Orange Chiffon Cake II

Bookstores are like my new hangout. Poor boyfriend has to stand with me, entertaining himself for the first half an hour by looking at pictures on the cover pages, then start groaning that I'm walking in circles around the same bookshelves hehe.

So recently on one of these eventful Fridays, I saw this lady meticulously checking out then finally pulled out one of the baking books I owned and decided to make it her own. I made a casual remark, 'I have that book, the brownies is good.' Her eyes lit up and she was like, 'Really?! Are they the fudgy or cakey kind?' Then we started chatting about our favorite books, like how Dorie Greenspan's one is good, and how every cake from Rose Levy Beranbaum turns out fabulous. She recommended me a few books which I had already coincidentally chucked them in my Amazon.com wishlist. Now I'm so getting them. And I told her Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking is one of the two favorite baking books (The other one being Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours), and she swiftly took that book off the shelf and told me she's getting it because she trusts me. Before she left, she passed me a couple of 25% discounts off books. Wow. What an awesome lady.

Heh heh. Enough of the chattering, was too excited about the encounter. Anyway, wasn't too happy with my first attempt of orange chiffon cake, so decided to give it another shot. Added a bit more flour to give it more structure, feels like buying more insurance in this case haha.

Thankfully the cake turns out well. No falling off the tin (yay!...and finally) and the incredible thing is, I inverted it and left it uncovered for >12h in the kitchen as I had to rush out for my company's D&D, and by the time I reached home at 3am, it was still moist and fluffy! The orange taste is subtle though, barely noticeable if I did not mention that it's supposedly an orange chiffon cake. Since I can't add more juice to it, orange zest it shall be. More orange zest...more!!

Am submitting my second chiffon entry to Small Small Baker's Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010). :)

Orange Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
90g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g orange juice, room temperature (I squeezed fresh orange juice)
50g canola oil
1 tsp of Grand Marnier
orange zest

180g egg whites (mine was 214g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add orange juice, canola oil, Grand Marnier and orange zest to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue mixture and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into 20cm chiffon tin and bake for 40-50 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Almond Longan Chiffon Cake

Have been seeing Daring Bakers/Cooks off foodie websites like foodgawker.com, so am pretty excited to be submitting this post to Small Small Baker's Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010)!

Baking chiffon really tests my patience. Have been lucky enough to have successful bakes when I first started out, until recently. I get funny shaped chiffons due them falling off the tin during cooling, they end up looking so funny that my mom and sister can't help but to laugh out loud when they see the odd looking chiffons. I'm going to call them my haha-chiffons, since they don't look tall and fluffy like good chiffons are, they serve the purpose of amusing people. Gonna consolidate a gallery of my haha-chiffons and baking bloopers when I find the time hurhur.

After a few consecutive fail chiffon bakes, finally got a proper one! Thankfully this one worked, else I'm going to be really demoralised. The usual light fluffy cottony texture wins hands down. Refreshing longan backed with an almond under-note. I have no problem distributing my calories, this one's pretty popular over here. On a side note, think I'll take a break from baking chiffons after this month, these cheeky temperamental bakes are a little too much for me to take.

Almond Longan Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
60g water
60g canola oil
1/2 tsp longan flavoring
1 tsp pure almond extract

180g egg whites (about 5 eggs, mine was 195g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add water, canola oil, longan flavoring and almond extract to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Walnut Chocolate Brownies

Am a huge fan of Anna Olson, hoarding the TV on AFC to catch her show during the first season of Fresh, now the second season is showing, I'm camping by the TV every Tuesday 9pm to catch her. So naturally I was in ecstasy when she announced that she's coming to Singapore for live demonstrations from 20th to 24th Nov. 10th Nov was the first day of registration open to public and by the time I have time to login that night, all the slots were taken up!!! Disappointed.

Byebye Anna :`( I'm so saaaaaad that I'm going to eat a tub of ice cream :( Miraculously, there were slots available a few days later when I check out the website. And I registered for it!! :P

Starstruck. She's SUPER DUPER AWESOME. My only regret is I didn't go earlier so that I can take the front row seats. Think it'll feel weird seeing her on TV again this coming Tuesday now that I've met her in person. She demonstrated the 3 desserts and we were given a serving of them. They all taste great. Think I'm going to try doing them someday.

omgomg when I grow up, I want to be just like her! :P

Invited a kid to help her with the tarts. To showcase how easy her recipes are, imo.

Raisin Butter Tart - a Canadian favorite

Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Apple, Date & Cheddar Muffin

Autographs on my books. I'm really just a school girl at heart. hehe

In relevance to my meet up, I'm making Anna Olson's brownies! She said there was a period of time where she was into this brownie craze and baking them daily until her husband was like, Your brownies are great, STOP! haha. Kinda remind how I'm like when I'm not happy with my bakes, I just keep repeating the same thing, trying out all sorts of recipes till I get it.

I'm kinda hoping these brownies will turn out to be the tall, non fudgy, cakey version which we commonly have over here, due to the recipe's higher flour and eggs ratio. Reduced the sugar by half to further ensure that it will not turn out as fudgy. And indeed, the brownies turn out to be like what I expected them to be. Can use a little more sugar if it's meant to be eaten on its own. I can imagine it being warmed up and served with a scoop of rich dense vanilla bean ice cream. Guess this will be my to-go recipe if I want a version of our local brownie.
Walnut Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar)

Ingredients:
225g unsalted butter (I use 200g)
92g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
350g sugar (I use 180g, will do 250g for the future bakes)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
70g walnuts, toasted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C and grease a 8" x 11" baking pan (I use 9" square baking pan)
2. Melt butter over stove and pour into a larger bowl.
3. Sift cocoa into butter and stir in. Stir in sugar
4. Add eggs into mixture, blending well after each addition
5. Stir in vanilla
6. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt (do not sift) and add to cocoa mixture and blend
7. Stir in walnuts
8. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35 mins, until firm when touched

Japanese Chocolate Cake

Happy Birthday to me! Time files, a year older doesn't necessarily mean a year wiser, at least for me! LOL Sometimes find my maturity pretty much the same since school days. This year has been fun. Appreciate how the people around me celebrated this day for me, planning surprises and all, making me feel special and all. /touched Even papa and mama both dropped me missed calls at the same time, wanting to wish me Happy Birthday.

my team staged an act and told me this is my birthday cake

The actual birthday cake. Don't trust the candles on the cake, I'm 21, really!

little baking bear birthday card which colleagues got me :P

A baker's birthday is a big deal when it comes to the cake, so might as well bake one for myself in celebration of the two folks who worked the hardest 27 21 years ago...my mama and the gynea my papa! Some sinful chocolate cake!

Packed with a deep chocolatey depth from using cocoa powder and melted chocolate. Dense and rich with a crusty baked top. Dark chocolate fans will adore it. It's the kind of chocolate cake which you would want to serve it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some freshly whipped cream. The only qualm I have of this cake is, it's like Ugly Betty, absolutely fantastic on the inside but not so appealing on the outlook. And the cake is supposed to look like this because the picture in the baking book looks like this too hahahhah

..............and after all that celebration and birthday cakes, it's time for a diet.

Chocolate Cake (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
35g pastry flour
50g cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
100g sweet chocolate 55% cocoa (I use Valrhona Equatoriale 55%)
80g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
50g superfine sugar
4 egg yolks
50g whipping cream (I use 33.5% fat)
4 egg whites
110g superfine sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line 7" cake pan with parchment paper
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a double boiler
4. Once chocolate and butter have melted, add sugar, egg yolks and cream and mix well using a whisk. Set aside
5. Make meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and beat until egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form
6. Add one third of meringue to chocolate mixture and fold with a whisk
7. Add flour and cocoa powder and fold in thoroughly
8. Add remaining meringue and fold until just incorporated
9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for about 50mins (56mins for me). When cake is done, remove from pan and leave to cool on a wire rack

Milk Tea Chiffon Cake

I like playing around with chiffon cakes flavoring as they are really versatile. Since I have been craving for milk tea (Ice cream milk tea!!!) recently, milk tea it shall be! :P

Just a bit of reminiscing. When I first started dating my boyfriend, our group of friends visited KOI often. So soon after, he was craving for milk tea frequently. So being the new-girlfriend who wanted to impress her new date, I started making home made milk tea for him. Experimented with various combination to achieve the KOI milky consistency. So he was happily gulping down buckets and buckets of milk tea to find his waistline expanding. My boyfriend has pretty high self awareness of his physique, so he went on a milk tea ban and that was the end of my milk tea adventure.

Despite having baked chiffons for a good number of times, success is still not guaranteed =/ My chiffon fell off from its mould when I inverted it LOL That explains cake's cool Nike-like Let's-Do-It symbol rooftop. Second time it happened. May have to try baking it slightly longer than my usual 40 mins so that it'll cling to the sides more.

And it is not as light and fluffy as the usual bakes. Grrrrr... The milk tea taste isn't apparent as well. I've already used 2 tea bags to infuse the tea leaves flavor but guess there is a better method somewhere out there. Booo. Thankfully the cake is still pretty good on its own. It tastes like.........................a flavorless chiffon cake. HAHAH I'll definitely revisit this with an improvised version soon.

Milk Tea Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
70g concentrated milk tea (Measured out from 2 infused ceylon tea bags into 200ml of water + 20g creamer)
60g canola oil

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 198g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add milk tea and canola oil to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Chewy-Dense Brownies

Back from Malacca! Can't say I enjoy the trip too much because it was like a pigging out tour. Bus ride-sleep-eat-bus ride-sleep-eat. Not too good for my waistline. The irony is I lost weight despite having eating loads there. Think I lost muscle mass lying around in the bus all day.
Have been tasked with Project: Brownies by my team at work for this year end, if all go well, it'll come to something by end of this year. We'll see. So I'm back to trying out new brownie recipes which you shall be seeing more of them soon, in search of the chewy and cakey, since I've gotten a few fudgy-s going in my earlier recipes which I'm already pretty pleased. It gets kinda confusing what should be the standard brownie in Singapore. Most of the brownies sold are tall and more towards cakey. They're usually served warm with a scoop of ice cream. Whereas for american recipes, the more fudgy, the better. So I don't know, I'm just going to do what I think is good since I'm the baker hurhur.

So here's my first attempt for my new project. Chewy! Since I have not been doing anything from David Lebovitz for a while, guess I should eh?

Dense and moist brownies they are. It has the right amount of chocolate, in fact my colleagues prefer them over my previous brownies due to the addition of pecans which adds crunchiness and nutty flavor to the brownie and the chocolate is not overpowering. They also raved about the crusty flakey top.

In terms of chewy-ness, it is ironically not the most chewy brownie I had. In fact I think my previous ones are more chewy than these. With that, I actually prefer my previous attempt heh heh. I'm sure I've given it a good vigorous stir during the 30 secs matter-of-life-and-death-brownie-moment. Maybe it will take a minute instead of 30 secs for my skinny arms to achieve the same chewy texture since Mr Lebovitz is a grown up man himself, definitely have more muscles hurhur. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good brownie recipe to add into ice cream as a mix-in as they stay chewy even though I've froze them in the freezer for a bit for picture perfect cuts.
Chewy-Dense Brownies (adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop)

Ingredients:
113g unsalted butter
113g semisweet chocolate (I use Valrhona Alpaco 66%, even though book recommends 55% to 64%)
250g granulated sugar (I use 230g, like minus 20g of sugar will make much difference :Þ)
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
70g all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
85g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I left them out)
75g pecans/walnuts/whatever nuts, coarsely chopped and toasted (only added 55g pecans as there's all I'm left with LOL)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil, making sure the foil covers the bottom and sides. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over med-low heat. When butter is melted, reduce heat to low and add chocolate, stirring constantly until melted
3. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition
4. Add vanilla
5. Stir in the flour and salt, and stir vigorously for 30 seconds until batter is smooth
6. Stir in chocolate chips, if using
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, until the center is barely set. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Store at room temperature

Campton Place Muffins (Granny Smith Version)

Hey folks! Am probably somewhere in the middle of Malaysia now. Am going there for a short holiday over the long weekend. Going to Malacca, have not been there since my secondary school field trip which...honestly, I can't really remember what went on at the trip other than a bus of rowdy hyperactive teenagers who probably are better off at a bbq than visiting Cheng Ho temples. Have to satisfy my baking urges before leaving.

Kinda late for the apple theme since it's like what, almost end of fall. Better late than never though. Went to the supermarket and bought an apple of each kind available - Red Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Fuji, didn't get this breed type called Jazz what's that?. Did some apple research - funny thing how Google gave me Steve-Jobs-Apple when I typed in "Apples" as my keyword - found out that Jazz is a new variety of apples from NZ. Cool.

So I literally lay out my apples on my table like an art exhibition LOL. Finally picked Granny Smith for this one as I don't trust my speed in preparing the ingredients before the apples start to brown hehe. Whenever I bake with fruits, I'll have an uninvited guest sitting beside me in the kitchen watching me prepare the ingredients. The last time I made something with bananas, she was there too. This time, she pays her visit as well.

hello little fellow

all smiles upon seeing her apple scraps

her patience paid off

These muffins are dense and moist with a crunchy brown dome top. The tarty apples provide extra crisp while chewing on the muffin. The occasional acidity the fruit blends well with the sweet muffins. The batter turns out to be pretty thick, -I think it's written in such a way to carry the weight of cut fruits without letting them sink to the bottom - so you can afford to cut chunkier bits of apples than mine if you like that extra crunch.

Campton Place Muffins (adapted from Sherry Yard's Desserts by the Yard)
(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
130g cake flour
140g all purpose flour
150g granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
242g sour cream (I use lite sour cream, though I'm not supposed to! :P)
60ml milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
85g unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1 1/2 cup fruits, such as blueberries, chopped apples, or chopped figs) (I use 1 Granny Smith apple)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Spray a muffin tin with pan spray or line with paper liners
2. Sift together cake flour, plain flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
3. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, milk, vanilla and melted butter
4. Whisk in flour mixture and fold in the fruit
5. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling cups 3/4 full
6. Bake for 15mins. Rotate the tin from front to back, and bake for another 10 to 15mins, until muffins are lightly browned, firm to touch and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool in tin on a rack for 15mins, then remove muffins from tin and allow to cool complete on the rack

Brownie Buttons

What happens when your baking withdrawal symptoms kicks in and you're only left with minimal ingredients in the house? You'll start flipping your library of baking books to see if there's a downsized version of anything-at-all to bake. And there I've found it! hehe

Melting white chocolate can be a bitch, was afraid that it'll seize again, so didn't go all the way, so the mixture was kind of thick. So I use a spatula and spread them over the buttons. Mama bought me a new mini zester, so was happy to use it. Ended up zesting my fingers instead LOL

I like how these buttons come in bite size so you wouldn't feel so bad if you just have one (really?) of it. The orange zest may be optional for this recipe, but I strongly recommend you to use it as it differentiates this brownie from the typical oh-no-it's-chocolate-and-chocolate-again brownies you have been having, contributes a tangy note to the chocolatey flavor. It actually tastes more like an ultra moist chocolate cake than a brownie, imo. A nice variation of typical fudgy brownie squares I've been making.

Brownie Buttons (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

Ingredients:
Grated zest of 1/2 orange (optional)
1 tsp granulated sugar (optional)
35g + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
56g unsalted butter, cut into 4 pcs
70g bittersweet chocolate (I use Valrhona Alpaco 66%)
70g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Light butter 2 miniature muffin pans, each with a dozen cups and place them on a baking sheet.
2. If you're using orange zest, combine zest and sugar in a small bowl, rubbing them between your fingertips to blend. Set aside.
3. Whisk together flour and salt
4. Melt the butter, chocolate and brown sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula and keeping an eye on the pan so nothing overheats or burns.
5. When mixture is smooth, remove from heat and cool for a min or two
6. Stir in vanilla, egg and zest (if you are using it) into chocolate mixture
7. When the mixture is well blended, add in the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have a smooth, glossy batter
8. Spoon into 16 of the muffin cups, using abt a tsp batter to fill each cup 3/4 full
9. Bake for 14 to 16mins or until tops of buttons spring back when touched.
10. Transfer pans to rack to cool for 3mins before carefully releasing the buttons. Cool to room temperature on racks

To Make Optional Glaze:

1. Melt 56g of white chocolate in a small heatproof bowl set over saucepan of simmering water
2. As soon as chocolate is smooth, remove from heat
3. One by one, dip the tops of the buttons into the chocolate, twirling the buttons so that you get a little swirl at the center of each one and the excess chocolate drips back into the bowl
4. Refrigerate the buttons for 15mins to set the glaze

Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Was discussing with Bakertan how old folks like my mama and her friends always tell me how my pound/loaf cakes can be softer and fluffier. I've always thought I've done something wrong, that's why my cakes are dense. But nooooope. Was enlightened that those cakes are meant to be dense. Asian folks are used to cakes being light and fluffy, that's why their suggestions on how I can improve my dense cakes are well, to make them less dense.

That explains why I don't have to market my chiffon cakes too much for them to vanish from the kitchen table. They're everything mama-s prefer - soft, cottony texture, you can eat them even if you have no teeth!

Think I got kinda rusty in meringue beating and they got a little dry, means...more practice required teehee! Right, so I got lazy and used strawberry emulco instead of fresh strawberries. Can't help it, no fresh korean strawberries available currently. Waiting for next year Feb/Mar where their supplies will be abundant ya. Stay tune!

Strawberry Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
80g cake flour
5 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
1 tsp strawberry emulco
70g water
60g canola oil

5 egg whites (weighed mine to be 198g)
90g caster sugar
10g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour and cocoa powder twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add strawberry emulco, water and canola oil to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into a 20-cm chiffon tin and bake for 40 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving