The “Roll” to success

Posted on May 10, 2013 by mumdaughterwife

Match Swiss Roll

My first attempt at making a swiss roll wasn’t successful. The cake cracked as soon as I rolled it, though I had followed as closely as I could the instructions given by the recipe. I almost gave up trying until I got to taste, in my opinion, one of the yummiest swiss rolls made by my colleague. After comparing notes, I discovered a few keys that could help successfully roll a swiss roll. One of the keys is to only start rolling the cake when it is COMPLETELY COOL.

The original recipe calls for matcha cream filling. It is just as good to use vanilla fresh cream filling which is a nice balance to the matcha cake.

Recipe – adapted from my buttery fingers

Ingredients:

Cake
4 eggs, separated
70g sugar
30ml vegetable oil
60ml water
80g cake flour
10g matcha powder

Matcha Cream filling
1tbsp matcha powder
2tbsp sugar
1tbsp hot water
150ml fresh cream (can use pouring cream or thickened cream)

*For vanilla fresh cream filling, omit the matcha powder and hot water, add 1 tsp of vanilla essence.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Sift together matcha powder and flour, line baking pan with baking paper. ( I used a rectangular lamington pan)
2. Mix the egg yolks and 30g of the sugar together. Add in the oil, then water and mix well. Fold in the flour/matcha mixture until just combined.
3. Whisk the egg whites until foamy, gradually add in the remaining sugar and whisk until a soft peak forms.
4. Using a spatula, mix in 1/3 of the egg whites with the flour mixture to soften it. Then fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.
5. Spread the cake mixture onto the pan and even off the top. Bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes
6. Let the cake cool down slightly, then cover it with a large piece of plastic food wrap while it is still in pan. Set it aside to cool completely.
7. Prepare the cream filling: combine the matcha powder, sugar and hot water to form a smooth paste. Let cool.
8. Whip the fresh cream with the matcha paste mixture until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
9. Carefully turn the pan over onto a flat surface, with the plastic wrap below the cake and the side with baking paper facing up. Gently peel off the baking paper from the cake. Spread the cream filling evenly over, leaving a border of approximately 1cm on one side. Roll the cake up from the side opposite the border with no cream. Wrap it up with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 4 hours.

Apple Indulgence

Posted on March 13, 2013 by mumdaughterwife

Have a look at the pictures. What do you think?

To bake this cake, it requires patience to thinly slice 8 apples and to bake it for more than an hour. However, all this hard work almost went down the drain when I discovered that I’d forgotten to set the timer 30 minutes into baking. As I could remember watching Masterchef while preparing (distraction, distraction), I just took the start time of Masterchef as the time the cake was put in the oven. And thank God, it turned out well.

The end product was a delicious cake, moist and custardy with layers and layers of apples. It reminds me of puddings.

French Apple Cake Recipe from Baking Bites

Ingredients:

680g of apple slices (I used 8 small apples)
1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg + 2 large egg yolks
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

If using a springform pan, lightly grease a 9-inch one. Wrap the base of the pan in aluminum foil. If just using a 9-inch round cake pan, make sure it is at least 2-inch deep. I used a silicone round pan with the base lined with baking paper.

Slice apples into thin slices, about 1/8-inch thick. Place apples in microwave-save dish and cover with plastic wrap. Cook on high heat for 3 minutes. Let cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In medium bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolks, oil, milk and vanilla. Pour them into dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Transfer 1 cup of batter back into another bowl.
Fold in apple slices to the cake batter in the large bowl. Pour it into prepared cake pan.
Whisk remaining 2 tbsp flour into the medium bowl with the batter that was set aside. Drizzle the batter evenly over the apple batter already in the pan.

Bake cake for 70-75 minutes, until cake is dark golden brown. The cake might still be “bubbling” when taken out of the oven. It will “dry up” as it cools. Remove cake from pan only when it’s completely cooled.

Just gotta start somewhere to keep going…

Posted on February 26, 2013 by mumdaughterwife

I need discipline, seriously……to update this blog!! I know it seems rather quiet over here but reality is I’ve been baking heaps in the past few weeks and some of them in my opinion were too-good-not-to-blog-about kind of stuff…so here comes the first one of those – the “really good chocolate chip cookies” as named by the original blogger. I totally agree with her in that. These cookies are the kind I like, soft and chewy, yet the “generous” amount of salt added just turned them to be so……sophisticated (that’s just the word that came to my mind).

Salty chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients (for 1.5 – 2 dozens cookies)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp + 1 pinch salt
1/2 cup or 115g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 170C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg till combined, followed by vanilla extract. Either fold in the flour mixture with the mixer on low speed, or manually with a spatula until no streaks of dry ingredients are seen. Lastly, stir in chocolate chips.
Use a tablespoon to drop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet, leaving enough room (about 2 inches) between cookies to allow for spread.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies are set and lightly browned around the edges. The cookies will continue to set once removed from oven, so do not overbake.
Let cookies cool on the baking sheet before removing.

Strawberry-Mango Muffins!

Posted on January 18, 2013 by mumdaughterwife

$1 for a punnet of strawberries and $12 for 20 mangoes. This is one of the very few things I like about summer in this place down under. Though I’ve been here for almost 20 years, celebrating Christmas in a sizzling hot summer just doesn’t look right. It’s so odd. I’d love to experience a white Christmas again……one day!

Anyway, let’s move on! I made these muffins with strawberries alone a couple of months ago. They tasted great and were so moist as the strawberries had been “preloaded” with sugar which in the end, yielded some strawberry juice. Since I’ve got so many mangoes this time, why not add them in too?

Strawberry-Mango Muffins

Strawberry-Mango Muffins (Recipe adapted from Butteryum)

Ingredients for 12 standard sized muffins:

1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup white sugar (use 2 tbsp for the strawberries)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
11/2 cup diced strawberries and 1 cup diced mangoes (optional)

Method:

Sprinkle 2 tbsp of sugar over the strawberries. Keep aside for 30-60 minutes to allow the juice to be drawn out. (Do not throw away the juice)

Preheat oven to 180C

Use the Dry and Wet method

Mix all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl, and the wet ingredients (eggs, oil, milk, vanilla extract) in another. Make sure the ingredients are fully incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, folding them with a spatula or spoon. Do not overmix. The mixture should look lumpy and there should be some visible spots of flour. Lastly, gently fold in the strawberries WITH the juice and mangoes. Pour batter into lined muffin tin and bake for 25-30 minutes.

I Ain’t Growing Strawberries!!

Posted on December 20, 2012 by mumdaughterwife

I’ve recently come across the term called “The Strawberry Generation” which is used in Asia to describe people born between 1981 and 1991, who just like strawberries, bruise easily under pressure. It is said that children of this generation are often overprotected by their parents, spoiled and selfish. Similarly, we have the Gen Y in the western world. My thought is that if this is what’s happening to the teens and young adults now, then what will it be like when my children enter their teenage years, which really isn’t too far away. How should I teach and guide them so that they don’t end up being just the smart brains yet having no clues about responsibilities, humility, diligence and respect?

1 Samuel 16:7, “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” I want my children to understand that their self-worth is not based on the outward such as academic achievements or talents, but their self-worth is developed through understanding their value in God and being confidant of His love. Yes, I know it is easier said than done. At times, I feel the pressure to compare my children with others, quietly wishing that they could be “better”, “smarter”……but deep in my heart, I know what I really want for them, that they will love God with all their hearts, serve Him with all their might, and pursue His call with all their lives. In saying this, I recognise fully that I NEED GOD, need His grace, need His wisdom, and I’m thankful that He’s given me the responsibilities as well as the privileges of parents.

Simple is best

Posted on November 16, 2012 by mumdaughterwife

Yes, it is just a banana cake…….NO!!! It’s more than a plain banana cake. It’s the best-ever banana cake!! This shows you how excited I am to discover this wonderfully simple and awfully delicious recipe!!

The cake is so moist (as brown sugar was used instead of white sugar), so banana-ey (with 4 bananas) and so popular with my 2 kids who together gobbled up half of it in one go.

Banana Sponge Cake

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients: (for a 9″ round cake)

3 large eggs, room temperature

120g dark brown caster sugar

4 medium bananas, mashed

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

100g oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 170C
Line the bottom of a the tin with baking paper.
Beat eggs, sugar & banana at high speed until the batter looks thick and is well mixed. (That was when I wished my stand mixer would come with a splash guard!)
Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda in separate bowl. Then fold them in with a spatula to the batter.
Gradually pour the oil into the batter and mix well. (I had my mixer at the lowest speed)
Bake for 40 – 45mins or till skewer comes out clean.

Mother.Daughter.Wife

Trying to strike the balance in life with help from Above……

The “Roll” to success

Apple Indulgence

Just gotta start somewhere to keep going…

Strawberry-Mango Muffins!

I Ain’t Growing Strawberries!!

Simple is best

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