Heart Shape Birthday Cake

This cake is specially made for my friend whose parents were celebrating their birthday together.  They are well into their eighties and as both of them do not know their actual birth date since it is not stated on their birth documents, they decided to pick the same date for their birthday.  Aww.....this is such a sweet and loving gesture. 

This cake really surprised me, seeing as I'm not actually psychic enough to know the outcome beforehand. Thanks to my friend who knows exactly what she wanted for her parents' birthday cake, she made my job all the more easier. 

I recieved an SMS regarding the cake 3 days before DD (delivery date). I honestly didn't think I was gonna pull it off.  However, she told me it was going to be a simple cake and there was nothing to stress over. How could I say no? I did not regret at all.

Isn't it amazing how two people can be together up till their 80's? The compromising, the arguements... Love truly does conquer all.

Thanks to Yin Yee who knew exactly what she wanted.  This orange poppyseed cake was simple yet elegantly designed with buttercream roses and shell borders.  Btw, the wordings were provided by Yin Yee in English and I got someone to pen them down in Mandarin as my Mandarin is half past six.

Choc-cheese Brownies

My pile of work is yelling out to me. I am all stressed out.  The weather is no better.  It has been raining cats and dogs for many days now.  I needed a break, I needed to bake something to distress.  The next thing that came to my mind is this superb choc-cheese brownies. 

Choc-cheese Brownies

For brownies
125g butter
125g dark chocolate
175g castor sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
120g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

For cheese topping
250g cream cheese
1 large egg
50g castor sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

1.  Melt butter and chocolate in the microwave oven or over a pot of boiling water.
2.  Leave to cool slightly and stir in sugar and vanilla essence.
3.  Then stir in eggs, one at a time until well combined.
4.  Fold in sifted flour and baking powder.
5.  Pour into an 8 inch square pan.
6.  Drop spoonful of topping onto the brownies mixture.
7.  Run a knife through the mixture to give the swirl effect.
8.  Bake at 180C for 30 to 35 mins.

Cheese Topping
Beat cream cheese, egg, castor sugar and lemon juice until smooth.

Golfer's Cake

This is one of the few cakes that I thoroughly enjoy making.  This cake brought back memories of my early golfing days with hubby.  Hubby spent endless weekends try to get me interested in golf even though I am hopeless at sports.  Eventually he gave up coz' chasing a ball under the hot sun wasn't my cup of tea.

I can never forget my most embarrass moment on the golf course.  Being a first timer on the golf course, I was thrilled.  Thought I could finally joining the golfing club.  But my dream shattered when I miss the ball at tee-off.  And that was last straw since then I did not play any golf anymore.

Back to this cake, this is a cake requested by my friend for her ardent golfer hubby.  Instead of the usual golf bag and clubs, I though a landscape of golf course would be a good change.

This is an orange poppy seed cake covered with buttercream.

Homemade Granola

Do you face the problem of not knowing what to do with leftover, especially dried fruits and nuts?  It could be a few pieces of pecan nut from the pecan pie you baked or dried fruits from the Christmas cake you baked.

I often encounter this problem; a handful of raisins or a tablespoon of cranberries or a few nuts from the previous bake.  As these leftovers are often not enough for the next recipe and to buy somemore would mean there will still be some leftovers. 

I recently found the solution to my problem - Homemade Granola.  This recipe not only solved my problem but also provided a healthier breakfast in comparison to store bought cereal that is full of sugar.  Besides that, granola is a much healthier snack as opposed to potato chips, chocolate and candies; just to name a few.

  

Granola make a wholesome breakfast when served with cold milk.  These can also be used as topping for ice-cream or yoghurt. 

Homemade Granola

(adapted from Joy of Baking)

Ingredients

3 cups old fashion roll oats

1/2 cup almonds, chopped (or any nuts of your choice)

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp corn oil

1/2 cup maple syrup (or 1/4 cup maple syrup plus 1/4 cup honey)

1 cup raisins (or any dried fruits of your choice)

1.  In a large bowl, pour in all the dry ingredients except the raisins. 

2.  Give the mixture a good stir then pour in corn oil and syrup.
3.  Toss together, making sure all the dry ingredients are coated with the liquid.
4.  Spread onto a lined baking pan measuring 9" x 13".
5.  Bake at 170C for about 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally to ensure mixture browns evenly. (The browner the granola gets (without burning) the crunchier the granola will be.)
6.  Leave to cool before mixing in the raisins.

Note
(i) The granola will still be soft and sticky when removed from the oven but it will become crisp and dry as it cools. Stir while it is still warm to break up any large clumps.  Once the granola has completely cooled, store in airtight container.
(ii) The raisins and nuts can be replaced with dried fruits and nuts of your choice.

Pineapple Cup Tarts

If you are like me, love pineapple tarts (rolls) but hate to go through the motion carefully rolling each pineapple roll.  Here is the solution - Pineapple Cup Tarts. 

I found this recipe in Betty Saw's Cookies Galore.  Not only is this easy to make but looks pretty, too.

Pineapple Cup Tart

 Ingredients
250g butter
120g icing sugar
250g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
pineapple jam - rolled 1/2 tsp each into balls

1.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
2.  Fold in the flour and fill a piping bag fitted with large star nozzle.
3.  Pipe rosette into small paper cups and place pineapple balls in the centre.
4.  Bake at 170C for 20 mins.
5.  Cool and serve.

Chicken Varuval

In Malaysia, we are fortunate to have a variety of Indian food.  Besides having large restaurants that serves a banquet of Indian food, there are also many smaller Mamak (Indian Muslim) eateries that serve paratha and a variety of light snacks.  Amongst all the Indian food, my favorite dish is Chicken Varuval.  The chicken is full of flavour from the spices used in cooking this dish.

I have wanted to cook this dish for as long as I can remember.  But I feel intimidated when it comes to cooking with spices.  I have very little knowledge of spices and do not know how to use them to enhance and compliment the flavour of a dish.

Recently a friend of mine, Veron from Frigglive came to my rescue.  She not only shared with me her recipe for Chicken Varuval but also cook some for us to savour.  It was scrumptious.  Below is the recipe from Veron.

Chicken Varuval
Ingredients
3 chicken maryland, chopped into bite size
2 stick cinnamon, 1.5 inch each
3 cardamons
4 cloves
2 star anise
1 bombay onion, sliced
1 sprig curry leaf
2 medium size potato, cubed
2 medium size tomato, cubed
1/4 cup of green peas
3 tbsp curry powder (I used Baba curry powder for meat)
4 tbsp chilli paste or chilli powder
1/2 cup water
Approx 1/4 cup of cooking oil
Salt and sugar to taste

Blend together and mix with curry powder and chilli paste/powder
1 bombay onion
2 cm ginger root
3 pips garlic

1.  Heat oil in wok and saute the spices; cinnamon sticks, cardamons, star anise, cloves and curry leaves until fragrant.
2.  Add in sliced onion and saute for 1 minute.
3.  Then pour in the blended ingredients and fry until the oil slightly separated from the curry mixture.
4.  Stir in chicken, potatoes and tomatoes and give it a good stir.  Cover the wok and turn the heat down and allow chicken to cook for 2 minutes, stirring every now and then.
5.  Add in water and let the chicken continue cooking till the meat is tender. REMEMBER to stir the chicken every now and then.  This is to ensure the chicken don't get burnt.  More water, a little at a time may be added if the liquid dried up too fast.  
6.  Once the chicken is cooked, stir in the green pea and heat through.
7.  Serve with either rice or roti paratha/canai.

Superman Cake for Fathers' Day

This is the Fathers' Day cake that I baked for Fathers' Day celebration in church.  What could be more ebb than a Superman cake for Fathers' Day.  This Superman image of fathers stem from the close relationship that I shared with my dad.  He is my Superman as he has always been there to share my problem, give advice and provide support in time of need. 

This is a chocolate marble cake decorated with buttercream.  The Superman image is a pre-printed image on sugar paste which I bought from the baking supply shop.

On a separate note, I didn't realised that I have been away from the blog sphere for such a long time.  A check on my last post showed that it has been more than a month since I last posted on my blog.  My work has taken over a large part of my life.  It is times like this that I wish that I am old enough to retire and concentrate on things that I love to do.  There are tons and tons of things that I have in mind to do when I retire but the top of my list is to try out all the recipe books that I have collected over the years..... 

Financier or Friand??

I was surfing the Internet looking for ways to use up the leftover egg whites and chanced upon this recipe.  Some called it Financier while others called it Friand. 
The pineapple rolls I baked for Chinese New Year left me with lots of egg white.  I have been keeping them in the in the freezer till now.  I was told that egg whites can be safely freeze up to 3 months.  As the end of 3rd month is fast approaching, I thought I better find ways to use them.  That's when I came across these two petite cake recipes that called for the use of only egg white. 

Both the recipes are quite similar although both bearing different names.  One is called Financier and the other is Friand.  This is what I found when I do a search on Wikipedia.

A financier is a small French cake, often mistaken for a pastry. The financier is a light teacake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The basis of the cake itself is beurre noisette (brown butter), egg whites, powdered sugar and flour. Financiers are often baked in shaped molds. The name "financier" is said to derive from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Another theory says that the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris surrounding La Bourse du Commerce (the former name of the Paris stock exchange).


Financiers are often served topped with whipped cream, berries, or other fruit, and served accompanied by ice cream or other frozen confections. Financier pans are traditionally rectangular; however, other shapes are not uncommon. Financiers are somewhat similar to madeleines.

The friand pastry, which has become popular in Australia and New Zealand appears to have been based on the French financier; however, Australian and New Zealand friands typically have additional flavorings such as coconut, chocolate, fruit, and nuts. Australian / New Zealand friands are also baked in oval shapes.


Since both seems to be quite similar I decided to use the following recipe.

Blueberry Friand

Ingredients
90g egg white (3 egg whites)
90g ground almond
30g plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
90g butter, melted
some blueberry filing for topping


1.  Sift together flour, ground almond and icing sugar. 
2.  Lightly whisk egg white until frothy.
3.  Stir in melted butter.
4.  Fold in sifted flour, ground almond and icing sugar.
5.  Fill mini cupcake tin half full with batter then top with 1/2 tsp of blueberry filing.
5.  Baked in oven preheated to 180C for 15 to 20 minutes.
6.  Cool completely before dusting with icing sugar.

In conclusion, the name of this little cake is immaterial when the taste speaks volume of itself.......

Chocolate Whisky Cake

Couple of weeks ago, on one fine Sunday afternoon hubby annouced that we have been invited for a birthday dinner.  The second part to the annoucement is, hubby has also told the organiser that we will be bring a cake for the birthday boy.  The birthday boy is non other than one of our home fellowship members, Nathaeniel. 

Though I love to bake for friends but 3 hours to dinner hardly give me any time to purchase baking ingredient let alone bake a cake.  With no time to spare for shopping, I'll just have to make do with what I have in the fridge.

Fortunately, I always stock up butter, flour and eggs.  I also found a packet of cocoa powder at a desserted corner of my fridge.  With these limited ingredients, I baked a Chocolate Whisky Cake.  But to be technically correct this cake should be called Cocoa Whisky Cake instead of Chocolate Whisky Cake. 

When baking cake, I usually used the fan force setting.  Though this function baked 2 trays of cupcakes evenly without having to swap midway of baking but it causes my large cakes to crack on the top.  I was told that for large cakes, I should use the top and bottom heating element setting instead.  If you have a secret to avoid cracked cake, please share with me.

Chocolate Whisky Cake

Ingredients
200g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
250g butter
4 eggs
180g castor sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp whisky

1.  Cream butter and sugar till pale and fluffy.
2.  Add in eggs, one at a time and mix well after each addition.
3.  Fold in sifted plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
4.  Stir in whisky.
5.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 170C for 45 minutes.

Popovers

It is amazing how a flat pancake batter can puffed up so high under tremendous high temperature.  This is the science of cooking which I find difficult to comprehend. 

Popovers are but a pancake batter baked on high heat. The high heat forced the batter to puff up and that's when you get popovers.

Popovers are usually served with the cordiment served with pancakes such as butter, honey and jam.  But that doesn't mean you can serve them with a stew or even curry. 

Popovers
(recipe adapted from Julia Child)

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup full cream milk
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
2 tbsp corn oil 


1.  Sift dry ingredient into a mixing bowl.
2.  Make a well in the centre and pour in milk, egg and oil.
3.  Mix all the ingredients together using a whisk.
4.  Strain the batter if it is lumpy.
5.  Pour batter half full into lightly greased muffin pan or paper cups.
6.  Bake in oven pre-heated to 220C for 15 to 20 minutes until the popovers are puffed.
7.  Reduce oven tempreture to 180C and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes.
8.  Serve immediately or risk loosing their puffinest.

Note
1.  Do not open the oven door until popovers are puffed up.
2.  Popovers are at their puffiest and tasted best right out of the oven.

Boiled Fruit Cake

Fruit cake often reminds me of the festive celebration of Christmas; the need to plan in advance.  From buying of gifts to what cookies to bake and who to invite for Christmas dinner.  Preparation of fruit cake is the same.  The dried fruit need to be soaked in liquer for days, baked for hours and days of waiting in anticipation for the cake to mature.

But there is this fruit cake that can be prepared and baked within hours.  This is non other than boiled fruit cake.  The difference between boiled fruit cake and baked fruit cake is, instead of soaking the fruits in liquer to soften they are boiled in water.  Besides that, boiled fruit cake can be consumed immediately, no waiting time is required. 

Though boiled fruit cake doesn't keep as well baked fruit cake, there is no compromise inthe taste.  In fact, I prefer boiled fruit cake as the liquid that the fruits are boiled in further enhance the flavour of the cake.  To give the cake a kick, I added rum.  Rum and dried fruits seems to pair so well that you can tell usually tell when one is missing from the other in a fruit cake.

Boiled Fruit Cake

Ingredients
(A)
500g mixed fruit
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
250g butter

(B)
3 cups plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
3 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup rum (optional)
4 eggs

1.  Bring ingredients (A) to boil and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes and leave to cool completely.
2.  Add in rum, if using.
3.  Stir in beaten eggs.
4.  Fold in ingredient (B) that have been sifted.
5.  Pour into baking pan lined with greased proof paper.
5.  Bake in oven preheated to 180C for 45 to 55 mins or until skew comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

Note
1.  Rum can be replaced with brandy.
2.  I used two 3.5 inch by 8 inch baking pan.
3.  The fruit can be increased to 750g if desired.

Wedding Cake Demo @ Cilantro

 When Dave of Frigglive informed me that there will be a wedding cake decoration demonstration in Cilantro Culinary Academy on 3rd April 2010, I was thrilled. I have been decorating cakes for awhile now but lack the courage to attempt wedding cakes. I need to booze my confidence and hopefully by seeing how it is done will help.

Cilantro Culinary Academy is culinary school providing professional skills and vocational training in Culinary Arts at Foundation, Diploma and Advanced Diploma levels. Housed in a 4 storey shop lots, this culinary school is located at USJ Sentral in Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Ms. Suzy Teh, the Marketing Executive was already there to meet us when Veron from Frigglive and I arrive. The wedding cake decoration demonstration was scheduled for 4.00pm. Since it was still early, Suzy gave us a short tour of their kitchens. The kitchens were impressive with well equipped facilities and gadgets, besides looking sparking clean. She even introduced us to some cute looking chefs.

When we got to the cake decoration demo kitchen, the session had already started. The chef was working on covering the last tier of the wedding cake with fondant. The wedding cake consists of 3 tiers measuring 18, 14 and 10 inches respectively.

After covering the cake with fondant, she proceeded to colour a small portion of royal icing with green and another portion with pink. The royal icing was made by stirring egg white with icing sugar. She also demonstrated to the audience how to fold a triangle paper into a piping bag before filling them with royal icing.

Once she started piping on the cake, there was no turning back. She just went on and on from one motif to another. Her piping skill was excellent and her work is so tidy and neat. The 3 cakes were decorated with frills, flowers, leaves and etc in no time.

Within an hour, she completed the decoration of all the 3 cakes. Then she cleverly stacked the cakes up with wine glasses. This make the wedding cake looked so elegant.

She puts on the final touch with store bought flowers made from gum paste.

I had a great time and managed to pick up some pointers from this demo. Besides that, we were given a goodie bag each with discount vouchers and also a piece of Cilantro’s signature Sesame Cake. The Sesame Cake tasted yummy.

Cilantro Culinary Academy is located at:-
No, 1-1, Jalan USJ Sentral3
USJ Sentral
47600 Subang Jaya
Selangor
Tel. +603-8023 0555

Butter Cookies

There are some cookies that never get out of season when it comes to Chinese New Year. One of them is the faithful peanut cookies that appear in many household year in year out.  The other cookies that have the same good fortune is Butter Cookies. 

Who can resist a sweet buttery cookie with its melt in the mouth texture.  Butter Cookies are easy to fix up.  All you need is flour, icing sugar and of course butter.  As the key ingredient is butter, a good quality butter will make a difference.  After my terrible encounter with Anchor Butter (in my previous post), I decided to use SCS butter for these Butter Cookies.  And they tasted heavenly. 

Butter Cookies

Ingredients

250g butter

70g icing sugar

200g plain flour

50g corn flour

1.  Cream butter and icing sugar till slightly pale.

2.  Fold in sifted plain flour and corn flour.

3.  Fill a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.

4.  Pipe cookies on lined baking tray.

5.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 170C for approximately 15 minutes.

Note - Cookies should not be golden brown but be slightly pale in colour after baking.

Raisin Cupcakes

What is the next most appealing snack for tea time besides scones?  It has to be butter cakes.  For me, tea is incomplete untill or unless scones or cupcakes is served.  The aroma of coffee mingled with butter in the air is what makes tea time so appealing.  I often wonder why it is still referred to as Tea Time when in most instances coffee's presence is more prominent in comparison to tea.

To make good scones and butter cake, you need good quality butter.  But sad to say that the butter that I relied upon all these years for tasty scones and butter cakes have failed miserably.  The butter I am talking about is Anchor Butter. 

The recent batch of Anchor Butter that I bought is of such inferior quality.  Instead of thawing at room temperature, it literally melts down.  No, I am not joking.  It MELTs so badly that when I cream the butter and sugar together, the mixture liquidate instead of turning into a glorious fluffy mixture. It appears that the butter has more oil than milk solids.  I am not being bias, there are some members of the Malaysian Cake Decorators Club who also faced the same problem.

So, it was time for me to move on and switch to another brand of butter.  The switch was a sad moment as I have been an ardent fan of Anchor Butter since it was introduced in Malaysia way back in the 1980s.  It was known as Fern Butter then and it only cost RM1.79 per block of 250 grams. 

Whatever the change may be, life goes on.  Except, what am I supposed to do with the 30 odd remaining blocks of Anchor Butter sitting in my fridge....(sigh).

Raisin Cupcakes

Ingredients

250g good quality butter

170g castor sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

250g self raising flour, sifted

80g raisins

1.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence till smooth and fluffy.

2.  Beat in eggs, one at a time until well mixed.

3.  Fold in flour and raisins.

4.  Using an ice-cream scoop, scoop batter into papercups.

5.  Drop a few more raisin on top of the batter.

6.  Bake at 170C for between 15 and 20 minutes.

Green Pea Cookies

Another type of cookie that is easy to put together is Green Pea cookies.  I have never heard of Green Pea Cookie until last year.  All of a sudden, almost all the household I visited during CNY last year served these cookies.  Subsequently I found out that this recipe came from Alan Ooi's New Year Cookies cookbook.  

These cookies are slightly different from the usual cookies that are sweet and loaded with sugar.  The green colour of these cookies also make them stand out when serve amongst the usual pale looking cookies.  On top of that, the salt in the cookies contributed to the unique flavour of salty-sweetness. 

The green peas used for this recipe have been pre-fried and milled.  This is available from speciality shops that sell products used for baking. 

Green Pea Cookies

Ingredients

130g green pea flour*

100g icing sugar

1/4 tsp salt

150g plain flour

100ml groundnut oil (peanut oil)

Sift flour, salt and icing sugar into a mixing bowl.  Then slowly stir in groundnut oil.

While stiring, bring mixture together to form a dough. I prefer to do this using my hands.

Roll dough between 2 plastic sheets to 0.5cm thickness. Cut dough to desired shapes using a cookie cutter.

Arrange cookies on lined baking tray and bake at 170C for 10-15 minutes.

Cookies should not be brown but slightly pale in colour after baking.

*If green pea flour is not available, replace it with ready fried green peas available from supermarket.  But mill the green pea finely before usage. 

Chinese New Year Celebration

Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival was celebrated on 14 February 2010 this year. This is the most important celebration amongst the Chinese. It is also commonly known as Chinese New Year in Malaysia. Chinese New Year festival begins on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar and ends on the fifteenth day. The fifteenth day is called Chap Goh Mei.


Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions.

Preparation for Chinese New Year includes thorough cleaning of the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hope of making way for incoming good fortune. Decorating the house with ornaments that signify happiness, properity, wealth and longevity. Shopping for new clothes to start the new year and preparation of food stuff.

The most significant event is the reunion dinner held on the eve of Chinese New Year. An elaborate meal serving all sorts of meat, seafood and vegetable is prepared to be shared with the entire family. Family members travel from near and far to just to partake in this last meal of the year.

The Chinese New Year day starts with children wishing their parents a healthy and happy new year. In return, the children are given money in red paper envelopes, called angpow. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

Wishing all my friends "Gong Xi Fa Cai"

Almond Cookies

The couple of weeks before Chinese New Year is a crazy baking time for me.  With a 9 to 6 job, I only get to bake either on weekends or on week nights.  There aren't many weekend to consider if you wanna have freshly baked cookies.  So the next alternative is to bake on week nighs after work.  As I finish work quite late usually around 8pm, I can only start baking at 9pm and often finished off past mid night.  Though tired but the joy of seeing cute delectable cookies that melt in the mouth is indescribable.  This is one of them; Almond Cookes.  This recipe is adapted from Alan Ooi's New Year Cookies cookbook.


Ingredients
125gm ground almond
180g plain flour
100g icing sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
130ml corn oil

Egg Glace
1 egg yolk

1.  Sift ground almond, plain flour, icing sugar, baking powder and baking soda into a mixing bowl.
2.  Make a well in the centre of flour mixture and gradually stir in the corn oil.
3.  Combine ingredients together to form a dough.
4.  Scoop level teaspoon of dough and roll them into balls.
5.  Dot the centre of balls with egg glace using the round end of a chopstick.
6.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 170C for approx. 15 minutes.
7.  Let cookies cool completely before packing them into container.

A Bed Of Roses

Year end not only a season for festive celebration for me but also many birthday celebrations.  Besides making hubby's birthday cake, I also make a birthday cake for my lady boss.  She is the first and only boss whom I share a close friendship with.  She loves all things pretty and she loves butter cake with buttercream icing.  What could be more pleasurable than baking for those who enjoy my cakes. 

Though a little late but better late than never.

Happy Birthday to you, Lynn.  May God grant you what your heart desires.

Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake

Last month was hubby's birthday and since sweet buttercream is not something he drool over.  I decided to make him something close to his heart; a cake make with chocolate.  

I came across this Steamed Moist Chocolate recipe some years ago when I first started serving the Internet for recipes.  I Immediately took down the recipe when I found out that this cake is steamed and not baked.  Although steam cake lack appealing in looks but it certainly make up for taste.  In the past I had tried steaming butter cake and it turn out to be delicious.   

Without any reservations on the cooking method, I proceeded to work on the cake.  Though this cake may not be as appealing in looks as other cakes that I have made but it certainly is delicious and hubby can vouch for it. 

Cake

150g unsalted butter
170g fine sugar
200ml evaporated milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125g plain flour
70g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1.  Fill steamer with enough water and bring to boil.
2.  Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter and cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
3.  Stir in beaten eggs.
4.  Place sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.
5.  Stir egg mixture into flour and mix well.
6.  Pour mixture into a greased 8 inch round baking pan and loosely cover pan with a piece of aluminum foil.
7.  Steam over medium heat for 45 minutes.
8.  Check if cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake. If skewer comes out clean, it’s cooked. If not, steam for a further 5 minutes.
9.  Cool cake in pan before turning out for frosting.


Chocolate Fudge
35g cocoa powder, sifted
50gm corn flour, sifted
1 cup evaporated milk
2 egg yolks
175ml water
120g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter


1. Place all ingredients (except the butter) in a bowl and cook over a pan of boiling water until mixture thicken.
2. Remove fudge from heat and stir in butter.
3.  Leave fudge to cool slightly before pouring over cake.
4. Chill the cake in the fridge before serving.

Upright Bear Cake

While the whole world is busy preparing for Christmas on Christmas Eve, I was busy making this cake for a friend's daughter. Not that I am complaining, in fact I rather enjoy spending a day away from work just indulging in what I love most.....baking and decorating cakes. I can't explain how but the squeezing of piping bag does help me to relax.

This cake has a round base with a bear and 2 doggies sitting on it. The round base cake is baked using a 10in round pan while the bear is cake baked using a bear mould. The bear is attached to the cake using spagetti. The 2 doggies are made of fondant. The biggest challenge in decorating this cake piping on the upright bear. As the piping has to be done at 90 degrease, the icing does not stick properly on to the cake.