Hokkaido chiffon cake

I've been a laggard in baking these yummy Hokkaido chiffon cakes. There are so many recipes out there, and I took the easy way out when I found one in DreamersLoft who has made comparison of 2 recipes. Taking the same cue, I also tried out Reirei's recipe and they are really good - soft & yummy - even when chilled overnight in the fridge! I've copied the recipe here for my future reference.

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

(Adapted from Reirei of All That Matters, makes 10 cupcakes)
(A)
3 egg yolks
1/8 tsp salt
24g corn oil
24g milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
32g cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder (sift together with cake flour)

(B)
3 egg white
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

(C)

90g chilled fresh milk
30g custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
3/4 tbsp icing sugar (optional)
145g dairy whipping cream

Some Snow Powder (optional)

Method
1) Preheat oven to 175℃。
2) In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with salt. Then add oil, milk and vanilla extract, whisk till well-blended.
3) Fold in flour mixture and set aside.
4) In another bowl, beat egg whites , sugar and cream of tartar to stiff peak.
5) Scoop 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the yolk batter, fold well, then pour batter back to the remaining egg whites. Fold lightly till well-mixed.
6) Fill baking cases with about 30-32g of batter. Bake for 20 mins, then leave to cool.
7) In a separate bowl, mix milk, instant custard powder, vanilla paste and icing sugar till mixture is smooth.
8) Pour in whipping cream and beat till the thickness desired.
9) Using a piping tip, insert tip into the cake and pipe for 5 seconds. 3 to 4 seconds if you prefer less cream.
10) Sieve snow powder on top (optional) and chill cake before serving

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2012

 

 

Wishing all a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2012!

祝大家花好月圆庆中秋, 举家团圆赏明月!

  

Before the festive, I was thinking of making my own spiral yam mooncakes or the traditional mooncakes since I'd tried snowskin for the last few years. I wanted to do something different to give my family a treat and not the "same old thing" again this year. As the date drew nearer, and I was so caught up with work, I had to think of alternative (read: easier and fuss-free) mooncake recipes as both the recipes seem to be a little too tight for me. Anyway I already bought 1-kg packet of white lotus paste (low sugar) and it was sitting in the fridge before I could decide what type of mooncake or recipe to follow. I chanced upon e's joie walnut mooncakes recipe which was originally adapted from Baking Mum. Quite decided to bake this until I fell sick this week and was feeling quite lethargic and restless to do anything. I had almost 2 full days of rest at home, and finally pushed myself a little to roll out some walnut mooncakes and some piggy mooncakes. Aren't these little piggies look cute (though seem slightly disfigured!)?

Walnut mooncakes
(I used 1.5x of the recipe to make 41 mooncakes)

(A) 50g icing sugar

50g shortening

220g salted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ammonium (can be omitted)

(B) 1 egg

(C) 380g plain flour

25g custard powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling
1kg white lotus paste (low sugar)

Others
200g walnuts (for decoration)
2 egg yolks + 2 tsp water (egg wash)

1. Cream (A) together till slightly pale and well mixed.

2. Gradually add in egg and mix well.

3. Add sifted (C) into mixture and form a dough. Do not knead or mix for too long.

4. Leave the dough in a plastic bag or cling wrap and leave in the fridge overnight or for a few days.

5. Weigh out the 20g skin and 25g filling.

6. Wrap lotus paste in the skin and decorate with walnuts.

7. Apply egg wash and bake at 175 deg C for 10 mins.

8. Bring out and leave to cool for 10 mins.

9. Apply egg wash again and bake for another 15 mins.

Note:
I added about 30g melon seeds (toasted at 180 deg C for 10 mins and left to cool) to 500g of lotus paste.
I made the piggy mooncakes following Anncoo's tutorial here.
 

Land of Dinosaurs

When my boy celebrated his 5th birthday in early March with a Monopoly cake, I remembered my sister-in-law asking whether I know how to make a dinosaur cake for my little nephew. I told her then that I will practice how to make one for his 4th birthday. I wanted to try out using modelling paste as the usual fondant is too soft and can't hold its shape well. But I didn't have the time (or maybe too lazy to practice) prior to making the actual birthday cake. As usual, I relied on the internet and googled on "how to make dinosaur using fondant". I chanced upon my saviour, A Baked Creation - exactly what I'm looking for and there's even a step-by-step tutorial on making T-Rex & Stegosaurus. This was 4 days before the birthday party! Imagined the stress and anxiety if the cake flops and how disappointed the birthday boy would be ;(

It was a right choice to use modelling paste as the dinosaurs keep in shape, whereas my test-dinosaurs using fondant looked miserable. Alrighty, I can be more adventurous and creative in my future fondant figurines! Nevermind that I had to stay up till the wee hours for 2 days @@ and can't think straight!

Modelling Paste
Ingredients/ Method:
a) 200gm white marshmallows
2tbsp water
500gm icing sugar
2 tbsp Crisco shortening

b) 1 tsp Gum Tragacanth (can get it from Phoon Huat)

1. Put marshmallows with 2 tbsp water in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 30 secs.
2. Stir marshmallows till they are fluffy using spatula. Add half the icing sugar and mix well.
3. Grease hands with shortening and knead the remaining icing sugar into the fondant.
4. Weigh 225gm of fondant with 1 tsp gum tragacanth and knead till well mixed.
5. Add colour gel to the modelling paste as desired.

Notes:
a. Keep fondant wrapped in cling wrap and store in ziploc or airtight container. Can keep up to 2 months.
b. Modelling paste turns hard fast so prepare it only when you are ready to use.

So presenting my Land of Dinosaurs, which I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome and of course the excitement from the birthday boy's face when he saw the cake was most rewarding! Happy blessed birthday to my cutsy nephew KH! Also special thanks to the 2 men in my house for throwing ideas on how the cake should be and placing the dinosaurs on the cake <3 p="p">