CNY Trial Bake #2 - Meringue Cookies

Had always shun off Meringue as I very scare to spoil the batter when beating egg whites. But I have eggs (too many of it) and dont know what to do with them. So when one hubby-less evening, I think I should had enuff time to do it. So i gave it a try.

Meringues are made from Egg Whites, so I presume its consider HEALTHIER choice for cookies.. But its the sugar .. -___-

Borrowed the recipe from The Baking Biatch - Meringue Roses .

The result was really good .. I hawk over the KA all thru the beating as I really scare to spoil the eggs whites ... *hehe*

 

The result .. Heavenly! ... Light !!! SWEET! .. haha .. anyway I will do it again .. and this time .. LESSER sugar.

Hopefully I get time to do a bit of this as CNY bakes. ^_^

CNY Trial Bake #1 - Bah Kwa Cookies (Adapted from Anncoo Jounal)

Xmas and CNY is only 1mth apart! .. I was contemplating not baking anything for CNY since i baked for Xmas already.

But I know there are some recipes that are not so difficult lah. So I decided to try out something Savoury for CNY this year as too much Sweets stuff around usually... A search online and i found this not so difficult recipe from Anncoo Journal - Bah Kwa Cookies.

Decided to give this a try .. so I headed to Bee Cheng Hiang to get some bah kwa and others .. hehe I have standby at home ...

Was worried that the cookies gonna taste weird as its still a sweet batter and now Bah Kwa will be added.

I bought the SPICY Bah Kwa hahahha .. so i was really keeping my fingers crossed that its going to turn out EDIBLE. hiak hiak ...

Anyway, the end result is really GOOD!!

Bakes for Christmas 2014 #2 - Awfully Chocolate Log Cake (very good review wor)

My last year's log cake (first time done without attending any classes), was very lousy in terms of taste and texture ... So this year, I told myself that I have to really make one GOOD one to redeem myself (which I had already done a few times lah) for the Co. Xmas Party in office.

I decided to give Chocolate another try .. I really dont do good with chocolate. But this time, surprisingly .. ITS A SUCCESS!!! .. Almost Awfully Chocolate .... ^_^ ... I am so pleased with myself when everyone who tried the cake TOT it was store bought. when the big bosses knew I bake it, they were all @_@ so surprised ... hehehe ..

 

 

 

 Swiss Roll

Ingredients:-
90gm Plain Flour and 10gm Cocoa Powder (Sifted together)
100gm Sugar
100gm Veg Oil
4 large Eggs

Method:-
- Grease and Line a 11 x 11 swiss roll pan and pre heat oven to 180degC
- Whisk Eggs and Sugar till 3 x volume (ribbon stage some called it)
- Fold in Flour (do not fully incorporate it)
- Pour in Oil and Fold till SHINY batter
- Pour batter into prepared pan and level it.
- bake in oven for 15mins or till toothpick test come out clean.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:-
250gm GOOD chocolate coverture (I used Valhorna 70%)
250ml Non Dairy Whipping Cream (I used Toppin Pride)
Rum if doing for Adults only.

Method:-
- Boil Whipping Cream
- Pour over Chocolate and hand whisk till fully melted evenly.
- Let it cool down till NUTELLA consistancy (spreadable consistancy)
- Spread and deco accordingly

FYI, this recipe can also be used for normal ROUND / SQUARE 8" cakes. ^_^ ..

Oh in the last photo in the background, u see NAMA Chocolate too!! .. hehehe .. which you can find the recipe also when u click HERE....

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!!



Bakes for Christmas 2014 #1 - Boozie Fruit Cakes - Adults ONLY ...

Sorry for not been posting updates lately... Its the HOLIDAYS man .. needed some therapy ... BAKING!! ... Recently did a few bakes which I am really very happy with.

First Up... XMAS!

Had done some Boozie Fruit Cakes as gifts (definately for Adults only) ... Did two version actually .. coz I had 1kg worth of fruits to use .. Used the whole bottle of Myer Rum for this ..

Took 1 week of soaking b4 I did my first batch of trial bakes ...

Very BOOZIE indeed .. I was worried too boozie so I didnt add additional Rum during baking. However, as per my office colleagues who tried this batch, they commented its too much .. er .. but who will hiam too much booze?!?! Anyway, my colleagues dont really keen on this cake. So i decided not to bake any more of this cake for them .. HAHAHA ... only a few who knows to appreciate bah..

Ultimately, I baked the 2nd batch with EXTRA booze added into the batter .. hahaha who cares when u get drank on Chirstmas day! Ho ho ho ...

I adapted the recipe from my baking teacher Mr Richard Goh's Stage 3 - Rich Fruit Cake. Its basically Buttercake recipe with Fruits (soaked in Booze) ...

This is not a kid friendly recipe .. so I am not going to upload here .. hehehe ...

Happy Cakes by Cheria

After my recent orders delivery to a few friends, I started to get enquiries from their friends on the cakes .. and my good neibie decided to start a FB page for me and my cakes .. took us a few days to come out with the right name ...

Finally decided on "Happy Cakes by Cheria"

Pls QR code above to go to my facebook page.

I welcome enquiries and as long as u give me advance notice for orders, I shld be able to make it for you.

This is my first bake after starting of my page.

Aiden 1st Bday Cake

So happen my good bro's boy's bday also falls in Nov. So we met up for dinner and i decided to bake a cake for the bday boy.

Abit messy .. but it was totally well received by the dinner guest ... ^_^ ...

Annebel's 1st Bday

I took up an order for a good gf's gal's 1st bday... order came in in Sept .. for delivery in Nov .. hahaa .. good lead time for me to think of ideas and prepare my stuff ..

The colors are firmed to be Pink and White .. as my usual colors for small gals ... ^_^ ..

Did a strawberry cake with marshmellow and cream deco .. Also included in on the table spread are 12 cake push pops.

 

Misc bakes ...

Did a few misc bake for office over the few mths that... will upload the recipe later .. but photo for u to drool on first .. hahaha ..

Banana Walnut Cake

 Japanese Cheesecake

 

Fantastic Banana Sponge Cake

Durian Cake for My Hubby's bday ...

Wanted to make durian cake for my hubby bday this year, and had done the MOUSSE cake first, however, i am sooooooooooo worried that the cake will be too dense (as the mousse is too wet) so i decided to do another cake with durian cream instead.

Hence, ended up with two cakes for my hubby.. the cream cake was the one that is used for celebration.. . and the mousse cake became a after dinner dessert later .. hahahaha ..

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR (belated post)

DOLL Cake for special gals ...

Sorry, had not been blogging lately .. quite bz with work and also distracted by other stuff ... *hahaha*

 I had done two birthday DOLL cake order for my friends ...

This was done for my neibie's niece ... she loves it!! ..

 

 

Did this bday table spread for my colleague's dotty's bday at the child care... the cake for the dress is a pink zebra cake .. i dont seems to be able to update the photo here .. anyway .. hehehe ..

 

150713 - Nama Chocolate 生チョコェトー

Recently saw a few gals in MFWL posting Nama Chocolate ... as you may know .. i am really not a chocolate person .. so didnt take notice of this ...

Till i tried the Royce Nama Chocolate from Japan, from my neibies .. i tot it was good .. not overly sweet .. comes abit bitter also ..

Anyway .. I had a 500g block of 60% cocoa butter coveture from RG .. so I decided to give it a try ..

A search online had yield a few different types of Nama Chocolate recipes .. but i noticed that one particular recipe was commonly used and tweeted .. so i decided to use this simple recipe for my virgin try ...

I took the recipe from this blog ...

Just One Cookbook - Nama Chocolate

I did a half recipe for a first try ..

Anyway .. the whole process is 45mins .. COZ i forgot to defrost my whipping cream .. so I spent 15mins defrosting my cream and chopping up the coverture ..

Recipe

200gm Coverture Chocolate (good quality - eg Valhorna will be good) - Grated / Chopped finely
100gm Toppin Pride Fresh Whipping Cream
Valhorna Cocoa Powder

Method

1. line ur pan / tray / bowl which u will use to mould ur chocolate with cling wrap or parchment paper  - flat and wide base is good
2. Heat Whipping Cream over stove till starting to boil (u start to see bubbles at the rim of the pot)
3. REMOVE from heat (very impt)
4. Throw in your chopped / grated chocolate. (by chopping finely / grating, it helps to melt the chocolate FASTER)
5. use a whisk and mix till all chocolate melted and no more lumps.
6. Pour into your mould pan and fridge till harden.

7. Cut your chocolate to cubes - soak your knife in hot water, clean off excess water and than cut. Wipe off the chocolate and repeat for every cut - thise will give u clean cuts every time
8. Coat each chooclate piece with Sifted Cocoa powder. ( I used a lock & lock container, sifted all my coocoa powder in and cover and toss till fully coated)

This is a VERY ez recipe..

I was worried that it will taste lousy as i didnt do a dip tasting b4 fridging it .. anyway, i bought to office .. my Japanese manager gave a THUMBSUP! .. and my other coll say tat it tasted like Awfully Chocolate truffles hahaha ..

I felt so happy lah .. but than .. it can be imporved! ..

Will try again for this friday's neibies session ! .. ^_^v

060713 - Hotdog and Mushroom Quiche

Attended RG's class on 4th Jul and he taught to make Quiche .. I dont know whats so great about Quiche .. I didnt really liked it when I had them in Aussie last time...

But RG's quiche recipe is ez to follow and also, maybe he had tweeted his recipe from the original, it is more to our Asian taste.. I hooted the whole piece given during class right after it was out of oven .. so good eaten hot also .. hehehe ..

My neibies are also crazy over quiche .. so i decided to make one for our drinking / supper session on 6th itself .. ^_^ ..

I made a half recipe from RG's original qty and made a 8" shallow pie... we all enjoyed ourselves with our smaller piece of quiche. .

Some things should be taken in smaller qty to enjoy the best of it ..

Recipe as follows:-

For an 8" shallow pie dish

Crust
50g semi hard butter
100g plain flour
1/8tsp salt
1/5tbsp cold water

Method

1. Place Butter, plain flour and salt in mixer bowl and mix with K beater slowly.
2. add water and increase speed and beat till form a dough.
3. turn out dough and hand knead for a few times ( do not over knead) and cover with cling wrap.
4. Fridge it for 30mins.
5. Pre heat over to 180degC
6. Grease the bottom and side of your pie dish.
7. Roll out dough and put over ur dish.
8. Egg wash,
9. Place a piece of parchement paper and weight down with pie weight or beans
10. Half bake the pie crust for 15mins.

Fillings

200g Diary Whipping Cream
3 egg yolks
60g Eden Cheese (grated)
Button Mushrooms (chopped / cube)
Hotdog (chopped / cube)
1/2 onion (chopped)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method
1. Fry chopped onion till cook.
2. Throw in hotdog and mushroom and lightly fried for a while.
3. scatter over the pie crust and cover with Edem cheese.
4. Whisk dairy whip cream, egg yolk together and spoon over pie.
5. Bake for 25mins on LOWER RACK.
6. Shift pie to UPPER RACK and bake for another 5mins to brown the top.

Try this .. i really like it .. didnt feel gelat like those i tried in Aussie .. maybe its the cheese...

190613: Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake

Been contemplating to bake this cake for OH SO LONG ... its so expensive outside for a smaaaaaaaaaaaal tiny piece that u will finish in 2 mouth hahaha ..

Had saved this recipe in my folder since 2011 lah .. so at last i decided to bake this .. er coz i bought 1kg + of cream cheese and need to slowly bake it away .. heehehe ..

Anyway .. this recipe is taken from Diana Desserts and i always love her tried and tested recipes ..

Recipe as follows:-

Ingredients

(A)

50g. butter250g cream cheese

100 ml fresh milk

1 tbsp. lemon juice

6 egg yolks

80g cake flour

 

(B)

140g fine granulated sugar

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

 

Instructions

 

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture.

2. Fold in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

4. Using the SLOWEST speed of your mixer and whisk, slowly add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

5. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160

degrees C.

Tips:

** Water Bath:-
i used a 9" cake pan filled it 1/3 with water and than put the 8" cake pan into it .. hahaha .. i think its a ez way of doing coz i dont have a deep tray to use ...

**Half way thru baking, i noted that the top of the cake is getting too brown .. so I used an aluminium foil to cover the top from the oven coil ..

My few taste tester gave good review .. so this recipe is a Keeper and will be baking it again soon!!! ...

15May2013 - Moist Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Rum Ganache

For those who knows me, knows that i am not keen on Chocolate .. I "quit" chocolate after my massive eating of it in Aussie last time (so damn bloody cheap there) ... since than i kind of not like chocolate in any form .. except when I am super low in morale and i need a booster when i really take chocolate, a little bit of it only actually coz i really dont really like chocolate ...

Today mark the day I finally decided to go in to do Chocolate for cake baking .. I always find making chocolate related cakes / deco to be messy .. and yes .. it is messy haha but fun..

My colleagues are crazy over the Awfully Chocolate cake selling in the shop .. and i tasted a bit and find it too chocolaty for me hahaha ..

It took me sometime to decide going into making it. And i also have to decide on Full Cake? Or Cupcakes ..

Cupcakes it is .. coz its easier to handle and also minus the mess of cutting thru chocolate cake .. really tats messy hahaha ..

I bought a block of 500grm chocolate compound from Perling Indah last weekend ... I dont wanna spend the money on Converture as i thinking to take this time as a trial only .. hence let me use cheaper version so in case if fails .. not so heart pain ..

Anyway, i have a few tried and tested chocolate cake recipe .. full cakes and cupcakes .. but i search the internet anyway to see any others ..

I used this recipe from Add a Pinch which does not require vinegar coz i dont have it at home and i dont wanna buy a bottle just for a trial..

I added a ball of Godiva Dark Chocolate balls (someone gave me during Xmas last year .. and i dont remember who, hahah). I added one ball per cupcake .. i think this is the thing that make the inside still moist after baking ... 

Anyway .. recipe is below .. try it out .. I got damn good review of it! :)

Chocolate Cupcakes (12 standard size cupcakes)

Recipe adapted from:
Robyn Stone at http://addapinch.com/cooking/2013/02/07/chocolate-cupcakesrecipe/
Ingredients
Dry
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar (I reduced 1/8 cup... can reduce further)
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon coffee powder
Wet
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup boiling water

I added 1 ball of Godiva Dark Chocolate balls (each ball is about 0.5mm dia) into each cupcake ..

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180^oC
2. Place cupcake liners in muffin tin.
3. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and coffee powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add sugar & salt.
4. Using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.
5. Add milk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined.
6. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.
7. Evenly distribute cake batter. Each cupcake liner should be about 3/4ths full.
8. Place in the oven and bake 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Cool cake before deco.

For the Ganache, I took the recipe from my fav baking teacher - Richard Goh's stage 3 Truffle Cake recipe.

It was really good when i tried the sample after the class .. so this it is ..

Chocolate Rum Ganache
Recipe from Richard Goh

Ingredients

250g of Chocolate Converture (I used compound) – Grate / chop to fine pieces
250g of Fresh Cream (I used Toppin)
½ tsp Rum essence

Method

1.      Using a microwave proof boil, boil Fresh Cream in Microwave oven (approx 2 – 3 mins)
2.      Throw in the chocolate pieces and whisk till melted and mixed well.
3.      Add rum essence if using.
4.      Let mixture cool to piping consistency.

 
 

 

I did the ganache on the same day hence I have to fridge it till the correct consistency. If you have the time, you can do 1 day in advance.

I realised the ganache is diff. texture from RG’s. I suspect is coz I used Compound instead of Converture. Converture shld had more cocoa butter compared to compound which have veg oil.

Can consider bitter semi sweet compound / converture. Ganache is a bit too sweet for my liking hahaha .. but most of my taster say good.

20-March-2013 - Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake - Non Bake

My friend had been asking me to do my original baked cheese cake for a long time, however I really wanna try another type of cheese cake. I chance upon my friend's Strawberry Jelly (no hearts also) Non Baked Cheesecake which tempted me very much to give it a try. Esp nowadays the Korean strawberries are really NICE!

I sourced for a few Strawberry Hearts cheesecake recipes and had wanted to go on and do it. However, my gf asked me to try adding Whipped Cream to the Cheesecake to make it lighter. I was abit apprehend about this approach as not many non bake cheesecake add whipped cream.

However, I decided to give it a try, as my office are mainly Japanese and they rather prefer less sweet and more milky type of cakes (from the comments they give of my various bakes).

Hence I hybrid two kinds of non baked cheese cake recipe and came out with this I made.

The outcome was great. I was so worried that it taste horrible that i have to take a slice b4 I let others take their dig into it ... Lucky it was good .. and i really leave how the cheese texture and fluffiness and lightness it was.

One of my japanese coll wont dont like cheese cake actually took a 2nd serving as she felt that the cake was really light and just right sweetness with a bit of the sourness from the strawberries.

 
This is a cut out of the cake .... my biscuit base is not firm enuff ... and i think the cheesecake abit too thick layer .. next time i will try to ensure cheesecake and jello layer is similar thickness..

Recipe as follows:-

8” square / round pan

Wash and  prepare your strawberries the way you want it (hearts or thin slices like mine)

(A)

8  - 10 pcs of Digestive biscuits – crushed to fine bread crumbs like.

100grm of melted butter mixed well into crushed biscuits ensure crumbs can form a firm dough when grab together else the base will fall apart when cut.

Press the biscuit base to the cake pan firmly with the back of a spoon or by pressing with your hand.

Set pan / tray into fridge to set for min. 10mins.

 (B)

50g sugar (caster / fine)

5g gelatin

150ml boiling water

 (C)

250gm Cream cheese (room temp)

1tsp vanilla extract

 (D)

150gm whipped cream + 1 tsp strawberry flavour (stiff peak) – keep cold in fridge after whisking, till needed

(Note: I used 100g Frosty whip powder and mixed with 50ml Strawberry yoghurt milk to make the whipped cream with strawberry flavor)

 Method:-

Mix ingredient of (B) together and stir to ensure gelatin is dissolved into the mixture. Ensure no lumps. If there is, remove / strain away the lumps. Let it cook to room temp.

** Start (C) only after gelatin is almost cooled to room temp.

Beat (C) at slow speed on a hand mixer till creamy and fluffy

Slowly pour (B) mixture to (C) while still beating slowly.

Ensure all incorporated and now batter should be runny consistency.

FOLD the whipped cream slowly ( I do in three parts) and ensure that whipped cream is well mixed into better.

Pour batter into cake pan.

Arrange the strawberries your way.

(**From my experience, If u using slices, pls ensure u have thicker slice and press abit of the strawberry into the cheese to ensure it won’t FLOAT up when pour the jelly.)

Let cake set in fridge for min. 4hrs or overnight

Jelly Layer (the next day)

 

1 packet of Jell-O Strawberry or Totally brand Jelly (Rasberry)

Follow instruction on box to prepare the jelly mixture. Let it cool to room temp. Slowly pour onto cake.
(note: pour the jelly on the strawberry not the exposed cheese cake area (this will make the cheese cake loose and jelly will become milky)

Let Jelly set.

Serve cold.
 
As this method use little gelatin coz of whipped cream, this cake don’t stay long in room temp. Hence pls ensure keep in fridge or keep it cold as much as u can. From my own cake, I realized it become soft after about an hour. Cake still holds well but not as firmed as originally taken from fridge.

I will give this recipe another try but will use blueberry instead as i prefer blueberry .. haha ...

xoxo
Cheria
20-03-2013