Orange cheddar cheese cupcake

Another breakfast treat! Modified from the original cheddar cheesecake and just as soft & fluffy, but not cheesy enough.

I'm also submitting this to Little Thumbs Up April: Orange hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal.


Orange Cheddar Cheese Cupcake
(makes 8 cupcakes)

Ingredients:  
3 slices of Cheddar Cheese
50ml fresh orange juice
50g unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites (preferably cold, place in fridge after separating)
50g caster sugar
50g cake flour
zest from 2 oranges


Method: 

1. In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, orange juice and tear up the cheddar chesee slices in. 
2. Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use. 
3. Ladle big spoonful of the milk mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest of the milk mixture in. Add in orange zest and stir well. 
4. Sift in the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps. 
5. Preheat the oven to 155C with a water bath. 
6. In another large mixing bowl, add the egg whites in and beat till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks. 
7. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites portion into the cheese mixture. And repeat with the other 2 portions and careful not to deflate it.
8. Pour the batter into the baking case. 
9. Bake the cake in the oven for 20-22 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.

Nian Gao Flaky Pastry

I've found another way to eating nian gao, other than fried nian gao or nian gao springroll... that is Nian Gao Flaky Pastry! Basically using the same method as Lao Po Bing, but just replaced the filling with nian gao. I like them this way too! 

Ingredients: 
Water dough 
100g cake flour 
25g icing sugar 
25g butter (cubed) or shortening or margarine or lard 
40g water 
Oil dough 
100g cake flour 
45-50g shortening or lard 
Filling 
30g nian gao, sliced  
Egg Wash 
1 yolk + 1 tsp water + a pinch of salt 

Method:

Refer to step-by-step method here

 

Custard Bun

It has been a long time that I baked a bread, and I was lucky to 'chance' upon an easy & tasty sweet bun recipe from My Singapore Kitchen. Personally, the custard filling is not "strong" enough for me, though my hubby thinks it tasted good. 

I also love how the dough "grow" after 1-hour of 2nd proof. Initially the weather was so hot & conducive for proofing, but out of the sudden grey sky loomed and I had to put the dough in the oven with a bowl of hot water to artificially simulate the hot temperature for 2nd proofing. 

I've copied the recipe here for ready reference. The original recipe can be found here.

Custard Bun
(Makes 15 buns) 

For the custard:

Ingredients:

• Egg yolks- 2
• Sugar- 1/3 cup
• Plain flour- ¼ cup
• Corn flour- 1 tbsp
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Salt- 1 pinch
• Milk- 1 cup
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Method:

• Warm the milk.
• Beat the egg yolks until pale and add in the sugar and flours.
• Pour warm milk into it and whisk continuously until well incorporated.
• Add in the butter, salt and vanilla essence.
• Put back into the fire and with constant stirring make  a thick custard. (I put the custard in the blender and pulse for 1-2 mins to have a smoother custard.)
• Transfer it into a bowl and later put it into the fridge to chill.
• In the meantime prepare the bread dough.

For the bread dough:

Ingredients:

• Bread flour- 2 cups
• Egg- ½ (keep the rest for the egg wash)
• Sugar- ¼ cup
• Salt- ¼ tsp
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Yeast- 1 tsp
• Milk pwd- 1 tbsp
• Warm Water- ½ - ¾ cup
• Olive Oil- 2 tbsp (I think 1-1.5 tbsp should be good enough)

Method:

• Mix everything together except the oil and butter.
• Bring everything together and later add in the butter and knead for 10 minutes by hand until the dough is soft and elastic. (I use KA mixer - dough hook - for the kneading. To check if dough is ready, use windowpane test.)
• Apply the oil and cover with a cling foil for 1 hour until the dough is double in size.
• Punch down the dough and divide it into 15 balls.
• Slightly flatten it out and place a tsp full of the custard.
• Repeat until you finish off the dough and the custard.
• Arrange on a tray lined with parchment paper.
• Let it rise for another one hour.
• Apply the egg wash(1/2 egg+1 tbsp water+ 1 tbsp milk)
• Preheat the oven to 200 deg C for 10 minutes.
• Bake for 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
• Can be stored for 2 days at room temperature.
• Can be kept in the fridge for one week. Microwave for 30 sec before serving. 

Dorayaki

I love how this Dorayaki turned out! My boy requested for cheese & peanut butter filling for his breakfast, and another one packed for his recess. 

You can easily get it done all within 20 mins, from weighing ingredients to serving. Recipe can be found here. 

Nutella cupcake

Another bake for our breakfast today! Instead of a 22-25cm chiffon pan, I baked them in cupcakes. It shrunk quite a fair bit after out of the oven, and too moist.

I'm copying the recipe here from Table for 2 for ready reference. I may try out using chiffon tin the next time. I also missed reading the part about reducing the milk. Have to take special note the next time!

Nutella Cupcake 
(yields 18 cupcakes) 

Ingredients

100gm hot milk (to reduce)
180gm Nutella
80gm cake flour, sifted
5 egg yolks (grade B)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

5 egg whites (grade B)
80gm sugar ( I reduce to 70gm) 

Method

1. Melt Nutella with hot milk, stir until smooth. Let it cool down.
2. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C. Prepare a 22 or 25cm chiffon pan. Do not grease. ( I use cupcake liners)
3. When the Nutella mixture has cooled down, mix with egg yolks, flour and vanilla extract until it becomes a smooth batter.
4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks and gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff.
5. Put 1/4 of the egg whites into the Nutella batter, with quick and gentle stroke, fold the batter. Repeat with another 1/4 of the egg whites.
6. Pour the Nutella batter into the egg whites, scrape the Nutella batter bowl clean and fold the final batter until no streaks of egg whites are seen.
7. Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until done. ( I bake the cupcakes for 20-25mins)
8. Remove from oven immediately, and cool it upside down*.
9. When cake has TOTALLY cooled down, remove from mould and slice to serve. Keep cake air covered to prevent drying out.

Mini baked egg cake

I hasn't been baking for my late mum for a while and I'm glad I did it this 清明节.

And I thought I could steam the cake using the same recipe but it didn't turn out as expected. Luckily I was left with 50% batter to bake them. Nice, cute & liked by all the kids!

Ingredients:
(Yield about 35 to 40 mini cupcakes) 
3 egg whites
65g icing sugar
3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
50g corn oil
65g self-raising flour
5g cocoa powder + 1 tbsp hot water

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix egg yolks and whole egg together with a hand whisk. Add in corn oil till combined. (I used the mixer)
2. Sieve in self-raising flour and mix well, set aside. 
3. Whisk the egg whites to bubbly at medium speed and add icing sugar into it in 3 batches and whisk to stiff peak. 
4. Add 1/3 of meringue to egg yolk mixture and fold well with a rubber spatula. Then pour all the egg mixture into the meringue at low speed and mix well. 
5. Scoop the batter into the mini cupcake liner about 3/4 full.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 18-20 mins. 

Passionfruit butter cake

I'm trying to getting into the good habit of baking for our daily breakfast.

Passionfruit butter cake 
(yield 9X5" loaf tin)

Ingredients/ Method:
250g self raising flour, sifted
250g good quality unsalted butter, softened
185g castor sugar (I reduced it to 170g)
170g whole eggs, at room temperature (about 3 eggs)
100ml passionfruit juice (Only left with 2 passionfruit and yield 55gm juice, so added 45ml milk) 

1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Prepare lined loaf tin and set aside.
2)In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 5 mins until pale and fluffy.
3) Add beaten eggs to butter mixture in 6 additions, ensuring that each addition is well incorporated before adding the next addition.
4) Add 1/3rd of flour to the egg-butter mixture on low speed till well incorporated. Next add in passionfruit juice to batter till well incorporated.
5) Add another 1/3rd of flour to the batter till well incorporated. Add the milk and mix till well incorporated. Lastly add the remaining flour into the batter and mix till well incorporated.
6) Scrape the side and bottom with a spatula for any loose ingredients.
7) Bake for about 50-60 min at 180 deg C.
8) Check doneness when skewer come out clean after inserted into cake.
9) Allow cake to cool completely on wire rack.

Re-visiting (water roux/ 汤面) Pandan chiffon cake

I seems to be hooked to baking chiffon cake these days, and has been looking at too many pandan chiffon cake. I saw the  汤面 method so frequently on fb and had a go at it. 1st try wasn't really a success, there were lumps of 'pandan bits' after baking and the texture was dense. Was going through my earlier pandan chiffon cake bakes and realised I did one similar method before, totally forgotten about it! Revisiting the recipe and yield more satisfactory result! Ingredients are almost the same, just a little difference in the method and it's more manageable for me. Yum yum! 

Milo brownie pound cake

I'm getting the baking vibes again, and just last night, I baked this milo brownie pound cake after my search on "milo cake" turns to foodmadewithlove. The cake turned out like a lava cake, though not meant to be, but adore by the 2 men at home! See the gooey centre :p

I'm copying the recipe here for ready reference. 

Milo Brownie Pound Cake 

(recipe below makes a 9" round cake, but I've halved the recipe to make a 6" round cake)

Ingredients: 

175g butter, room temperature

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

200ml milk 

200g milo powder, extra 50g for dusting

40g cocoa powder

a pinch coffee granules 

200g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 pinch salt

1 tbsp salted butter, melted 

Method: 

1) Preheat oven to 175 deg C. Prepare a 9×9 inch springform baking tin by lining the bottom with grease proof paper and lightly coating the interior with olive oil. (I use 6" round tin and lined the bottom & sides)

2) Dissolve 100g of milo powder and coffee granules in milk. Heat it a little to allow it to dissolve quicker. Set it aside and allow it to cool completely.

3) In a large bowl, sift the flour, 100g of milo powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4) In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and beat till just combined. Stir in the vanilla bean paste.

5) Add the flour mixture and milo milk alternately, starting with the flour mixture.

6) Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and spread it out to make sure it’s evenly spread. Bake the cake for 30-40 mins (nothing more as it will overcook!) and allow it to cool in the tin for 10 mins. (I baked mine at 170 deg C for 30 mins)

7) Carefully release the spring and invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Brush the top with the melted salted butter and dust with 50g of milo powder.