Marbled butter cake

Mrs NgSK's butter cake. First, I saw it at Busy Gran's which made reference to Peng's kitchen and then it lead me to WendyinKK. I was thinking who is Mrs NgSK and there seems to rave review on the butter cake. If you are still wondering who's she, please visit Table for 2...or more for more details. Instead of a plain butter cake, I did a marbled one but I didn't like the not-so-swirls effects. Anyway, I'm typing out the recipe for my future reference. Taste-wise, I'll update it later after I try it out as my breakfast tomorrow. (Update 4 June 2012: Forgotten that I had not updated after the taste-test. Actually sliced and packed in boxes for my colleagues but woke up with a swollen eye the next day and can't go to the office, ended up had to ask hubby to bring for his colleagues. He called in the afternoon and told me that his colleagues would like to place order for the cakes, and said "Are you happy?") 'Nuf said)

Mrs NgSK's butter cake (with modifications)

Ingredients/ Method
230g salted butter, softened
200g eggs, without shell (about 4 eggs)
50g + 150g (reduced to 130g) caster sugar
180g self-raising flour, sifted
60ml milk
1 vanilla bean or 1tsp vanilla paste
20g cocoa powder

1) Pre-heat oven at 180 deg. Lined bottom of 8 inch square pan and grease the side of the pan.
2) Separate egg yolk and white and set the egg yolk aside.
3) Whisk egg white and 50g sugar in a clean bowl, until stiff.
4) Beat butter and 130g sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in vanilla bean and mix well.
5) Add in 1 egg yolk at a time into butter mixture, and beat well after each addition.
6) Add in half the flour and beat on low speed till well mixed. Add in milk in 2 additions and mix well. Add in the remaining flour.
7) Add half of egg white into the batter and mix on low speed. Pour the balance egg white and fold.
8) Pour batter into baking pan, but set aside about 1 3/4 cups of batter and mix well with cocoa powder.
9) Spoon cocoa batter into the plain batter and using knife to create swirls.
10) Bake for 45mins at 180 deg C or until skewer inserted into cake come out clean. (I adjusted the oven temp to 170 deg C mid-way through the baking.)
11) Allow cake to cool on rack.

Japanese dark pearl cake

This is my second weekend where I get to bake early in the morning, and managed to get everything done and clean up within an hour or so.  Although I lose so sleeping time, we are able to carrying on with our day's activities more leisurely. Like last week, we went for a swim today and since it's still early the pool is pretty empty and water seems cleaner. We'll see how long our new swimming sessions will last.

Japanese dark pearl cake
(Recipe adapted from aunty yochana)
Original recipe is for 23-25 inch tube pan, I halved the recipe for my 21 cm tube pan

Ingredients/ Method:
Cocoa Batter:
75g chocolate, chopped
45ml water
50g corn oil
12.5g cocoa powder
32.5g cake flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
57.5g egg yolks (about 3.5 eggs)

Egg White Batter:
112.5g egg white (about 3.5 eggs)
45g castor sugar
a pinch of salt
1/16 tsp of cream of tartar

1) Melt chocolate in microwave for 2 mins on medium and stir till smooth. Add in cornoil and stir till smooth. Fold in the rest of the cocoa ingredients and stir till smooth. Set aside.
2) Whisk egg white with cream of tartar till frothy, then pour in sugar gradually and then add in the salt. Whisk till a medium peak.
3) Add about 2 cups of egg white to the cocoa batter and mix well.
4)  Fold cocoa batter into the remaining egg white evenly.
5) Pour into 21cm tube pan and bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 45 mins.
6) When done, remove the tube pan from the oven and invert on a cooling rack and leave to stand for 2 hours.

Update 25 May 2012: I had the cake on Monday & Tuesday as breakfast, and it's soft, spongy, moist & chocolatey! Nice <3

Mango cream cake

Finally get to bake after so long, and I kid you not that I've been dreaming and thinking of baking cakes. After a late night on Saturday, there was a sudden urge and influx of energy flowing through my body in the early morning of Sunday. "I must bake and it must be NOW" ~ that was what went through my head. Although nothing really fanciful came out of the oven, I'm delighted to have accomplished a so-called task. By 10.30am, I was done with the washing up and baking, only left with cake decorating which was completed after we had our afternoon swim near our house. My lil boy was so sweet that he offered to do some chores after my baking, "...like sweeping, cleaning or mopping...". Daddy allows lil boy to mop the kitchen "... as mommy dirties the kitchen floor after baking..." Oh my, lil boy has grown up! It was a really good Sunday, and of course, a memorable Mother's Day.

Mango chiffon cake

Ingredients/ Method

(Recipe is for 25cm tube pan, but I baked in 2 tube pans - 21 cm and 17cm)
7 eggs
200g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
165g icing sugar
100ml mango puree + 50ml water/mango juice (will add more mango puree the next time)

150ml corn oil

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 deg C.
2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. (abt 240ml egg whites)
3. Sieve cake flour, icing sugar, and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
4. Make a depression in the centre of the cake flour mixture, add egg yolks, mango juice and oil and stir until well combined.
5. In a clean separate bowl, whisk egg white and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff.
6. Add in cake batter to the egg white gradually and fold gently in batches, until well mixed.
7. Pour into tube pan and abke for 50 mins at 170-175 deg C. 
8. When done, remove the tube pan from the oven and invert on a cooling rack and leave to stand for 2 hours.
9. Remove the cake from the tube pan by pressing the sides of the cake along the perimeter of the pan and inverting the cake onto a plate.

Mango cream
1 3/4cup whipping cream
2 tsp icing sugar
1 1/2 mango puree
1/2tsp vanilla bean paste
1 extra fresh manago, cubed (for decoration)

1. Whisk whipping cream until foamy.
2. Add icing sugar to whipping cream and continue to whisk on medium-high.
3. Add in vanilla bean paste and mango puree, and continue to whisk till stiff.
4. Decorate cake as desired.