Strawberry Shortcake II

Combined ideas from Happy Home Baking and La Fuji Mama this time round and got a perfect match. A tiny yay! to my frosting efforts. Think it looks neater this time round though not perfect.

The last minute layered cake practice was meant for boyfriend's birthday. How can I pride myself a baker if I don't bake something for my loved one's birthday? That joker is a fan of strawberries, so a classic strawberry shortcake would deem fit for his birthday cake.

Happy Birthday you crazy boy!

Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:

Cake:
165g cake flour
5 eggs, room temperature
150g caster sugar
35g unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons fresh milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Syrup:
50g sugar
60ml water
1 tsp Grand Marnier

Whipped Cream:
2 tsps unflavored gelatin
8 tsps cold water
480ml cold heavy whipping cream
60g confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

125g strawberries, sliced plus 8 whole strawberries for decoration

Method:

To make the cake:

1. Sift cake flour for 3 times, set aside. Line bottom and sides of 9"round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter turns pale, becomes thick, double/triple in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like trail when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Sift over cake flour into the batter in 3 separate additions. With each addition, use a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended. Take care not to deflate the batter.
4. Add the melted butter, fold in gently with spatula until well blended
5. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula until well blended.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 38 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, cool completely.

To make syrup:
1. In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and water. Bring the water to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, then stir in Grand Marnier.

To make whipped cream:
1. Put the cold water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes (do not stir). Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and beat until slightly thickened. Then, while beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture. Then whip the mixture at high speed until stiff.

To assemble the cake:
1. Place one sponge layer cut-side up on a cake board or serving plate and lightly crush the surface with the simple syrup. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream over the cake layer and arrange the strawberries over the surface. Spread an additional layer of whipped cream over the berries. Brush the cut-side of the second layer with the simple syrup and place it over the first layer. Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining whipped cream. Decorate as desired and garnish with the remaining berries.

Strawberry Swiss Roll

Even though I have not been leaving comments at your blog, rest assured that I'm religiously catching up on the wonderful entries all of you have been posting! Been seeing a surge of beautiful swiss rolls posts from you talented ladies!

After my previous Sahara-Dessert-dry swiss roll, I took a dive for one of the popular swiss roll books that was sitting patiently in my shelf waiting to serve its purpose. The result was great, I only saw the swiss roll in the morning for photo taking and it vanished.

The rolling isn't ideal, but it's still so pretty to look at.

Will be leaving for Bangkok in a bit. Happy long weekend to me! hehehe

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers # 9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times! hosted by {L}.

Strawberry Swiss Roll (adapted from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)

Ingredients:

Separated eggs method sponge cake:
35g unsalted butter, melted
100g egg yolks (about 5)
25g caster sugar
160g egg whites (about 4)
75g caster sugar
55g cake flour
1 tsp red powder (I use 1/2 tsp strawberry emulco)

Filling:
180g dairy whipping cream
20g sugar
10 fresh strawberries

Method:
Sponge Cake:
1. Whisk egg yolks with 25g caster sugar over a pot of simmering water. Beat till all sugar dissolves and mixture become thick and pale.
2. Place egg whites and 75g caster sugar in a medium bowl and beat on high speed. Once reached stiff peak, beat on low speed for 1 minute.
3. Add one third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in with a spatula.
4. Add in the remaining meringue into the egg yolk mixture and fold in gently.
5. Sift in cake flour into the mixture in 3 batches, each time folding in gently.
6. Add a scoop of batter into the bowl with melted butter and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth. Add the batter and butter mixture back into the rest of the batter and fold in gently.
7. Retrieve 100g of the batter into a small bowl and add in the red powder (or emulco) and fold in under well mixed. Pour the pink batter back into the mixing bowl and create marbled swirl patterns.
8. Pour the batter into a lined 14" x 11" tray and smoothen it out with a scraper
9. Bake for 180°C for 12 mins until the cake is golden brown and springs back to touch.
10. Remove cake from oven and peel off the parchment paper from the 4 edges to let it cool.
11. Let it cool for 2 - 3 mins then cover the cake up with a bigger piece of parchment paper and slowly invert it and peel off the parchment on the other side. Place another piece of parchment paper on the peeled side and invert the cake again, so that the golden brown side faces up.

Filling:
1. Put whipping cream in a bowl and place over another big bowl filled with ice cubes. Beat cream until thick.
2. Add in sugar and beat until stiff.

Rolling the cake:
1. Spread filling on cake and line strawberries at the edge.
2. Roll the swiss roll and use parchment paper to secure its shape and chill for 30 to 60 mins. Trim the edges off and you're done.

Strawberry Roll

Took a quick snap of this recipe off one of BakerTan's recipe books while we were baking together some time ago. No idea what's the name of the book, so I'm going to leave it blank.

Made some adjustments to the recipe according to my pan size. Method is pretty straight forward, but the roll did not turn out as awesome. It was kinda dry for me. But I had fun rolling it hahah. Got greedy on the cream filling and they started vomitting out. Oops.

Anyway I got started on my Masters this weekend. Already starting to feel the stress with the group assignment due next week. Gaahhhh.

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers # 9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times! hosted by {L}.

Strawberry Roll

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 eggs
65g caster sugar
1/2 tsp strawberry emulco
65g plan flour, sifted

Strawberry Cream:
200g whipped cream
200g strawberries, chopped

Method:

1. Whisk eggs until frothy, add sugar slowly and whisk until very thick. Add strawberry emulco and whisk until even. Flour in flour in 3 batches. Divide and pour into a 11" x 11" lined swiss roll tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C for 10 mins till cooked and springy. Remove, turn onto a big piece of greased proof paper sprinkled with 1 tbsp of caster sugar. Trim the crusty edges. Firmly roll up the sponge from one side, with paper inside. Leave to cool before spreading the filling.
2. Unroll the sponge and remove the paper. Spread cream over the sponge and sprinkle with chopped strawberries. Cover strawberries with some whipped cream. Carefully roll up the cake.
3. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

I'm kind of puzzled as to why this book got negative ratings on Amazon.com. Yes, the frostings are crazily sweet, but don't most American cupcake books have insanely sweet frostings? Other than that, the ideas and mixing method is innovative and totally unique. I was thrilled to dig my fork into the cupcakes when I finished decorating them and was swooning away when I had a bite.

I think to truly enjoy this book is to follow the steps with a bit of your instinct and discretion on the description on how the batter/cupcakes should turn out to be. The ingredients proportion may not be entirely accurate, but it's a refreshing change from the usual high-flour-ratio/lots-of-butter cupcake recipes. Highly recommend this book to all you baking book librarians out there.

The cupcakes are awesome! The cake is moist and tender. A little on the sweet side, but not that I'm complaining. The digestive biscuit crumbs add a crunch to the soft cake. Rich tangy cream cheese frosting adds a fuller body to the whole taste experience. Lastly, a little strawberry surprise awaits you when your fork hits the bottom of the cupcake. My favorite cupcake so far.

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #5: Fruity March (March 2011).

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
(makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese Frosting:
300g icing sugar (Used 115g)
50g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold

Method:

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.

Cupcakes:
120g all purpose flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
120ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
12 large strawberries, chopped (165g for me)
200g digestive biscuits (25g for me. 200g is way off)

Method:

1. Line a 12-tin cupcake tray with paper cases. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
3. Pour in the milk and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until all the ingredients are well mixed (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).
4. Add the egg and beat well for a few mins.
5. Divide the chopped strawberries between the paper cases. Spoon the cupcake mixture on top until 2/3 full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until light golden and the cake come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Roughly break the digestive biscuits and put them in a food processor. Process until finely ground. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese frosting on top and finish with a sprinkling of finely ground biscuits.

Jelly Hearts

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #4: Love in the Air (Feb 2011)! Super duper late entry for this month's theme, glad I made it though, so I don't break my AB streak since SSB started it.

Saw many making these dainty desserts quite a while ago but had been procrastinating to make them. Had many questions initially and finally got them answered at the recent bloggers meetup. Thanks to Jasmine who provided me lotsa useful tips to make them! She even texted me later on to check on my progress, to see everything turns out well. Touched ok. :P

An unfortunate accident happened. The jelly water was leaking out of the aluminium tray pan as I did not shrink wrap it, so the jelly layer thinned by a lot. So lesson learnt, use a good leak proof pan for jelly hearts. Nevertheless, these little cheesecake slices are not only pretty to look at, they taste delicious too.

Jelly Hearts

Ingredients:

Biscuit Base:
300g digestive biscuits, processed in a food blender
140g melted butter

Cheesecake filling:
250g cream cheese, room temperature
50g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (I use vanilla powder)
10g gelatine powder
120ml hot water
16 strawberry halves, cut into heart shapes

Jelly Topping:
1 box of Strawberry Jello
240ml boiling hot water
240ml cold water

Method:
1. Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly onto the base of a 8"x8" square cake tin. Put cake tin in fridge for later use.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till thick and smooth.
3. Soak gelatin powder in water and transfer to double boiler.
4. Slowly add dissolved gelatin to cream cheese mixture and mix well.
5. Pour cheese filling onto prepared cake tin and spread evenly.
6. Lay the strawberries on the cream cheese mixture and chill for abt 3h.

7. Dissolve strawberry jello in boiling water. Add in the cold water after jelly dissolves.

8. Pour the jelly onto the chilled cheesecake. Chill in the fridge until jelly is set before removing from the cake tin. Serve as desire.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake II

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year celebrations as well as the oriental Valentine's Day. I hope everyone had spent a lovely day earlier on with your loved ones including family and friends.

Sometimes my boyfriend can be really silly. He got flowers for me. Last week he texted me for my office address out of the blue. Being the oh-so-predictable him, I knew what he's up to. So I asked him why was he asking for it. He was like, just give it to me. So I got busy with work and stopped replying, he started spamming my phone with "Helloooooo".

So on Valentine's Day, he insisted on meeting up despite we're fine to postpone the celebrations to the weekend. And he was so anxious that he kept texting me to see if the flowers have reached my office. Ahh well, so much for the surprise. He's such a silly donkey sometimes.

On a side note, carrying a bulky bouquet of flowers on public transport is pretty embarrassing.

Favorite white flowers!

and yes I'm a happy girl

Anyway, I've baked a chiffon cake to ease my baking craves. Not one of my best chiffon bakes, but I like how fruity the cake tastes due to the large quantity of fresh strawberries. It's relatively dense compared to the lighter cottony cakes I've baked due to the large ratio of flour, but still soft and gives the melt-in-your-mouth sensation. Looking forward to try out more recipes from this book.

Strawberry Chiffon Cake (adapted from Kevin Chai's Chiffon Cake Is Done)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Batter:
200g strawberries
6 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
60ml cooking oil
1 tbsp strawberry paste (I use 1/4 tsp strawberry emulco)
few drops pink colouring (skipped this)
120g plain flour

Egg Whites Foam:
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C .
2. Blend strawberries until puree.
2. To make egg yolk batter, combine strawberry puree with egg yolks, sugar, oil, strawberry paste and coloring in a mixing bowl. Fold in flour until batter is formed.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold the beaten egg whites foam into egg yolks batter until blended.
5. Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube pan. Bake for 30 to 40 mins (baked mine for 40 mins) or until cooked.
6. Remove cake from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cooled.

Strawberry Shortcake

Given the current massive influx of strawberries in our local supermarkets, I'm gonna include them in this week's bake. Most american recipes calls for strawberries and cream sandwiched between 2 sweet biscuits, which is not too similar to the local version of a Strawberry Shortcake - sponge cake smeared with generous serving of whipped cream and strawberries. And Tish Boyle's take of this lovely cake happens to what I'm looking for.

This is the biggest baking flop I've ever had. The cream was bleeding itself to death. It was too runny and honestly in my opinion, 720ml (unwhipped, to boot) is a lot of cream to have on a cake. My cake was threatening to collapse any moment with the cream sweating all over the place. I ended up cutting it and storing it as if it was a trifle.

Kinda pissed off as I spent a good amount of time and money on this. Bleah. Tastes good though! It's like the Ugly Betty of all strawberry shortcakes. The strawberries plus moderate amount of zesty orange cream, accompanied by fluffy génoise is awesome.

Strawberry Shortcake (adapted from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book)

Ingredients:

Classic Génoise (baked in a 9" springform pan):
100g cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
6 large eggs
150g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (I omitted this)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
85 unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method:

1. Position the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 180°C. Grease the bottom and sides of one 9x3-inch springform pan or two 9x2 round cake pans. Dust the pan(s) with flour and set aside.

2. Sift together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugar by hand. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the mixing bowl. Constantly stir the mixture and heat until the eggs are warm. Transfer to the bowl to the electric mixer and, using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume, about 8 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and beat in lemon zest and vanilla extract.
4. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and gently fold it in with a rubber spatula. Repeat sifting and folding in flour two more times.
5. Transfer about 3/4 cup of the batter into the melted butter. Stir until blended. Return to batter and fold in. Transfer batter to the prepared pan(s).
6. If using 9-inch springform pan, bake for 25 to 30 mins and if using two 9-inch cake pans, bake for 12 to 15 mins, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and cake tester inserted into center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake(s) in the pan(s) on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
8. Invert cake(s) onto the wire rack and cool completely.

Strawberry Filling:
680g fresh strawberries, washed and hulled (total amt needed)
2 tbsp granulated sugar

Strawberry Syrup:
66g granulated sugar
80ml water
165g sliced reserved strawberries (from above)

Whipped Cream Filling and Frosting:
57g confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 tsp cornstarch
720ml heavy cream, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau

Method:

1. Choose 8 of the nicest looking strawberries and reserve them for the top of the cake. Slice the remaining strawberries 1/8" thick. Measure out 165g of the slice stawberries and reserve them for the syrup.

2. In a medium bowl, toss the remaining sliced strawberries with the sugar. Cover the bowl and set the strawberries aside to macerate for 2 hours or until they have released their juices.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat.
4. Place the 165g sliced strawberries in the bowl of a food processor or a blender, add the sugar syrup, and process until smooth. Let the syrup cool completely.
5. In a small saucepan, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, cornstarch and 120ml heavy cream until smooth. Place the pan over medium-high heat and, whisking constantly, bring to a boil. Allow to boil for abt 15 secs. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool completely.
6. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the remaining heavy cream with the vanilla extract, orange zest, and Grand Marnier at medium high speed until cream just begins to thicken and the whisk leaves a trail in the cream. Add the cooled cornstarch mixture and beat until the cream forms stiff peaks.
7. Using a long serrated knife, slice the génoise horizontally into 2 layers. Place one of the layers cut side up on a cardboard cake round or serving plate. Brush half of the strawberry syrup. Spoon the macerated strawberries, with all their juices, on top of the layer. Spread 2 cups of whipped cream over the berries in an even layer. Top with the other cake layer, cut side up. Brush the layer with the remaining syrup. Frost the top of the sides of the cake with the remaining whipped cream.
8. Garnish the top of the cake with reserved whole strawberries. Serve the cake immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.