September 20, 2013

Red Wine Berry Snow Skin Mooncakes

red wine snow skin mooncakes | Delicacious

The Mid Autumn Festival was yesterday. Did you celebrate? I did not really celebrate as my little one was down with gastric flu but we had some of these yummy mooncakes at home. Earlier I posted about Walnut Mooncakes and now I’d like to introduce you to one of my personal favourites – Red Wine Berry Snow Skin Mooncakes. The filling comprises of an outer layer of red wine berry paste with a white lotus paste center.

The red wine berry paste is a winner. I first tried making this mooncake two years ago and it was instantly a hit. I have to say however, that I did not make the paste. It is available during the Mid Autumn Festival season at Kwong Cheong Thye. I buy my Kou Fen (cooked glutinous rice flour) from them too. I think they sell one of the better quality ones.

red wine snow skin mooncakes | Delicacious

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September 13, 2013

Baked Walnut Mooncakes

Walnut mooncakes | Delicacious

It’s the Mid Autumn festival again! The festive season where shopping centres start to display stalls selling a variety of mooncakes. Mooncakes used to be pretty traditional but lately, they have evolved so much that I cannot even recognise them as mooncakes anymore. Now mooncakes come in a large variety of shapes, sizes and flavours; lately, there has been some rage here over “butt-shaped” mooncakes. Yes! I’m not kidding. They are made by Hong Kong’s Goods of Desire (G.O.D) and are shaped like butts because butts look like full moons. Hmm…

For all the hype, I still prefer traditional mooncakes or snowskin ones. I’ve tried some of these exotic flavours (e.g. lychee martini, truffles, jackfruit, etc) and I have yet to find one that I really like. Except durian mooncakes. I can live with those.

Walnut mooncakes | Delicacious

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June 6, 2013

Almost healthy blueberry crumb cake

blueberry crumb cake

I am a terrible blogger. I discovered how terrible I was recently when I got myself onto Google+ and found out there was so much more to food blogging than I ever knew. Planning a blog post? You mean people plan blog posts and not just post whenever they fancy. Ah… but the knowledge is good. Now to start becoming more organised.

You see, I seldom plan what to bake/cook these days. It is usually a case of “oh the kid slept early today, now what can I bake?” or “I think these blueberries have been lying around the fridge for a little too long, I should do something about them”. So it happens when those two statements fall on the same night, I bake blueberry crumb cake.

Now read crumb cake and you know that it has a streusel topping. I love streusel topping though it is probably way too sweet for my good and so I usually compensate by reducing the sugar in the cake. This time round, I attempted to ease my conscience by substituting half of the flour with whole wheat flour.

I brought this to work and colleagues loved it. Serve it with coffee or tea if you like. I was happy to eat it on its own.

Almost healthy blueberry crumb cake
 
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Ingredients
Streusel topping
  • 2.5 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup caster sugar
  • ¼ cup light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup whole wheat flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
Cake
  • 2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup plus 2 tsp plain flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 3 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ cup milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C and place a rack in the centre of the oven.
  2. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.
  3. Using a fork, combine the ingredients for the streusel topping (except the walnuts) together.
  4. Stir in the walnuts and keep covered with cling wrap and refrigerated until required.
  5. Toss blueberries with 2 teaspoons of plain flour.
  6. In a large bowl, sift remaining plain flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine.
  7. In the bowl of a standing mixer, rub sugar and zest together with fingertips until sugar is moist and fragrant.
  8. With the paddle attachment, cream sugar with butter at medium speed till light.
  9. Add eggs one by one, beating for about a minute after each addition.
  10. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  11. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the flour mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
  12. The batter will be thick. Stir in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.
  13. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smoothen out the top.
  14. Break refrigerated streusel topping into pieces and scatter over the top of the cake.
  15. Bake for about 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
  16. Transfer cake to a rack to cool.
  17. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Recipe adapted from "Baking, from my home to yours"

This post is shared at Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm and Simple Living and Eating and Freedom Fridays.

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Breakfast, Cakes, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , 5 Comments
May 18, 2013

Apple walnut bundt cake

apple bundt 1

Not so long ago there was this fruit sale at my office (yeah, to encourage us to eat healthy). My friend was in-charge of the sale and she was asking me to buy the apples. So I told her jokingly, “Buy them for me and I will bake you something.” WRONG MOVE. An hour later, I had 5 apples sitting on my table and I had to make good my word. I went home and lo and behold, my mom had bought another 4 apples. So I had 9 apples, and I better make something with it, fast.

So I flipped through my books for a simple recipe of something that required a lot of apples. I didn’t want to make a tart because it seemed like too much work for a late night baking session. When I came across this apple cake recipe that required 6 apples, I knew it was the one.

apple bundt 2

Enters apple bundt cake. The original recipe called for the cake to be baked in a tube pan. I didn’t have a tube pan, but I have several bundt pans and figured that they would do the job too. Bundt pans typically do an excellent job in getting the cake evenly baked while keeping it moist. Sounds like the perfect pan to use for this cake. I also like bundt cakes because they typically feed a crowd, and are so easy to cut up and serve (just follow the markings on the cake and you have a perfectly divided cake). They also look pretty and the cake hardly needs any decoration, though a dusting of powdered sugar would perhaps complete the look.

The cake was every bit what it promised to be – fully apple-ly and fully cake. Apples and cinnamon. Add walnuts and you will never go wrong. The walnuts add texture to the already flavourful cake and the bundt pan kept the cake oh so moist. Colleagues raved about it and I am sure you would too, if you try it.

Apple bundt cake
 
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An excellent apple bundt cake that's filled with apples, accentuated with walnuts and the flavour of cinnamon.
Recipe type: Cake
Serves: 12-16
Ingredients
  • 6 apples, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1½ cup plus 5 tbsp sugar
  • 2¾ cups plain flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup canola/vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • 2½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
  2. Butter and flour a 10-12 cup large bundt pan or use non-stick spray.
  3. Toss chopped apples with 5 tbsp sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
  4. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
  5. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine oil, orange juice, remaining sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.
  6. Add in flour mixture in 2 parts with mixer on low. Scrape bowl to ensure even incorporation. Stir in walnuts.
  7. Pour half of the batter into the pan. Spread half the apple chunks.
  8. Top up pan with remaining batter and spread evenly.
  9. Arrange remaining apple on top.
  10. Bake for 1½ hours, or until a tester comes out clean.
  11. Allow to cool completely in pan before turning it out onto a serving plate.
Notes
Recipe is adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

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April 28, 2013

Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

redwinecake2 I posted some time earlier about a red wine chocolate bundt cake that received rave reviews from my friends. So when I had half a bottle of unfinished red wine, I thought about baking that cake again. While surfing though, I came across a recipe on smitten kitchen that looked simpler and really good. So I tried that instead and tested it on my colleagues.

The texture of the cake is a cross between a brownie and a cake. It is dense but moist and boy was it rich. Deb from smitten kitchen calls it the real velvet cake and I think she is right. The cake is baked at a fairly low temperature of 160°C and so the alcohol does not boil off much. The red wine flavour comes through really strongly so my advice would be to use a fairly good bottle of red wine. I used a merlot for this cake, but you can use pretty much any kind you like. The mascarpone cream topping is a must. Do not omit that!

Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

Print recipe
Red wine chocolate cake with mascarpone cream
Website adapted from smitten kitchen

Ingredients

cake

  • 3oz unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 2/3 cups brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup caster sugar
  • 1 egg + 1 yolk
  • 3/4 cups red wine
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 Cup + 1 Tablespoon plain flour
  • 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

mascarpone cream

  • 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
  • 1/2 cup chilled whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons caster sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Step 1
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 9 inch round cake pan and spray the interior with a non-stick spray.
Step 2
Using a standing or a handheld mixer, cream butter until smooth then add the sugars and beat till light and fluffy.
Step 3
Add the egg and yolk, then the red wine and the vanilla and beat after each addition. The batter will look lumpy.
Step 4
In a separate large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Step 5
Sift the ingredients over the wet ingredients and combine on low speed. Fold in the last bits with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix!
Step 6
Bake for 25 minutes on the centre rack of the oven. The tester should come out clean. Do not overbake or the cake will be dry.
Step 7
Cool for 5-10 minutes in the tin then turn it out onto a rack and cool till it comes to room temperature. Dust with icing sugar if you like.
Step 8
Whip together mascarpone cheese, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract till soft peaks form. (Cream can be refrigerated for a couple of hours)
Step 9
Serve each slice of cake with a large dollop of cream.
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February 23, 2012

Pumpkin Huat Kueh (Steamed Pumpkin Cake)

I realised I had some pumpkin left in the fridge today and hence decided to steam it up to make pumpkin huat kuehs for my little girl. Huat Kueh, translated literally, means “prosperous cake”. Some people believe that if it rises and breaks open like a smile (as shown in the photo above), you will have good luck. I believe in none of that but that doesn’t stop me from making some yummy, oil-free steamed cakes for my little girl. They are slightly more troublesome to make than traditional muffins, but they have a nice soft chewy texture.

Most pumpkin huat kueh recipes you see out there uses coconut milk, because the combination of coconut milk and pumpkin is absolutely aromatic. In order to make this more healthy and child-friendly, I chose to use whole milk instead of coconut milk.

Pumpkin Huat Kueh
 
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Author:
Serves: 10
Ingredients
Starter dough
  • 50g Hong Kong Flour
  • 50ml water
  • 1 tsp instant yeast
Batter
  • 200g pumpkin, steamed and pureed
  • 100ml whole milk
  • 1 egg
  • 120g brown sugar
  • 320g Hong Kong flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
  1. Mix starter dough ingredients in a bowl and set aside for 30 minutes.
  2. Sift together flour and baking powder and set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine pureed pumpkin, milk, eggs and brown sugar.
  4. Add in sifted flour and baking powder and mix well.
  5. Finally, add in proofed starter dough and mix well. The mixture will be sticky.
  6. Set a steamer over boiling water. Fill muffin cups almost to the top with the mixture.
  7. Steam over rapid boiling water for 15 minutes.
Notes
Adapted from http://sakurambokitchen.blogspot.sg/2007/07/huat-kueh-pumpkin-durian-sweet-potato.html

This post is shared at Saturday Dishes Pumpkin.

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February 22, 2012

Red wine chocolate bundt cake

Disclaimer: This cake is NOT suitable for children consumption.

I love bundt pans because they are easy to handle, produce moist cakes and the large bundt pans produce cakes that feed a small crowd! That coupled by the fact that they look pretty without elaborate decorations, and that they are easy to divide and slice up (the patterns serve as a guide for servings), I think I should be baking bundts more. I was given a cheaper bundt pan years ago, but didn’t quite fancy it as it tended to stick despite being greased and floured. A year back, I purchased a few Nordicware bundt pans and have been sold ever since.

I baked this last Saturday for my CG mates. Originally, I just wanted to bake a simple chocolate cake but I stumbled upon a recipe that incorporated red wine into the chocolate cake. I thought, why not? The results? A moist and flavourful cake, made more delicious by a double glaze of red wine black berry sauce and milk chocolate ganache. To make the cake slightly more friendly for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in the CG, I boiled the red wine mixture a little longer. You don’t have to, though.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake
Makes 1 large bundt
Adapted from Kiss my Bundt

Ingredients:

For the bundt cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dry red wine

For the blackberry red wine glaze
4 tbsp seedless blackberry jam
1/3 cup dry red wine

For the chocolate ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz milk chocolate or dark chocolate

Method (for bundt cake):

  1. Preheat oven to 175°C
  2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix in sugar and set aside.
  3. Using a standing mixer, combine eggs, milk and oil. Beat on medium speed for about 1 minute.
  4. Turn the mixer speed to low and add in the dry ingredients, half a cup at a time.
  5. Meanwhile, combine water and wine and bring to a boil
  6. When batter is combined, slowly add in water and wine mixture. The batter will be quite thin.
  7. Pour into 10-C bundt pan that has been greased and floured and bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
  8. Invert onto cooling rack and allow to cool for an hour before frosting.

Method (for blackberry red wine glaze)

  1. Whisk red wine and blackberry jam in a small saucepan over medium heat
  2. Bring mixture to a boil and let it boil for 1 – 2 minutes (the glaze will thicken)
  3. Remove from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes before spooning it over cooled bundt cake

Method (for chocolate ganache)

  1. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a near boil (hot but not boiling)
  2. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a large bowl and whisk till smooth
  3. Spoon over the blackberry red wine glaze on the cooled bundt cake

 

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