vibrant yellow color, and most importantly, it's available all year long and guaranteed sweet!!!

I wouldn't say that this recipe is the one I'm looking for, but at least it's better than the first one I made. I've never been a big fan of too-much-gelatin. I tried to use as little as possible of gelatin in my mousse and my other desserts. The texture of too-much-gelatin is somewhat rubbery to me. Although I do realize that that amount of gelatin is needed for the pudding to hold it's shape. But, it's not the kind of texture I'm looking for in a pudding. I would imagine pudding to be smooth, silky, soft, and you don't have to use your teeth that much to process it. I guess the search is still continued? If anybody's willing to share the ultimate pudding recipe, I would REALLY appreciate it :)

Here's the recipe if you want to try it:

Mango Pudding

1 cup mango pulp
1/2 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbs. cold water
1 Tbs. powdered gelatin

• Combine the mango pulp, heavy cream/evaporated milk, milk and sugar in a saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil.
• In the meantime, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let it bloom. Then, melt the gelatin in microwave for a few secs to melt the mixture (don't let it come to boil. 5 seconds will do just fine)
• Pour the melted gelatin into the cream mixture and stir well.
• Take the pan off the heat and pour in any mold you want. Let it set for a few hours before unmolding.
  

Potato Donut

Strangely, I was craving donut last week. Maybe it's because the main topic of my mailing list for the past two weeks was donut. There were donut posting everywhere, and after seeing those tempting donut pictures, I just could resist making it myself.

This is probably not the kind of donut you normally know. This donut has potato in it, mashed. It gives the donut different texture and also taste. Which one is better? Both are good and they're different from textural point of view and I like both equally. But this kind of donut reminds me the kind of donut I used to have when I was a kid.

I made this once before, but it was more than a year ago. I was a little afraid or skeptical about it before I made this donut. First, I don't feel like kneading the dough manually, it's just way too tiring, especially since there are so many donut out there. But I always keep in my mind that homemade donut is exceptional. So, I continue. Second, it's winter and yes California can be cold at times. It was gorgeous and beautiful 2 weeks before, but somehow, I just gotta pick one of the coldest weeks to make donut :(. With the help of my faithful Kitchen Aid and also the strength of my hand, the dough is finally ready for proofing. I put it in the oven, which I have turned on to warm. I tried it with hot water in a pan and put it on the bottom of the oven, but it didn't work. It did take much longer time to rise, compared to summer.

So, finally the donut is fried after the second proofing for breakfast the day after. I didn't do anything fancy with the glaze or topping. I just cover them with what we usually call donut sugar. I believe it is also known as dextrose. It is different from confectioners sugar. Donut sugar has that "cold" feeling when it touches your tongue. I couldn't find it here easily in the US, so I brought some from Indonesia on my last trip.

I was somewhat satisfied with the result. I mean it was good, but I've made a better one before with different recipe. Maybe with the different weather here compared to the one in Indonesia (the recipe is an Indonesian recipe), I need more liquid? Since I really think the amount of liquid is too little for the amount of bread flour called for. But everybody else in the mailing list doesn't seem to have the same problem. Or maybe it's the type of bread flour I used? Or the proofing process? I don't know but I can't wait for summer to come so that I can bake all the yeast-y goodies.

Potato Donut
Courtesy of Fatmah Bahalwan

500 g bread flour
50 g powdered milk
100 g sugar
11 g instant yeast (in Indonesia, instant yeast comes in 11 g packet)
200 g potato, steamed and mashed, cooled
75 g butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp. salt
4 egg yolks
100 ml ice water

• Combine the flour, powdered milk, sugar, and instant yeast in a mixer bowl (or large bowl if you plan to knead it manually). Mix well
• Add the mashed potato and egg yolks, mix well
• Add the cold water (no ice please) in a steady stream with the mixer still running. Or if you do it by hand, add the water in about 2-3 addition. Continue kneading until the dough is somewhat smooth but not completely elastic.
• Add the butter and salt and continue kneading until elastic and the dough doesn't stick to the side of the bowl anymore. This is the key to a soft donut (or any type of bread for that matter)
• Let is rice in a warm place until the dough doubled in volume (time varies depending on the temperature of the room).
• Weigh the dough about 50g each (or less if you want smaller donuts), and shape it to the regular donut shape, or any shape you like.
• Let it proof the second time until the dough rise again.
• Deep fry the dough in hot oil over medium heat. Make sure it's not too hot
  
• 
  

Pandan Madness

Yes, I'm still alive in case you're wondering. Haven't been baking all that much lately. There were so much work to do, so much going on that I couldn't squeeze in some time aside to bake. It was also my birthday two weeks ago and I was occupied with birthday lunch, dinner, dinner again, and some other celebration. Whenever I decided to set aside some time to bake later, I was stuck with the hardest question ever "what do I want to bake?". There are a lot of cakes, desserts on my list, but it's hard to decide which one I WANT to make. I need to have that mood for that particular cake/dessert to make it. Yes, call me weird or crazy, but that's how it is. I won't bake even if I have the whole day if I don't feel like making something particular. That kind of mood just come and go as they wish and I never know when.

Anyways, finally forced myself to bake something last Sunday. I had a 2.5-hour nap that afternoon and I was wide awake the whole night. I was by myself at home at that time, and not wanting to be useless, I decided to go downstairs and be productive. I wasn't in the mood of baking something fancy or complicated lately. So I baked pandan chiffon cake which I covered with buttercream and cheese later on for my brother. He's been asking me to make this cake for him since about three weeks back. I know, I can be that mean sometime :D.

Making chiffon was pretty quick, and I still had the whole night to kill. So, I made another cake, a type of Indonesian steamed pandan cake with shredded coconut on top. I made it a couple of times before, but I felt like experimenting a little that night. So, I modified the already-modified recipe that I usually use, change this and that, add this and to the steamer it goes. I was a little worried about the result. For a second there, I regret what I did and thought that I should have sticked with the one I used before. The batter was thinner than I would have expected, but it was too late. I was smiling happily when I took the cake out of the steamer, unmold, and touch it to find out if the texture improved. It was soft, moist and light. I don't usually like steamed cakes as they're usually dense and very filling. But not this one. It stays soft, even after 4 days (in an airtight container of course) without having to microwave it for a few seconds. I was really pleased with it.

I guess my night turned out to be not so useless after all :D

Raspberry Mascarpone Cheesecake

When my sister in law mentioned that I should bake raspberry mascarpone cheesecake, I just said "I've never made it before", without thinking. She wasn't even thinking either when she said that, but then I thought how brilliant that idea sounds. The creamy mascarpone and the fragrant raspberries. For a second there, I thought she was genius to mention this combo, even if she didn't really mean it in the first place :). I've never been such a big fan of cheesecake, but I absolutely adore mascarpone cheese. I love the smooth and very creamy taste of it. Everything that has mascarpone in it must be good.

Then, I began my search on raspberry mascarpone cheesecake online as a start, but I found nothing. Very weird, as I would think that other people must have tried this before, but I couldn't find any recipe. So, What I did is just take the existing mascarpone cheesecake as a start point and go from there. I modified the recipe quite a bit to suit my taste, and also so that it would go great with raspberries. It's quite pricey making this cheesecake though. Everybody knows how expensive mascarpone can be, and I need more than one for this. It also has almond base, as I'm also not a fan of the plain and old graham cracker crumb base. Not to mention the raspberries and the cream cheese. But as long as it gives me the result I want, it doesn't matter anymore :).

Making cheesecake is pretty straightforward. Unlike layered cakes, where you have to bake thin sponge cakes, for cheesecake, you just mix the ingredients for the base and bake it for a few minutes. no beating or folding necessary. The filling was also quick to whip up. Just dump everything in the mixer, let it run until it smooth and add the eggs one after another, that's it. I also added a couple tablespoons of framboise, but I think the flavor got lost somewhere between the cream cheese and mascarpone. I scattered some fresh raspberries in the middle of the cheesecake. Everything went well until it comes for decoration, one of my weaknesses. I do have lots of ideas though, but I'm just to lazy to go that far just for decoration, although yes, I admit that it's one of the most important part of a cake. It's what make the cake art-y (???). Making the glaze took the longest time. The first one was a fail and I wasted my whole frozen raspberry to make the puree. So, had to run to the grocery store and bought another one. Thawing, pureeing, straining the seeds, can be very time-consuming. I'm not completely satisfied either with the result of the glaze. Gotta think to make it better next time.

I didn't go the extra mile for the decoration though. I let the side just as it is because I want it to look like a cheesecake. If I cover it with something, it would have looked just like a mousse cake. I think it looks acceptable, not the best decoration in the world but it's the best I can do with the leftover ingredients and the time I had. I should have smoothen the side with a warm metal spatula, but I didn't :(.

I haven't cut the cake yet, but I tasted the one that was stuck in the cake ring and pan and I loved it. My sis in law can't wait to eat it for the past two days, but I wouldn't let her because I haven't fully decorated it :P. I'll make sure she gets her portion of the cheesecake tomorrow. It doesn't have that "heavy" feeling you get with the regular NY cheesecake, and you can definitely tell that there is mascarpone in it. The raspberry just brightens the flavor, making it refreshing, fruity, and light at the same time. Definitely a keeper. I mean, when you heard or saw a cake with a name like this, who can resist?

Another cake I made the weekend before, a classic Indonesian cheese cake (not cheesecake) for a friend's birthday cake. I made it so often that I don't want to make a separate post over and over again, so I just shared the picture. And every single time I make it, it makes my mouth water (a little hyperbolic here) and it gives me craving for it. I'll just have to find the time to make it again one of these days :)

Rainbow Chilled Cheesecake (part II)

Umm....the second cheesecake I made last week to use up the heavy cream and cream cheese (note: as for now, I still have about 1.25 L cream and 2lbs cream cheese). Well, that's not the entire reason though. Remember the first rainbow chilled cheesecake I made a few months back? The texture was great, but the three flavors wasn't quite there yet. I used jams to flavor the blueberry and strawberry flavor, and lemon juice and zest for the lemon flavor. The lemon was tangy and I love it, but the other two were just too weak. The layers were uneven, and you can barely tell the color difference, not to mention the poor decoration, hahaha... Since then, I've been wanting to recreate the second one, a better one I hope.

I used chiffon type cake for the base as I think it's easier to make and faster too. The three flavors are different from the last one. This time, I made it into raspberry, mango, and blueberry flavors, my all-time favorite flavors! And I got smarter too :P, instead of using jams, I used real puree to flavor and color each layer, and mango pulp for the mango flavor (absolutely love this product). It was quite a hassle pureeing just a small amount of fruit, strain, wash, and redo it again with another fruit with a big blender. But I guess it was all worth it :). I try to make the layer as even as possible using a spoon, and although it wasn't perfect, but I think it's much better than the first one.

After unmolding, I feel like the colors are too strong. I wanted it to be just a tad softer, but overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I didn't do elaborate thing for the decoration, just cover it with a thin layer of cream and glazed fresh fruits. The cream wasn't even that smooth, but strangely, I wasn't bothered by it. I guess I was more bothered by the fact that I was very late for work at that time :P

Brought this cake to work and it was devoured within minutes. Luckily, there was one very small slice left and I remembered that I haven't tried it, so I quickly hide it :). The texture was a little different than last time. It was very light, more like a mousse instead of cheesecake, but still has that cheesecake flavor due to the amount of cream cheese. The word "cheesecake" is identical with "smooth", "creamy", "dense", but this is just so light that you don't feel like eating much after finishing one slice of it. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. For me, I love this kind of texture. Maybe next time I'll add a little more gelatin in it. The reason why it's softer than the first one might be caused by the liquid puree. But overall, it was fruity, light, and flavorful all at the same time. For second attempt, I don't think this is too bad at all :)

No-Bake Baileys Espresso Cheesecake

In a mission to use more than 1.5 L heavy cream that has been sitting on my fridge for a while before it goes bad, and also the 3-pound cream cheese I bought, no-bake cheesecake is the first thing that came to mind. There are so many variations of no-bake cheesecakes that I wanted to try, but I finally settled on this. I had a little Baileys in the fridge for quite some time and just want to use it up and be done with it. Don't get me wrong, I love Baileys, but there's not much you can do with it if you only have a little of it. Don't want to drink it either since I don't know how long it has been there :P.

There was only 30ml left when I measured it, which is exactly what the recipe called for. But I feel like there wasn't going to be enough flavor of Baileys or coffee for the amount of the cream cheese and cream. So, I decided to add a couple tablespoons of espresso, from the tiramisu leftover that I kept in a freezer for time like this, and it's proven to be very useful :).

I used a regular chocolate sponge cake for the base, and pour the cheesecake mixture on top of it. The end result is a little bit shorter that I would have expected, but it's still fine. I will adjust the recipe for next time. The swirl is made from the cheesecake mixture itself and chocolate paste, pretty simple.

I can definitely smell the espresso when I unmold it. I also tasted the crumbs, or little pieces that are stuck in the cake ring, and it was pretty tasty. I mean, you can never go wrong with Baileys and espresso combo.

I brought it to my friends' apartment after the cheesecake has set so that they can finish it, since I was planning to make another kind of no-bake cheesecake the next day, and I need the space in the fridge :).

Mini Steamed Pandan Coconut Cake (Putu Ayu)

My second attempt of making this cake, now that I have the right mold for this cake. The first one I did almost months and months ago, wasn't completely satisfying. I used different mold and some of the grated coconuts stuck in the mold, not pretty :(. Second, it was my first time trying the recipe I found somewhere (forgot already what recipe I used), but I wasn't too fond of the texture. It was okay I think, but the texture is denser than what I would have liked. If you know me, you'll know that I like about everything that is light and soft. That's why I don't like butter type cake (or pound cake) and some sort.

I made these cute little cakes 1.5 weeks ago, for a potluck party. I didn't plan to make it that time, although it has been on my to-make/to-experiment list all this time after my first attempt. I only had about 1hr before I needed to get ready for the party and I didn't know what to bring as most people brought main dishes. So, I thought I'll make this, especially since the party is about Indonesian food :).

This cake is a traditional Indonesian cake, although it is also common in Singapore and Malaysia (these three countries share the same interest in the same type of food). I changed the recipe to have lesser flour (for lighter texture), more coconut milk (to give that moistness), and also more eggs. To my surprise, the texture was great. Definitely go into my file, have to go write down the amount before I forgot :P. I couldn't help but keep smiling when I saw these little cakes came out from the mold so easily without force, and it came out so pretty too. The size is mini, so you can finish it with only 3 bites (or one bite for a guy).

I've been wanting to make this again, as I only ate one at that time (they were gone very fast), but have to find "victim" to help finish the rest :)

Tiramisu Eclair

Been wanting to try this flavor for eclair since forever, but never gotten to it until now. Another dessert I made together with the Vanilla Bean Cream Puffs for my neighbor and for my New Year's Eve dinner dessert. I wasn't planning on making this actually, at least not at that moment. But I suddenly felt the urge of making it when I was in the middle of making the cream puffs. So I made another batch of choux and pipe it to make eclair. I think tiramisu flavor would be better with eclair instead of cream puff, although they are the same generally. It's just that eclair has chocolate glaze on top, although I usually like to drizzle my cream puffs with chocolate glaze as well :D. So practically, they're the same. But eclair sounds much more elegant and looks fancier than cream puffs.

The filling is the same as the regular tiramisu cream. I just piped the cream into the eclair, and that's all. Piping filling into eclair has never been my area of expertise :(. It was messy, but I think I got it pretty good at the end :). It was a three-step process, making the choux, the filling, and the glaze, but I'm telling you, it was totally worth it. Not to mention the failed ganache glaze I made the first one. I was out of heavy cream and decided to use milk instead, but the mixture was grainy. When I was finally able to get it smooth, the color was so dull, not shiny like usual. It won't thicken, well it did a little but still runny even after a couple of hours. So, I got myself about one-1.5lt carton of heavy cream and made another batch. Now I still have 90% full of heavy cream in my fridge that I need to use up quickly before it goes bad. I can't seem to get any inspiration of what I want to make when I have this kind pressure :(.

Everybody just went crazy over this tiramisu eclair. I didn't eat it that night because I was too full, but everybody just kept saying how good the eclair is. I was actually surprised myself when I ate it the day after. I like to leave my eclair or cream puff at room temperature for some time to let the pastry to soften up a little, I think it's better that way. I'll definitely make this more often, although yes I realize that it took me a long time to make this from start to finish, but it was definitely worth it.

What did I do with the leftover tiramisu filling? Make tiramisu of course!! But this time, I made it in martini glasses since I didn't have enough leftover cream to make it in a pyrex or container. I just layered the cream with broken lady fingers that have been dipped in espresso-rum mixture. Dust the top with cocoa powder and there you have it.

I hope the neighbor enjoyed it as much as we do :)

Vanilla Bean Cream Puffs

Cream Puff is one of those desserts that's simple to make but yet satisfying and easy to please anyone. It's one of the desserts that almost always come up in my mind whenever I want to make a snack for a group of people, for snack at home, for bridal shower, or any gathering for that matter. You can change the filling easily to suit the occasion depending on your fancy.

So, when I was trying to find something to give to one of my good neighbors, cream puffs naturally came to mind. I was planning to make it for Christmas but I was sick for a couple of days that I couldn't do anything except lying on my bed the whole day literally :( and it had to wait until New Year's Eve.

I was just planning to make a regular cream puff with soft and creamy pastry cream filling, but as I made it, I felt like making the filling a little fancier than just a regular filling. I quickly got my vanilla bean (instead of extract) and added it to the milk to infuse (I wasn't that far in making the pastry cream). I always like to lighten my pastry cream with a little whipped cream whether it is for cream puffs, fruit tarts, cake filling, etc. Depending on what it's for, the amount of whipped cream varies as sometimes you would want a lighter filling and sometimes toward a creamier filling, etc. So, I added a little whipped cream just to lighten it a bit, not too much that it would be light as mousse. And just like any other cream puff filling I made, I always add rum to the filling. I couldn't stop myself from licking the filling and my nephew just kept coming back and asking if he could taste more cream :)

It would be better if it was dusted with a little powdered sugar or combination of powdered sugar and cocoa powder but I was out of powdered sugar at the time, bummer. But it served its purpose successfully without the dusting anyway. I served the rest as dessert for New Year's Eve dinner at the same night and it was definitely a big hit.

Vanilla Chiffon With Cheese

As far as I remember, out of the many chiffon cakes I made, pandan, pandan with cheese, mocha, durian, etc., somehow I've never made the vanilla version. I did once or twice but it was about one or two years ago. No particular reason, it was probably because I always thought that vanilla or plain flavor is too boring.

So, I made a couple of pandan chiffon cakes the other day to give to some friends, and I managed to squeeze in one vanilla chiffon that I've been wanting to make for maybe a month. Fortunately, I have a little buttercream leftover in the fridge, perfect amount to cover this 8-in chiffon cake, then covered the whole cake with cheese and voila!

Believe it or not, I RARELY eat the chiffon cakes I made. I always made it for other people. And even if I make it for people at the house, I don't usually eat it, well I might taste it a little. There's something about eating your own cake :P. But this time, I actually ate it, a couple of slices I might add :D. I was surprised that the texture is super light and super soft. Gave half of the cake to my brother and his wife and they devoured it completely. I can't decide whether I like this vanilla-cheese combination better or the pandan with cheese. I will gladly take both of them anytime :).

Here is a picture of the last slice that I managed to capture

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

It seems like I've been baking a lot of chocolate goodies this past couple of weeks. Well, it has something to do with the 5-lb 75% Belgian dark chocolate that I need to use up. I think I still have about 2lbs after making all this chocolate goodies.

This cookie recipe struck me when somebody posted the recipe in my mailing list about a month ago. Since then, many people in the mailing list have been trying it and the response was really positive that it even tempted the non-chocolate-fan like me to try it. When I saw the picture of this cookies, it reminds me of the dark chocolate cookies with white choc. chips that I used to love when I was in college. It was sold in the school cafeteria that I worked at and I usually hide a couple before they're gone. These cookies were not available everyday and that's another reason why I treasured it so much.

I halved the recipe and slightly modified it. I cut down the sugar by quite a bit, since I'm really not a fan of those really sweet cookies. It is still a little too sweet for my taste. I will need to cut the sugar a little bit more next time
Here's the modified recipe:

Chocolate Fudge Cookies
modified from this recipe

100 g toasted nuts (I used slivered almonds)
60 g cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. espresso powder
450 g dark chocolate (I use 75% dark), finely chopped
60 g butter
250 g sugar
4 large eggs
150 g semisweet chocolate chips
150 g white chocolate chips

• Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder. Set aside.
• Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl on a double boiler. Remove and set aside.
• In the bowl of electric or hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs until pale yellow and thick (ribbon stage).
• Beat in the melted chocolate and butter and mix only until incorporated.
• Fold in the toasted nuts and both chocolate chips.
  
• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the batter is firm enough to be scooped, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degree F
• Using ice cream scoop (I use the medium size), drop batter on parchment-lined cookie sheet, spacing evenly.
• Bake until the top is cracked and shiny. The time will depend on how big and how thick your batter is. Approximately 12-18 minutes. You might need to adjust the baking time.
• Do not overbake or it will be dry instead of fudgy.
• Transfer to wire rack to cool completely and keep in an airtight container.

This is also my entry for Holiday Cookie Baking and Giveaway event hosted by Sharmi.

I have been wanting to participate more in this kind of event but time has always been my enemy. I hope in time to come, I can make more time to participate more. Thank you Sharmi for hosting :)

Durian Chiffon Cake

This is actually my second attempt experimenting with durian chiffon cake recipe. Well, maybe the third but the first one was completely followed a recipe to the tee. For the last two attempts, I tried to make my own recipe from scratch. After making chiffon cakes for so many times, it's not hard to approximate how much each ingredient you need to make the texture you like.

The previous one failed on me about 3 or 4 months ago. I didn't bake the cake long enough, apparently the bottom wasn't cooked enough that it collapsed or fell when I turned it upside down. But I really liked the flavor and the texture. My brother (who didn't know that it was a failed cake) even asked me to bake another one. I've been dying to make another one ever since, but never had a good durian so far.

Well, I had some durian leftover from last week that I froze. This time, the durian is pretty flavorful and so I determined to make another durian chiffon cake! I rescaled the recipe I had for 8-in pan instead of 10-in, but decided to use the full amount of durian pulp in the batter because I thought it wasn't going to give enough durian flavor. This time, the chiffon loves me. It baked beautifully. The smell of durian immediately filled the whole house (I know some people would consider me crazy). The texture is so light and fluffy and moist and the durian flavor is intense too. I can't describe it until you try it yourself :P

Black Velvet Chocolate Mousse Cake

It was one of my friends' birthday last weekend and I was asked to make the cake. I thought the birthday is this week, but when I found out that the birthday was actually last Sunday, I began to panic! It was Friday night already when I realized this. Luckily, I still had the whole Saturday (so I thought) and Sunday afternoon (the celebration was on Sunday night). But what do I know, Saturday turned out to be a very busy day for me. I didn't get home until midnight or so. I was super tired that I just fell asleep.

The birthday boy is a chocolate fan and the gf asked for something with chocolate cake of course. I decided to make this cake, which I had been wanting to experiment for some time. Yes, I want to experiment with chocolate occasionally, even though I rarely eat chocolate cake.
Remember the black raspberry I found at Trader Joe's that I fell in love with immediately about a month ago or so? When I smell and tasted the fruit for the first time, one of the things that came up in mind was to pair it with chocolate. And this is the perfect opportunity to make that happen, considering that I don't make a lot of chocolate cakes usually.

This cake has two layers of moist chocolate sponge, brushed with Chambord (black raspberry liqueur) syrup, brandied dark chocolate mousse and black raspberry jelly in between the thin layer of mousse for the bottom filling, and another thin layer of black raspberry jelly on top of the second layer of cake as well before adding the final layer of brandied chocolate mousse. Sprinkled with cocoa powder, put the chocolate fence around, tied with ribbon, and we're good to go. The jelly also has Chambord in it to enhance the flavor.

I was so happy when the birthday boy said that he liked it so much. He said that it wasn't like any other chocolate cakes, which usually heavy and you know how sometimes chocolate cake can be so rich that you can only have a little of it. But this one is really light that you can finish a big slice. Also, it has than fruit layer in the middle to cut the richness of the chocolate that can be overwhelming. I personally really like this combination. For next time, I will need to put more gelatin in the jelly as it was softer than what I would have liked, and maybe make it a little thicker layer so that the flavor won't get lost in the middle of the chocolate. But, for a first try, definitely satisfying! Can't wait to try another flavor combination with this black raspberry wonder :)

Christmas Goodies

Made this about a week ago for a friend's request. He called on Wednesday night asking me to make cat's tongue and kaastengel to give to his relatives for Christmas on Friday morning. That means, I only had one full day to make the cookies, hunting for containers, ribbon, etc. Luckily, I had all the ingredients available, so I could save a trip to the grocery store.

Nothing much to say about these cookies as I had posted it a couple of times before. One thing I learn or notice though, when I made the kaastengel, the dough was a lot stiffer than usual. Most likely because the weather was really cold (made it early in the morning on Thurs. and Fri.) and the butter just wouldn't soften as much as it would when it is warm. I had to reduce the amount of flour, which worried me for a bit. But it turned out to be ok. The cookies were still great and crunchy. I hope they like them as much as I do :)

Death by Chocolate Cake

It's very rare that I would make something with chocolate, especially if it contains all chocolate all the way, like this cake. Then why would I make this cake?

Well, the reason is because I have quite a lot of Belgian dark chocolate that I've had for a while. Not being a chocolate fan, I can tell you that 10lbs of 72% Belgian dark chocolate can last for a VERY long time. Oddly, most of my friends don't like chocolate. I mean they don't hate it or anything, they will eat it if it's the only flavor available, it's just not the flavor they would pick if they have to choose between chocolate cake or fruit-flavored cake.

And then I found out that two of my coworkers are true chocolate addicts. You know, the kind who won't eat chocolate if it's less than 70% dark. Well I think this is perfect and so I promised them a death by chocolate cake will be coming soon. Week after week went by so fast before I know it. There's always something came up whenever I wanted to make the cake. After three week delay, I finally made it.

The cake has two layers of soft and moist chocolate sponge cake, brushed with cocoa syrup, layered with dark chocolate ganache and dark chocolate mousse, encased with chocolate sheet and dusted with a little cocoa powder. I guess chocolate lovers would like chocolate cake with fudgy and creamy ganache, and covered with ganache too, but I always try not to have the same kind of filling for a two-layer cake. I want to have the texture combination and flavor too. It's very unusual that I don't put some sort of liqueur in this cake. Well, not that I forgot or anything. One of the guy specifically told me that he doesn't like rum in his chocolate cake. He likes to keep his booze and his cake separate :). So, here it is, a Death by Chocolate Cake.

And I am so glad that everybody liked it. I tasted a small spoonful of it and it wasn't as bitter as I thought it would be and to be honest, I quite like it. A small piece of course, one step at a time :). I still have about 2-3lbs of chocolate left and I have so many ideas how to make use of it. I'll just have to find the perfect "victim" ;).

Hong Kong Style Cake

Been wanting to try this recipe for a while. The technique and the ingredients are very similar to cotton cake. Instead of butter, it uses oil and unlike the cotton cake where you have to warm the milk and butter mixture, here, you combine all of them together with the yolks and everything in room temperature. It doesn't require waterbath either, which I think would make it better.

I baked it in individual muffin tin so that it is easier to eat. Made it into a couple of different flavors, which are plain vanilla, mocha, chocolate chips, pandan, and cheese. They rose so beautifully in the oven, and as other cotton cakes or sponge type cakes with lots of eggs and so little flour, it deflated after taken out from the oven.

The texture of this cake is super light. I was surprised myself when I was about to eat it. It was like I'm not holding anything, and yes it is that light.

Hong Kong Style Cake

A. 50 g milk
50 g oil
105 g egg yolks
100 g cake flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt

B. 175 g egg whites
1/24 tsp. cream of tartar
80 g sugar

• Mix all the A ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well. Set aside
• Beat the egg white until frothy and add the cream of tartar. Keep whisking until the bubbles appear smaller and white.
  
• Add the sugar a little at a time while keep whisking until it forms soft peak
• Fold the egg whites mixture into the yolk mixture.
• Bake at 350 F until done (depending on the size of the pan you use)
  

Strawberry and Pistachio Mousse Cake

It was two of my dear coworker friends' birthday last weekend, on the 6th and 7th. As a good friend :), of course I want to make them a birthday cake. And what is a better opportunity to experiment than this one? I really wanted to make something new, and I was struck by this cake from Lynn. She makes absolutely gorgeous cakes and desserts. Everything she make is a perfection. There are a couple of reason why I chose this cake. First, I've always wanted to combine strawberry and pistachio together since last year, but never had the urgency to make it :). Second, I have a container of pure pistachio paste that I bought online for a while now. Third, I still have my pink macaron I made about a week ago in the freezer to decorate with.

It was a very hectic weekend I had, and everything I had planned didn't go the way I expected. I only had 2 hours at home on Sunday (other than the hours for sleep), so I made the rest of the cake on Monday night after work. I had quite a few obstacles when making this cake. First, I couldn't find stawberries at Costco. Every other time I go there, there are always plenty of strawberries, so I had to make do with grocery store strawberries, which are more expensive, and don't look fresh at all. They're all white in the middle, and completely tasteless and soft!!! I was really disappointed when I ate one to see how much sugar I would need.

Long story short, I brought it to work yesterday and to my surprise, everybody REALLY liked it. 90% of them had second (the other need to go back to work), and the slice they cut is pretty big slice (I would say about 2-2.5 regular size). I was really pleased with their reaction and believe it or not, I ate one whole slice too (just a little smaller than their slice :) ), and I liked it.

I was pretty skeptical at first with the amount of gelatin I decided to use. It seems like a lot and I don't like those rubbery mousse they usually sell at the bakery because they put too much gelatin. Of course gelatin is good to make the mousse hold its shape, but sometimes they just went overboard with it :). But in the end, I was really glad that the mousse hold its shape and yet you still get that mousse texture. And the strawberry flavor is definitely there, although it would be a lot better if I had used tasty and flavorful strawberries you would get in the farmers market in summer (hmm....can wait for summer to come). But there was enough strawberry flavor in the mousse. Maybe it's because I used considerably plenty of puree for the mousse (about 600ml or so).

So, the cake consists of a layer of joconde that I flavored with pure pistachio paste, moisten with Grand Marnier. Then there's a layer of strawberry mousse, a layer of pistachio bavarois, and the whole thing is then encased with the rest of the mousse. Put a clear glaze on top, fresh strawberries and macaron for the decoration, and it's done. The clear glaze is not that clear though. I made it myself and I put lemon and orange juice as well as the zest, also mint and vanilla bean. It tastes great, but it won't be very clear. I will try to make the plain one next time. I love this glaze because it won't turn to gel when it cooled down. It's just like glaze. The only thing I would do different next time (other than using good strawberries of course), I should use less pistachio cream. Yesterday when it was cut, I notice that the pistachio layer is a little thicker than what I would have liked. But other than that, everything was excellent.

Of course mine is still far from what Lynn made. I could only dream to make cakes like her, but I think it's pretty good :). I wish I have the picture of the cut portion, but I didn't. If you want to see what it looks like inside, you can see lynn's perfect layer here, it's pretty close.

Mini Blueberry Swiss Roll

I've been wanting to make this Indonesian-type of swiss roll with blueberry filling, after a friend of mine gave me one, imported from Indonesia a couple of months ago. Yes, I liked it that much that I wanted to replicate it. The only thing that held me back was the fragrant blueberry filling they use. I couldn't find it here, so I brought some from Indonesia when I was visiting two months ago, and it has become one of my favorite ingredients :).

I'm usually all for light and spongy cake, but Indonesian swiss roll is anything but light. It's made with sponge-cake method, but uses a lot more egg yolks compared to the amount of egg whites, relatively very little flour and a good amount of melted butter. The egg yolks make the texture dense, but very soft just like most of other Indonesian delicacy and the butter makes it really moist. If sponge cake usually is just used for a base, concentrating more on the flavor of the filling, for Indonesian-type of cakes such as this swiss roll, "Lapis Surabaya", thousands of layers cake (a.k.a lapis legit), the cake itself is the highlight. People want to taste the strong butter flavor, and the softness of the texture. That is why this kind of cake usually doesn't have a lot variation on the filling. The traditional filling would be a very thin layer of jam, or a thin layer of buttercream and sometimes a thin layer of ganache.

For cheese filling swiss roll, I prefer the lighter version of the cake. It's not as light as those you would get in a Chinese bakery, but definitely lighter than this one. It's more like Indonesian sponge cake, very soft but a little lighter. The buttercream and cheese filling would be way too heavy for this dense yet soft cake.

So, here is the mini version, made in a 10x10 in square pan. I was really satisfied with the result. It has anything that Indonesian swiss roll is supposed to be. Not to mention the very fragrant blueberry filling inside, yumm....

French Macaron

Not to be confused with macaroon, macaron is a French-type of pastry made with egg whites, almond powder, powdered sugar and granulated sugar. It is then sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream, or cream-like filling in between. While macaroon is a type of cookie made with shredded coconut.

There are two ways to made this macaron, the italian meringue method, which involved cooked sugar or the regular meringue method, the simpler one. According to what I read, macarons made using italian meringue method, will yield a more stable batter and different texture. Either way, the texture of a macaron is supposed to be crispy on the outside, a little chewy on the inside.

The way you can tell that your macaron is a success is by the "feet" it formed while it's baked. When it's baking, you batter will rise slightly and formed what we called "feet" around the bottom of the batter. I made an attempt to macaron once last year. After a week or two of research, I settled on one recipe that seems reliable from a French blog I read. But it failed successfully. It was just like a round meringue with a taste of almond (which is wonderful), although they are SUPER sweet. I was traumatized since then and afraid to make another attempt, especially since almond powder is really expensive. I thought I would rather make joconde for opera cake or other cakes than wasting it on another macaron experiment :).

After looking at yossi's successful macaron, I felt the urge of making another try. Besides, I have a bag of fine almond powder I bought online specially for macaron, that has been sitting in my pantry for a while now. So I gather all my strength and hope and tadaaaa.......It has feet!!!! I was so excited and couldn't stop smiling when I checked the oven window after about 8 minutes of baking time. It's not as pretty as others', but hey, it's a start.

I've been wanting to make lots of colorful macarons filled with different things, just like what you would have seen in French patisserie window. It looks like a little jewel packed in a pretty box. I was a little skeptical when I about to try it, because I know it would be REALLY sweet that it would hurt my teeth. But I was pleasantly surprised that it actually wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. It is still really sweet but not as sweet as the first one I made last year. It would be perfect if it's filled with bittersweet ganache or some sort of cream cheese filling to cut down the sweetness a little. The almond provides a really nice taste and texture to it. I wasn't planning on sandwiching this macaron as I was too lazy to make special filling just for a few macaron, so I froze it of course! Been wanting to make decoration on a cake using this little beauty. I just wish that the color is stronger. I'll try to fill them with ganache or something if I have leftover filling and I'll update you on that :)

There are a couple of them that were broken. I think part of it, it's because it was baked on a lower rack and therefore it has less heat distribution. Another reason is because I was so impatient that I try to remove them carelessly :(. But that's a reason so that I can munch of them whenever the sweet craving starts to hit (which is often) ;)

Tiered Fondant Birthday Cake

This cake was for a friend's birthday last Saturday, requested by the wife. She tasted the wedding cake I made a couple of months back and she loved it. So, she asked if i could make the same thing for her husband's 35th surprise birthday party.

It's been a while I haven't worked with fondant. The word "fondant" makes me itchy, nervous, etc. I seem to be intimidated by it. Personally, I really don't like the taste of fondant. It's one of those love it or hate it thing. But I agree that it makes an elegant look, compared to what buttercream can offer. The slogan "the more the better" doesn't really apply for fondant. The more stuff or decoration you put on it, the less elegant it is. It's simplicity at its best.

From my previous fondant cake experience, I've never been satisfied with them. I could never create a smooth and flawless finish. There are always cracks, unevenness, you name it. So, when she asked for fondant, my head was immediately spinning. She wasn't particular with the design though, she left it up to me. All she knows for sure that it has to be the same cake as the wedding cake I made :O, but two-tiered instead of four :).

I came up with lots of design on my head. I was going to do a musical-themed cake, because the husband is awesome with music. But as the day is closer, it's very hard to find the time to make every little detail. I won't have time to pipe little musical notes with royal icing, let it dry overnight, and all the works. So, I changed gear and decided to make something simpler. This design came up in the morning of the birthday :P.

It took me a couple of days to make this cake. I woke up early in the morning and do a little before going to work and the same thing after work. I think it took about four days from start to finish. I really wish that I can come up with better design, as I think this might be too simple. But this is all I can do with the time crunch I had. I think it would be better if the bottom tier has chocolate-colored fondant base instead of ivory. At least it would not be too boring.

The surprising thing when I was making this cake is that they're smooth!!! I can't even believe what I did. It felt easy and not as intimidating as it was, when I covered the cakes with fondant. There are a couple of "nail" mark though, but it wasn't a major thing (I have long nails and yes I know it's bad when you're working with fondant). But it made me smile after everything was done.

By the way, there was supposed a "Happy Birthday" ribbon I made from fondant and melted chocolate. I let it dry on the counter so that I can put it on the top tier, but I forgot!!! I was such in a hurry at that time and I was trying to put everything in my car. I assembled the cake in my friends house so that at least somebody can hold it on the way to the place. I don't want the cake to collapse if I assembled it from home. I felt sooo bad that I forgot to bring the happy birthday sign. But the wife is really kind and not make a big deal out of it.

I hope she and everybody else like the cake. It's terrifying for me when I have to see other people eating my cake in front of me. I always scared and nervous everytime. I would prefer going to the back of the room and just face the wall, but of course people would think I'm crazy.

Cheese Swiss Roll (Indonesian Version)

It's been a while I haven't made this cake. I used to make this all the time, but got tired of it for a while :). Besides, there are so many cakes I want to experiment with, so this cake was forgotten for some time :).

Made this cake today for a dear friend. Hope he'll enjoy it as much as he did. Indonesian swiss roll is heavier than what we normally call swiss roll here. It's still sponge-based, but uses a lot more egg yolks, compared to the egg whites, and it also uses a little amount of flour compared to the rest of the ingredients. It makes a dense, yet a very soft and moist cake (due to the amount of yolks and butter), combined with simple buttercream and shredded cheese (not any kind of cheese though), it's a pleasure on its own :). Red maraschino cherry and buttercream swirl are the staple decoration for this kind of cake.

Cat's Tongue

It's only I think less than a month ago that I made this cookie, but it was gone so fast. My niece especially, loved it so much that she can munch on it the whole day if nobody's looking :).

I don't have any particular plan today, except doing some errands at home. So, I thought I'll make this since the family has been requesting it for a while now. Not much different from the last time, except that I substituted some amount of flour with powdered milk. This is one of the ingredients that are "must have" in my pantry. I just love this thing so much. I also added more vanilla powder to the batter.

The only thing that makes me raise my eyebrow is the cookies have a little salty taste. And yes, I used imported salted butter (the kind that comes in a can with a strong and wonderful butter smell). Maybe it's because I use different composition and brand from the last time. It doesn't hurt the taste though, it's just something I noticed.

Pandan Chiffon Cakes Parade

There's a time when I don't make chiffon cakes at all for the whole month or two (not sure about two), but there's a time when I make them really often in a week. This week is the later kind of week. I have to make 7 pandan chiffon cakes this week, plus 3 chiffon cakes last Sunday. One of them is for a friend of my friend's mom. The other six are for Church's snack this morning.

It was pretty time consuming as I only have 2 regular size pans. I made two cakes in one batch and each batch has to cooled down completely before I can take the cake out of the pan. It can take 3-4 hours each time. So, do the math. Then today, I found out that my friend has another pan and also my other friend. Grrrrrrrrrr..............I wish I knew that sooner so that I didn't waste a lot of time waiting for the cake to cooled down.

Not much to say about this as I make this so often. I hope that everybody who enjoyed it really liked it.

Cream Puffs

Made this cream puffs last night and filled it this morning for a friend's order to be served for a prayer meeting. It's only about 21 pieces I guess, not that many. I think I baked a little too high in temperature. The color is more brown that what I expected. But other than that, I hope they're all like it The filling is custard that has been flavored with rum.

Rainbow Chilled Cheesecake

Trying out a new recipe last weekend for chilled cheesecake, also to use up the leftover cream cheese that had been sitting in the fridge for a couple of months :). This cheesecake has three layers, which are strawberry, lemon, and blueberry.

I was a little skeptical at first when I read the recipe. It uses jam to flavor each layer, except the lemon, and it doesn't even specify the amount of the jam needed. I wasn't sure that jam alone is enough to flavor the cheesecake and besides, jam is very sweet. I was going to use fruit puree instead, but the thought of puree-ing each fruit and the clean-up afterwards, made me change my mind. Since this is just a first try out, I didn't even bother to get the layer perfectly straight.I should have used piping tips to put each layer, but it was such a hassle. So, I used spoon instead :P. You can tell how lazy I was that day (and busy too with other cakes :D). All I wanted to know is how the texture would be. Is it firm enough yet still smooth and silky, or is it too stiff, is it too soft. I didn't think that going through all the hassle of puree-ing and cleaning up the blender (which I hate) were worth it for a first try out.

I tried the cheesecake yesterday and to my surprise, it actually tastes good. It's a little too sweet for my taste, which I kind of thought it would be. The flavor of each layer is not too pronounced though.
I can't wait to try the second try. It's not gonna be soon though. I'll definitely use fruit puree this time and make the layer straight. Also, since I'm a big fan of raspberry, I'll use raspberry, mango, and blueberry for my next try. Can't wait to see how it'd turn out.

Again, I don't bother decorating it. Saw some leftover cream and pipe it on top, add red cherry and I'm done. It tastes better than how it looks though :). I brought it to my work and everybody seemed to raved about it. They can't wait for me to bring my second experiment :)

Ispahan Cake

Another Ispahan cake I made this weekend for a dear friend's birthday (it's her ultimate favorite cake so far :)) along with pandan chiffon cake. It's only 6" round, only for her and her hubby.

In case you forgot what inside of this cake is, the cake has two layers of soft sponge cake, chopped lychee, raspberries, and rose-flavored mascarpone mousse.

I wanted to try new chocolate decorating, so here it is. Not too bad I think for variation ;). Although working with chocolate has never been my favorite thing to do, this one is surprisingly quick to do.

What's up with the different roses, you wonder? Well, I wanted to put one rose on the edge of the cake. Not wanting to spend $5 on a single rose, only to be thrown away the day after, I found that the rose plant in the garden has a white rose blooming, not too big. I figured I can always trimmed the outer petals to make it smaller. So, I waited until early Sunday morning. When I put it on the cake, the rose looked awkwardly big for such a small cake. So, 3 minutes before I was going to pack everything in the car, I changed my mind. I ran outside in the front backyard to cut one mini rose. I was actually looking for the soft pink one, but none of them were good in shape. So, I just had to make do with the red one. Not sure if I made the right decision to change the rose. I always like white or soft/pale pink roses rather than red roses.

As usual, I didn't have much time (actually, I didn't have time at all) to decorate it further. I thought it could have been better with something else, like a writing or something. The red rose looks a little lonely up there :(. But oh well, I hope they're happy with it.

Pandan Chiffon Cakes

I've been making this cake a couple of times for the past two weeks for friends. This weekend, made two different chiffons, the plain and the cheese version. The plain is for a friend for his breakfast everyday for a week. He's been making it very clear all this time that this is one of his most favorite cakes :)

The cheese version however, was a last-minute request. While I was enjoying my dinner while watching TV on Saturday night, my brother called to see if I had time to make a cheese-covered pandan chiffon cake for another person's birthday cake on Sunday morning! As much as I hate last-minute thing, I just couldn't say no. How can I? Besides, there was nobody at home at that time, so I can just whip up a chiffon cake quickly. 25 minutes later, the cake was already in the oven :). The longest part it cooling it upside down on the neck of a bottle. So, I let it sit overnight and decorate it early in the morning.

As always, this cake is always a crowd-pleaser. How can it not be with all those cheese? I'm just glad to see they devoured the cake really quickly with a face that you can definitely tell that it was yummy :)

Raspberry White Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

This is a birthday cake for my dearest two friends last night. One of the birthday boy actually requested this cake specifically. I tried to change his mind to pick something different, since I just made it two weeks ago for a wedding thing-y with black raspberry. But what can I say, he persisted :). I guess I should be happy that he likes it that much, huh?

On the black raspberry cake, I put the remaining black raspberry jelly on top of the second layer cake, then the white choc. cream cheese, then a clear glaze. This time, I put the white choc. cream on top of the second layer cake and mix the remaining raspberry jelly with some clear glaze for the red topping. And This time, I trimmed the cake, so that it'll show the nice pattern for the filling. It looks even better when it's cut, but I don't have the picture :(.

There was an accident in the making of this cake. I tried to take the cake out of the box to decorate it, but it was hard to open the side of the box without it touching the sides of the cake. So, I put a little pressure and before I knew it, my hand landed on the side of the cake. I immediately scream (not that loud though), and I couldn't realize what just happened. The cake had already set in the fridge overnight. I tried to fix it, but it's still noticeable, arrgghh..... You can probably tell which part from the picture :(

But I can smile afterwards because the cake was a huge hit at the birthday gathering. A lot of people had seconds last night. There's nothing more rewarding than knowing that people like what you made :)

Steamed Cheese Brownies

Yes, I know. Brownies mean chocolate, and there's nothing chocolaty here, especially if it's steamed, not baked!! Steamed cake brownies are really popular in Indonesia for the past couple of years (I just heard about it last year). The traditional flavor is chocolate of course, but people are so creative that they modify it to be cheese flavored, pandan flavored, anything you can imagine.

I made the chocolate version a couple of times before and they were good, especially for afternoon snack with a cup of tea or coffee. Usually, I would add a touch of rum inside the chocolate cake batter, and it makes it even better. But personally, I think it was no difference from a regular chocolate cake (the spongy one, not the fudgy), and I'm just okay with any kind of chocolate cake.

This time, I try to experiment with cheese flavor, substituting this with that, add this instead of that, etc. I have never been a fan of any kind of steamed cake either. I just prefer the texture of baked cake better, rather than the steamed one. But steamed cheese brownie has been in my list for a while now. To satisfy my curiosity, I make it anyway. There are always people who'd be gladly eat this anytime :)

The result is quite satisfying. The texture is similar to a butter cake, but softer, and yet dense, just like how brownie should be.

Black Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake

First of all, that's a long name for a cake. I really should make a better and a more interesting name for all these cakes.

Today, two friends of mine are getting their civil wedding ceremony. The girl happens to work in the same company as I do. She only took a break for a couple of hours for the ceremony and lunch, then she was back at the office. I was planning to surprise her with a little gathering with some coworkers that she usually interacts with to share the happiness.

Of course the 'party' wouldn't be complete without a cake, don't you think? I was thinking of using this opportunity to experiment with a new cake flavor and combination, but then I changed my mind. I don't want my coworkers to taste my 'experiment' cake, that I didn't know how it will turn out. So I decided to play it safe and just make a cake that I already familiar with, but also taste great of course. My decision came down to raspberry and white chocolate cream cheese cake. I made this cake four times before (one of them was blueberry though). Now see, I would never make the same cake twice if I didn't think it's good.

Strangely, two Trader Joe's I visited, didn't have frozen red raspberry at that time and I didn't want to make another special trip just to find this. Before I left the store,I saw frozen black raspberry instead! I thought, what the heck, the taste would be the same anyway, it's just the color. And I thought the color would be pretty too. The color is very dark purple, almost black. Actually, it looks like a small blackberry, but this one is hollow.

Now, black raspberry is very high in anthocyanins, which is rich in antioxidants. We know that antioxidant is very useful to prevent cancer. People also use it for natural dye due to the rich and deep color.

When I started making the black raspberry jelly for one of the fillings, I realize that the taste is so different. You can definitely tell that it's not red raspberry if you were to have a blind taste test. The color is so deep that it stains my hand.

I wasn't actually satisfied with the final product. I used two 9 inch square pan for one layer and put it side by side, making the overall size to be 9x18, which I think is a little odd. two 10-in should be better instead of 9-in. And I think I put too much gelatin for the jelly, making it thicker than what I wanted. I think I forgot to change my recipe the last time I made this cake. You see, even though this is the fifth time making this cake, there's always something that needs to be modified. It's just never perfect, but I hope this is going to be the last time I modify it though.

The filling and components are still the same. It has two layers of soft cotton sponge cake. The deep purple color is black raspberry jelly that I made using the puree and added a little Chambord (black raspberry liqueur). The white filling is white chocolate cream cheese cream. The method is similar to whipped ganache, but this one doesn't have the air or lightness because of the addition of cream cheese. It's actually very creamy, without being heavy at all.

Usually after the cake is assembled and let refrigerated, I would cut all four sides to show the beautiful stripe pattern of the filling, but I didn't cut it enough to show it. I didn't want to cut it too much because I was afraid that the cake would not be enough for everybody :(.

Also, I really didn't know how to decorate some sort of sheet cake like this. There's just too much surface area to cover and you know that I'm not good with creative decoration (I'm working on it though). So, I just wrote "congratulations" with melted chocolate (and I wasn't happy with it either, it's not neat). I left the cake with the writing until the morning before I had to take it. So, I just grabbed some strawberries and frozen blueberries, and some mint leaves. You can never go wrong with berry decoration. The bright color will give you that "oohhh...aaahhhh..." thing.

The cake was gone in no time. Almost every single person who eat it or look at the cake, asked me if I made the cake (most of them doesn't know that I make cakes) and I'm so glad that everybody loved it. They kept saying how good the cake was ....... See, I'm not good with a lot of appraisal like that. So, I think my cheek was blushing the whole time.

I'm so glad that I found black raspberry. I think I would stock a couple of bags in my freezer as it's not always available. It would be awesome in mousse, bavarian cream, compote, charlotte, aahhhhhhh...........I'm too excited. Imagine how wonderful the color would be. I just can't wait :)