Original Flavour Roll Cake

Another cake I made for two of my son's school teachers. Using the corn sugar - Toreharu. The cake made of very simple and basic ingredients that it's very eggy taste. However I added vanilla to it. As for the Toreharu, I think it made a little difference as the sponge stays soft and springy even after being chilled in the fridge. I guess that's the whole purpose of adding Toreharu to the cake. I still have 970g sitting in a glass jar. Wonder how many roll cake I will have to make before I could empty the jar!

I spread some fresh dairy whipping cream and decorated it with some strawberry flavoured chocolate chips to make it look pretty. Do you think it's pretty??

Ingredients:

Large Eggs    240g

Sugar      110g

Toreharu   27g

Violet Flour    75g

Filling:

Dairy whipping cream    120g

Sugar   7g

Method:

1. Eggs , toreharu and sugar beat over low heat till all sugar dissolved. Away from the heat, and beat the egg on high speed till reach ribbon stage.

2. Sift in Flour to the egg batter, and use folding method to fold in the flour. Pour in a 27x 27cm Swiss roll tin lined with parchment paper. Bake the batter in 180'c preheated oven for 11-13 minutes.

3. Remove the cake from cake tin once it's baked. Let the sponge cool om wire rack.

4. Whip the cream and sugar till 70% firm. Spread on the cooled sponge and roll up as Swiss roll. Chill the cake for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Teacher's Day Little Cuppies

Cranberry Wholemeal Scones

                                                Can see that soft and little fluffy layers?

 

Making scones are so simple and quick, yet it can be stored in the freezer to keep for later need. It's also very versatile that can be served for both breakfast and tea. No wonder so many stay at home moms love making them.

Made these using wholemeal flour and dried cranberries for a slight twist of the original. It gives the nutty taste from the wholemeal flour and it's simply awesome! I have yet to have the intention to make any savoury ones. May be some days later....

A Little Floral Birthday

The simplest things that made the sweetest cake.

Got the deco idea from one of my latest additions of recipe books - Okashi. But I did not have the skillful hands to pipe the flowers from cream yet. But I will try one day. :) Made this little cake for my son's classmate's birthday party. A very sweet and pretty gal.... Everyone had lots of fun during the party. Wish could stay a little longer though. Hope everyone liked the cake. Happy Birthday to Megan!!

Japanese Cheese Cake

I really love to see the smooth and light brown top skin of the cake.

This is a cake that many people would love and not getting tired of. Before getting to this recipe by Alex Goh, which many blogger been baking it. I was trying out a recipe I learnt while I was holiday in Hong Kong before I become a mother. However, I couldn't get it right after countless of tryings!! How upset!! It was my best recipe of Japanese cheese cake, I ever have. But after more than 2 years since my last bake of it, I guess I have lost some of the 'Tricks' required in the recipe to produce a light, fluffy and tall Japanese cheese cake. The result was simply so amazing that the cake won't ' Sit Down' after it comes out from the oven and suppose it will stay tall for days. ( But it never lasted more than a day) It's just like the one selling at Fiesta. But I have lost it. Really can't recall what was the crucial step that I have missed.......  When I have a chance to Hong Kong again, I will definitely go back for the baking lesson again.

Banana Cake ( none baking powder version)

Alright, this is my second post of this classic banana cake. However, this happened to be a none baking powder version! How great!!  As I always mention, I prefer to have least additives in my bakes. Especially when we have kids....

It was an 'Accident'! I was craving for banana cake the other night, and I only left with those really large size eggs, however, I went ahead... After I beat up both sugar and eggs over a pot of hot water, I let my Kitchen aid do the beating. I walked out to the living room, sat on the couch and stareted watching TV.  For a moment I forgotten I was beating the eggs!  Until hubby asked me about what was the Kitchen aid ' Doing'... Oh no, how forgetful  I was!! I ran to the kitchen and quickly stop the mixer and was very lucky the egg batter was looking pretty alright. I continued with the rest of the steps and guess what??, the egg batter was so well beaten and it was so stable while folding in the rest of the ingredients! After I poured the cake batter into the cake tin, the batter stayed so light and fluffy as if it was telling the result of the cake was going to be really great one. True enough, after the cake was done, the texture was like cotton, or rather close to a chiffon cake. When this 'Accident ' happened, I was using the original recipe which had baking powder in it.

So the idea of not adding baking powder came to me after that superb result. I made the cake few days later, and the result was very pleased, although it's nothing like the chiffon texture, however, it's very fine and soft. It turned out to be a soft and moist classic banana cake! So the trick of this is ; very large eggs would give softer and fine banana cake even without baking powder's help.

Toreharu

This is something pretty rare to find in our local baking supply shops. And it's a kind of sugar that made of corn. I  got to know about this from a roll cakes recipe book that explained the purpose of this is to give a soft and moist cake, at the same time it will preserve and keep the cake moisture for longer period of time. I have yet to try this to make any roll cake. But SOON!!!

Baguette

A bread that I always find it the most challenging to make. But I am suppose, I have done whatever I could to achieve this result. The truly good ones are made by bakers who are trained for bread making for ages before they make the most delicious Baguettes. Same as making croissants. Not something we could make it from scratch by just one or two times attempts just following the recipe books. Baguette is a bread that made of the simplest ingredients you can find in your kitchen. Basically just flour, yeast, water and salt! And of course those in the recipes I have needed a small amount of malt candy. It suppose baguette that crispy skin. This time, I used the French bread flour called in the recipe, which I think it'd give the texture and aroma a little boost. Other than that it's just the normal steps of making a basic loaf.   

Natural Food Colouring

These babies are part of my precious collections. I don't use artificial additives as far as I concern. And I always wanted to make something for children which are made of all natural ingredients ; no artificial colouring, no baking powder or baking soda, no artificial flavoring... Especially colouring is something pretty important when comes to children's food. :-) When I have my holidays to Japan (next coming), I will definitely bring back the whole collection of these babies!

Basically, they are made of vegetables, and stuff like Squid ink for the black. Purple is made of the skin of Japanese potatoes, red, pink, yellow... made of some flowers.... So I am feeling totally save to use them for all my bakes!

French Bread Flour

                                     

What is French bread? What kind of bread needs to use French bread flour.....?

I have some recipes that call for French bread flour. And mainly they are all French breads like baguette, coupe and croissant!! Before I managed to get this French bread flour, I used the normal bread flour to try out the recipe, and I realize it didn't have that aroma of what a french bread suppose to have. And the texture may be different compared to using French bread flour. So I ordered this through cuoca and give it a try. 

Suprisingly Suprise

We went to Liang Court yesterday, as hubby needed a hair cut before his long trip to SFO. At the same time Kinokuniya was having 20% discount storewide for members, so I brought my precious along to get some books. And so I DID!!! haha.... Well, I know I am suppose to talk about this 'Suprise'. I have blog about this special bread flour some time ago, and this is a good news for those who also keen to try this flour to see the difference.

After I got my books, and hubby's hair cut was done, we had our shopping at Meidi-ya. And here comes the 'Supriese'. They actually have this super fine Nisshin bread flour selling at Meidi-ya!!!!! I was so so happy to see this precious which all these while I could only get it from Japan ( I thought). I grabbed 2 packets right away, and showed them to hubby, and he told me to buy a few more since it's such rare stuff and I find it such a precious.... But I did not. Reason being, they are quite expensive for a bread flour, and I don't use it for all kinds of bread. It's too much for me to use it on experimenting new recipes and I only use it when I want to make loaf like English bread, butter roll or Hotel Bread. Hopefully Meidi-ya will keep bringing it in, then I will get to have it to make my beautiful loaves....

Raisin Cream Cheese Bun

A new bread recipe I explored. My lil one loves cream cheese and I thought this would be something he wouldn't mind trying, and with raisin in the bread this will sure be his all time favourite!

This bun can do without the cream cheese filling and it's just a variation of a simple raisin bun. It will be fine with whatever fillings as long as you like it! The soft and with a little chewy texture is what this bun is all about. It's such a great one while it's still hot from the oven. But there is this joke from my cousin. He said a chef mentioned if we eat any food that's hot from the oven, we will have our hair drop MORE!!! hahha.....

Ingredients:

Bread flour     200g

Yeast    2g

Sugar     14g

Salt    4g

Milk     20g

Warm water    125g

Unsalted butter   10g

Raisin   40g

Cream Cheese   7g x 7pcs

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients (except butter) in mixing bowl. Knead till you get a rough and sticky dough.

2. Add in butter and continue kneading til the dough is smooth, then add in raisin. Knead in the raisin and form the dough into a ball, and let it rise till double the volume.

3.Divide the dough into 7 equal portion and cover with cloth, let it rest for 15 minutes.

4. Flatten each dough and wrap in cream cheese portions. Leave all the dough to rise for another 50 to 40 minute, and bake them in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes at 210'c.

5. Cool the buns on wire rack after it's baked.

English Bread 2

I love the cracking top. It seems to tell the story of this beautifil loaf.

One of the most frequently made bread would be this English bread. Besides it's the most versatile bread to enjoy, it's also one of the most challenging bread to make. It may be just one simple white loaf, but the result could be vary from many different type of textures. I have many different recipes to make this humble loaf, and the methods are very similar. However, the result are pretty much individual. To get the best result, we must follow the instructions in the recipe closely!

My first English bread posted some time ago, and it is my favorite. And I found my second best this time! The kneading is just the 1/3 rolling method without all the lifting and bashing. And what I got was a loaf of smooth and extremely soft loaf. I started to make some marks on the book, to see what will be the next bread for me to explore. My hubby and son finished up more than half a loaf, and each time my lil one had a bite, he gave me that " Mmmhh...."sound! And I know I have done a great job!


Ingredients:

Special Bread flour. 250g
Salt. 4g
Sugar. 10g
Instant yeast. 2g
Milk. 50g
Warm water. 125g
Unsalted butter. 8g


Method:

1. Mix all dry ingredients with milk and water to form a rough dough. Add in butter and mix till all the butter well incorporated in the dough.

2. Dust the work top with a little flour and do the folding method to knead the dough till smooth and springy.

3. Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film, let it rise till double the volume.

4. Punch the air out after it's well risen, and reshape the dough in a ball and let it have another rise for about 35 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions and let them rest for another 15 minutes, cover with a piece of cloth.

6. Shape the dough and put them in the bread tin and have the final rise for About one hour.

7. Bake the dough in a preheated oven at 200'c for 30 minutes. Cool the bread in wire rack after it's baked.

Rum And Raisin Almond Roll

This is something I would make for some rushing mornings. My son is a fan of raisin ( May be many kids do), and of course bread is his life!! So putting these two things together, I get a happy and hungry child! :-)

Using the simple and quick dough recipe from cinnamon roll, I know this will not go wrong. However, I find something is missing after tasting the bread. Or may be I started to like cinnamon?? Well, it may be a good idea if I make this bread with a dash of cinnamon powder or brush on more butter while rolling up the dough. But overall, we are all happy with this wholesome bread for a start of the day.