::Happy BirthDaY::

!   !   !   !  Happy Birthday to YOU !  !  !  !

I somehow didn't buy enough cream to make the frosting, so I couldn't decorate it too much.  Not a very grand cake, but he didn't care as long as he had cake on his birthday.

And I still have yet learn how to write neatly on a birthday cake.  So hard to do with chocolate frosting.. But it's something I must learn to do!

Happy Birthday, cowboy

Going back to what I love doing ^-^*

That's baking!

And baking for people that I love.  I'll be baking, making, and creating some (hopefully) very good cakes, sweets, and savories, and whatever is on my mind that day.

And I'll be sharing them all with you!

The picture above is the last strawberry sponge cake that I made.  I ended this blog with a slice of it, so now I'm going to pick up where I left off.  Giving you a whole cake 6 months later.

Enjoy, and hope you'll continue to read!

Thanksgiving Pizza?

Another one of my odd pizza creations.  My first Thanksgiving pizza! Why not?  Since I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat turkey and the same o' Thanksgiving sides do seem kinda boring... Hence, pizza with Thanksgiving toppings is awesome!  They are awesome in general. ^_^

Squash, feta, caramelized onions, chive pizza?

Or... Squash, feta, caramelized onions, chive, and dried cranberries pizza?

I like the first one better!  Without cranberries!  The squash was good in its own way, but I think cranberries would be better with  a sweet potato pizza for Thanksgiving.  Sweet potatoes are sweeter, so they can contrast better to the sour taste of cranberries.

This will be what I'm making this upcoming Thanksgiving!

What's that cake?

This was Cake X!  It's not a mystery cake anymore, but it was one that I contemplated in making for someone's birthday.  The name of this cake is Mille Feuille Crêpes Cake.  Mille Feuille means thousand layers.

The cake is simply layers and layers (21 of them, specifically) of sweet and soft crepe, with sweet vanilla pastry cream sandwiched in between each.  I decided to play with the flavors a bit by adding fresh slices of strawberry between every five layers of crepe.

This was my first time making a crepe cake, so I was quite afraid that it would turn out very badly.  But hey, a cake's a cake.  Julia Child once said, "the grand thing about cooking is you can eat your mistakes."  And I concur.

In NYC, there is a bakery named Lady M, and its signature dessert is a Mille Crepe Cake.  People have swoon over this bakery, and truthfully, I'm very interested in trying it too.  But since I'm not in NYC, and at $40 for a 6" cake, I think my mille feuille crepe cake tasted pretty darn good too, even if I need more practice making it. ^-^  

If you are interested in making this cake too, then here is the recipe.  It is fun and easy to make; however, time consuming.  Try it out if you have time, and the best part is you don't even have to turn on the oven on a hot summer day.  The recipe also called for making the crepe batter and pastry cream the day before serving the cake.  Yay for do-ahead prep work!

So why didn't I go with this cake, instead of the normal sponge cake for the birthday cake?  Because I didn't really know how to frost it to make it nice and grand.  Also, I  didn't really want to frost it because you wouldn't be able to see the layers and layers of crepes.  This is more of a casual cake.

At least my little nieces and nephews got to enjoy a test run of someone's b-day cake!  ^o^

Happy Birthday to Chi!

Happy Birthday!  Happy Happy Birthday to you!

3> 100% Homemade from PinkCat's Bakery! <3

Lessons learned from this cake baking experience:  

A.  TRY to sketch out a plan for what the cake will look like.  Don't try to come up with the design last minute as you are assembling the cake together, because the mind will just go blank.  (Like mine did! And I tried to think and think and think....)

B.  If you want to do some handmade chocolate design, then it's best to do it ahead of time.  You need time for the chocolate to harden up again.  

C.  Don't know if anyone tasted the difference, but I whipped my frosting with sweetened condensed milk instead of powdered sugar.  I think it's actually better, because sugar is kind if flat tasting.  I'll try that again next time.

D.  To make fruits shiny, just brush them with a simple fruit glaze.  That is a ratio of one part raspberry or strawberry jam to one part water (or half water and half liqueur).  See recipe here.  These are just minor details, but it does make a cake more attractive, even if you make it hours ahead.  The fruits are not going to look dried up from being in the fridge.

My only disappointment with this cake was that it was not very orangey.  I think I got a bad orange!  I used the zest of one orange just like the last time I made it, but it wasn't as fragrant...  

Sponge cakes can sometimes be plain, which is why I thought of making a different kind of cake for this birthday.  I happened to do a test run of this other cake (Cake X) when my nephews and nieces came over.   They liked it, but I didn't so much.  Maybe I'll give Cake X another chance, since I still have left over creams and fruits in my fridge right now.

I'll tell you more about it in the upcoming post!

Happy Happy Cake!

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday!  Someone got a Hana-made cake recently!

However, too bad this time, my whipped cream melted after being refrigerated for a few hours.  I still don't understand why.  That's why the frosting is bad looking. :(    Oh well, it looks like a pillowy cloud of cakey goodness!

Cake: scented with the zest of an orange.

Filling: strawberries, whipped cream, and shaved chocolate.

What I did differently this time:  This is a 3-layer cake!  The cake to filling ratio is much better; and hence, yummier!  Really!  :D  Also, the chocolate icing is mixed with coconut milk instead of regular milk or cream.  I tasted the icing, and just wanted to drizzle that all over an ice cream sundae.  

Maybe my next cake will be a coconut cake with chocolate coconut icing.  Mmm... I'm gonna dream of that tonight.

Braised pineapple chicken

How do you select a pineapple? And how do you tell if it's ripe and ready to use? You sniff it! If it has the sweet smell of pineapple, then it's ready to use. When you buy it in the store, it's probably not ready to be eaten, so just store it in a cool and dry place for a few days.

Pineapples are one of those fruits that will continue to ripe after being cut off from the tree. Well, not really. Pineapples don't grow on pineapple trees,, but on short bushes about two feet tall.

If you must... then use canned pineapples. If not, then definitely go the fresh route. It doesn't take much work to slice into one. There are recipes for orange chicken, so there's nothing strange about chicken 'n pineapples together. ^-^

Rice Cooker Banana Cake

You've heard of people baking bread, chocolate cake, brownies, etc. in the rice cooker, right? I've been really intrigued with this method for a while now, so I decided to test it out. I actually baked this banana cake in a rice cooker.

This is just a regular whole wheat banana bread recipe that I like, but I adjusted it by adding some yogurt to make it more moist. To be honest, this experiment was not entirely successful for me. I have 2 rice cookers in the kitchen currently, one for cooking brown rice (for myself who likes brown rice) and one for cooking white rice (for others who likes eating white rice) ^_^. One of the rice cooker is more modern, with a timer that you can set to cook congee or other things for an extended period of time, and the other rice cooker has only a switch for cooking and keeping warm.

Anyway, since the batter I made was way too much for rice cooker baking (the recipe was for regular baking in a loaf pan in the oven), I decided to divide the batter in half, one for each cooker, so that it'll bake faster.

This successful cake picture is from the modern rice cooker. And the one from the other cooker? Well, it was burnt (badly)! It was my fault actually. The switch from that rice cooker flipped from "cook" to "keep warm" after just 7 minutes! I didn't believe the cake was actually cooked, so to "override" the control button, I held down the switch by plugging in some paper towels. Very high tech. After a little while when I was cleaning up the kitchen mess, I smelled smoke... Wha??

Ahh, my burnt cake! :(

If you're wondering how I got the cake to be nicely caramelized like that in a rice cooker, it's because I put it under the broiler for 3-5 minutes after the baking. I think this saves more energy, because you're cooking in a smaller enclosed space, as opposed to heating up a big oven. Though, turning on the oven to bake on a cold winter day does make the house feel nice and cozy.

My Very Fiiiirrrsst Cake!

This was my first cake that I ever baked! Done last June '08. It is kind of a badly decorated because this was done without any decorating tools. But I put a lot of hours in to researching how to make the cake and lots more hours into making one. However, I remember it tasting very good because of the sweet strawberries during the summer.

I can make a cake faster and easier now than before when just starting out. What I'd like to do is expand my cake baking away from just strawberry sponge cakes, even though they're my most favorite kind. That is my cake plan for 2009!

I'm thinking... coffee flavored cake, caramel cake, mocha cake, pandan cake, opera cake, blueberry cake, checkerboard cake, etc. ^-^

Hurrying = Bad Cake Decorating

This was a birthday cake for my sister back in November. I was busy the whole day and didn't have much time to decorate the cake- no writing name, no candles, no pretty decorations... The peaches were also laid out half-thought through.

Overall, everyone loved it because the inside had a thick layer of durian. I used twice the amount of durian I'd normally use. Yum yum. Well, almost everyone. One of my nephews ran up afterward to put in a request for the next cake: NO durian. ^_^

My only disappointment was that the kiwis I bought did not ripe in time. They were still sour. I wish I had some sweet strawberries like in the summer. Le sigh...

Banana Nutella Cake

I love the combination of banana and Nutella. (I went through a phase of eating all nutella-banana sandwiches for breakfast and lunch one semester in college. But that's another story!)
So why not make a banana Nutella cake?

It was really hard to resist swirling in lots of Nutella because it's so good. I love eating through this cake- bits of crunchy walnuts, wonderful banana flavor and melty Nutella all through out.
This cake was topped with banana slices too, and as the cake baked, the bananas caramelized as well. When the cake was done baking, the top was not that brown, so I sprinkled on some sugar and put it back under the broiler for a minute or two. I love the crunchy sugary bits on top.

And each slice will get a piece of banana too!

Banana bread is one of my favorite things to bake because it makes the house smell so good! So if you need to freshen up your house, bake something! Don't use artificial Febreze! ^_^

(Not that my house smelled bad from durian or anything... :D )

Happy Birthday equals...

...Happy Cake Day! (According to my niece's thinking.)

I'm gonna sound old, but kids grow up so fast, don't they? I remember when she was just a newborn, and now she's starting school next year!

My niece told me the cake was so so yummy, and asked me to make her a happy birthday cake again tomorrow night. ^_^

I like making kids happy with cakes since I only got one cake ever for my birthday growing up. Cake cake cake! I'm the sweet cake auntie for the kids now.

One birthday, One cake- a strawberry sponge cake

Yes... another birthday cake. In fact, I'll be making yet another one next weekend too. ^_^

This cake came out so much better than the previous ones I've made! I think it's because I altered the ingredients slightly.

The recipe is still the same, except I used 110g of cake flour instead of 150g. The cake was softer. This time, I also whipped the eggs (both whites and yolks) longer, to incorporate more air into it. Whipping it on medium speed, rather than being extremely fast, will stabilize the air bubbles more... creating a more airy cake.

If you think making a whole cake one day is too labor intensive, then you can bake the sponge cake part the night before and wrap it in plastic wrap. All you gotta do the next day is whip up some whipped cream and decorate the cake. Happy cake eating!

Happy Birthday to Me!

There is nothing wrong with baking my own cake, and eating it too, darling!*

Filling: Fresh Champagne mangoes, and whipped cream.

Outside: Berries all around!

............................

Sadly, I didn't have any small candles to put on the cake. (But maybe the cake is better without melted wax on it.) I also didn't have time to make icing to write my name on it. :(

Durian Cake!!!!

Looks like a good strawberry cake, right?? But this is a durian cake!

Two layers of light sponge cake, sandwiching together a layer of durian mousse.

I filled it with durian, but you can use any seasonal fruits you like. Sweet strawberries would be awesome, or mangoes and kiwis too! Frost the cake with fresh whipped cream!


Chiffon Cake Base:
..............................

A) 4 egg yolks, 1/4 tsp salt, 50g sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 150g cake flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder,

75ml (0.3 Cup) corn oil, 110ml (0.4 Cup) water

B) 4 egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 50g sugar (equaling 100g sugar total, about 1/2 cup)

Method:

1. Sieve cake flour, baking powder together.
2. Mix egg yolks, salt, 40g sugar, vanilla extract well with a hand mixer. Mix well until pale in color, and egg yolks leave a ribbon.
3. Add into egg mixture corn oil and water.
4. Clean the beaters of the hand mixer. Whip egg whites in a clean mixing bowl until big bubbles are formed. Add in the cream of tartar and whip until white in color. Add in sugar over 3 times and whip until egg whites are stiff.
5. Stir the sieved flour into yolk mixture. Then pour 1/2 whipped egg white into yolk mixture and blend well.
6. Pour yolk mixture into the remaining egg white mixture and blend well. But be careful, not to deflate the batter.
7. Pour batter into a baking pan lined with parchment paper and sprayed with oil. Bake at (375F) for 45 minutes or until cooked.
8. Invert cake on a cooling rack and leave to cool. Then cut cooled cake into 2 or 3 layers.

Note: One cake pan- you bake 45 mins. However, if you divide the batter in 2 pans, then bake for around 22-23 mins. Careful not to dry out the cake.

Also, if you leave the inverted cake to cool on rack, then the domed top will level out. You will have an even flat top for decorating.