Eps 3 : Vanilla & Chocolate Sponge Cake

Hi everyone! sorry for the late post another recipe. I've been on vacation with my hubby last few days >,<

Today i wanna share the special vanilla & chocolate sponge cake. i'm using a special recipe for this sponge cake. I call it special because it contain a gelatine, which hold the dry and the liquid ingredients together that make the cake so moist and delicious! :D

So, lets get started. You're going to need :

1. 100g plain all-purpose flour
2. 115g sugar (you can reduce the sugar to 100 if you want less sweet)
3. 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. 1 teaspoon gelatin (use the powder, you can't use the gelatine leaves coz we're not gonna heat it)

6. 63ml vegetable oil (canola oil)
7. 3 egg yolks
8. 125ml cold water

9. 3 egg whites
10. 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

First, preheat your oven to 160 C.

Then put your egg whites and cream of tartar into a bowl, and whisk on high speed until you get soft peaks. The soft peaks means no more liquid left, so you want to whisk it until all the liquid become foamy structure.

Then put your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and gelatine) into a bowl and using a wire whisk mix it until incorporated.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture then pour in the oil, egg yolks, and water.

You can use the same whisk*, mix together the flour mixture for 30 seconds only until incorporated, don't over mix.

Using spatula, fold in** your egg whites in three batches to the flour and eggs mixture until they perfetcly combined. Don't over mix this, coz it will break the egg whites structure and put the air out the mixture, so the cake will be so dense, not moist.

Line the cake pans with baking paper, and divided the batter evenly. This batter will make 3 mini cake pan. so, i made 2 vanilla and 1 chocolate.

To make the chocolate sponge cake, just add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder to the remain batter, then fold it until combine.

Bake for 32-35 Minutes.

When it's done, leave in the pan and turn it upside down. We do this so the cake will stay moist (try this technique, believe me, it works! :p) and leave it to cool.

And there you have it vanilla & chocolate sponge cake. you can use this as a base for any other cake. As for my next post : Vertical Layer Rose cake :D

See inside the cake 

Enjoy! :D

*you can use the same whisk to mix the egg yolk and the egg whites. But it only applicable if you use the whisk to whisk the egg whites first, then egg yolk, not otherwise. so you can't use the whisk that you use for the egg yolks for egg whites 

**folding means using the spatula, you will fold the batter from the the bottom center of the batter, then up. Do it until incorporated. It is different from mixing. usually we use this folding method when the meringue (egg whites) was involved, because we dont want loose the air inside the batter and break the egg whites structure. 

Eps 2 : Raspberry Macaron (Italian Meringue)

Hello everyone, yesterday i made a Raspberry Macaron, one of my husband's favourite dessert. 
I'm using an Italian Method, which is different from the usual macaron recipe (french Macaron).
I actually prefer this method better because it has more stable results and comes out perfect almost every time. 

You're going to need :

1. 106 grams of almond flour 
2. 92 grams of powdered sugar
3. 40 grams (approx 1.5 eggs) of egg whites
4. 45 grams of egg whites
5. 118 grams of granulated white sugar
6. 79 grams of water

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and turn it down to 150 degrees once it reached 170 degrees. Then line your cookie sheet with parchment paper, and you can put the template under your parchment paper. 

First strain the almond flour, so you can get rid of any lumps. You can buy the almond flour at your local bakery store, or you can make your own. Here's how to make it :

- You can use either almond flakes or blanched almond, then using a food processor (or you can use the coffee grinder)  grind the almond until they become a fine powder. if you find it not fine enough, use a blender after to grind it further.

- Then process it through a sieve and return the leftover large bits to the processor and re-grind. 

Sift together your almond flour and powdered sugar. Mix it well, then make a little well in the middle of the mixture. 

Add the 40 grams of egg whites in the well, then with spatula stir it evenly until it become a thick almond paste. 

in a small saucepan combine the granulated white sugar and water and put it on the stove on medium heat. Heat it up until it becomes a thick syrup, and reach 120 degrees C. After it reached 120 degrees C,  take it off the stove immediately. 

Meanwhile, place the 45 grams of egg whites into mixing bowl and whisk it until it forms soft peaks. 

Once you have soft peaks and your sugar syrup reached 120 degrees C, pour the syrup down the side of the mixing bowl while keep whisking it. Do not stop whisking, otherwise the syrup will crystalize at the bottom of the bowl. Then continue whisking for about 5 minutes until your egg whites peaks become stiff and glossy (meringue).

Taking one third at a time, mix the meringue with the almond paste mixture, and continue adding the rest of your meringue. 

If you want add colour to your batter, this is the right time. Using a toothpick, take the colour you want and put it to the batter. I'm using the baby pink colour got this macaron. Just keep in mind that for macaroni, the colour will become softer once you bake it, so dont worry to put more colour in it. 

Continue mixing until it become a lava-like mixture, and it will be a ribbon shape when you drop the batter using your spatula. You can test it by dropping a little bit of the batter on the top, if the peak disappears within 20 seconds, it's good to go. if it's not, continue beating the batter.

Put the batter into the pipping bag, and using the small round tip pipe it to the parchment paper then it ready to go to the oven. 

Bake for 7-10 minutes until a shoft shell and a satin gloss has formed. I put my macaron in the middle rack of the oven. 

Take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes until you peel it away. And there you have it your Macaron. I put some homemade raspberry filling for this macarons :)

Some tips : I put it on top before, but it came out over cooked and the shell became brown :(. If this is your first attempt for making macaron, i suggest you to watch them for the first 5 minutes, because everyone's oven are different. Sometimes they're just too hot than the indicator says. It took me several baking trial to get to know my oven "character"

Eps 1 : Mini Cheesecake with Blueberry Jam

Hi everyone, this is my first post and also my first Blog! (yeaayyy!!). Summer is coming here in Australia, so today i made "Mini Cheesecake" with blueberry jam. This is the perfect snack for summer, with its mini size and creamy cheese melting consistency. I don't know why but i love everything that mini and small. Maybe because i think they are cute yet "eat-able" (if you know what i mean :D). So here are the ingredients.

Crust :

1/2 cup (50 grams) graham wafer crumbs or any vanilla biscuits can do.

1/2  tablespoon (7.5 grams) granulated white sugar

30 grams melted butter

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C and line 20 mini muffin cups with paper lines.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter and mix them until you get "the sand" consistency.

Fill the muffin cups a teaspoon each, and press evenly to the edges and the centre. 

Bake them for 7 minutes

Filling : (all at room temperature)

227 Grams packages of full fat cream cheese

75 grams granulated white sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt 

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (60 ml) sour cream

Beat the cream cheese with low speed until creamy and smooth.

Add sugar and salt and beat until incorporated. scrape down the side of the bowl as needed. 

Add the egg (if you are making twice size of the ingredients, add the eggs one at a time) beating until incorporated. 

Add vanilla extract and sour cream, and beat until incorporated. 

After the crust has cooled down, divide evenly the filling among 20 muffin cups. 

Put 2-3 drops of the blueberry jam (only the liquid not the fruit), and using a toothpick or skewer make a swirl pattern.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes (everyone's oven are different) or until firm but the centres of the cheesecakes still wobble a little. 

Let them cool overnight, then they are ready to serve! (place them in the refrigerator covered with the plastic wrap)