Teh Si Puff Cakes

 

Teh Si, one of the most common drink we order at the coffee shops. During school term, i used to drink teh almost every morning for a certain period of time. It was so addictive. I love the combination of black tea and milk. Simply love the aroma of teh. I haven came across any Teh Si cakes before this. Seen earl grey or green tea cakes before, but Teh Si cakes? Nah. Tried to google online but can’t find any Teh Si cakes. Indeed an authentic asian flavor, surely worth a try right? I make several adjustments to the original recipe.These puff cakes are very fine and moist. (I call them puff cakes because they look so cute and puffy!) My puff cakes have a strong brown sugar taste. If i were to bake again, i will get  a stronger Teh Si than the average cups  to enhance the flavor. (Maybe Teh Si gao gao?) If you disklike the taste of brown sugar, use light brown sugar. I used dark brown sugar, so i guess the taste is slightly stronger. You can add cinnamon or nutmeg too. I didnt have any so i omitted them.  I’ll be submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #30: it’s Tea time! (April 2013) hosted by Food Playground. This is my 2nd time participating in Aspiring Bakers. My first entry was Healthier Honey Dew Sago for Aspiring Bakers #20: Asian dessert buffet 10 months ago! Wow, how time flies.

Recipe: (Original recipe adapted from “Cupcakes with Attitude by Benjamin Wong”  Makes 6 medium cupcakes)
Ingredients: 

Teh Si – 50 ml
Brown sugar – 50g
Butter- 62.5g
1 egg
Cake flour- 75g
Baking Powder- 3/4 tsp.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Line muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Mix cake flour and baking powder. Sift them.
3. Cream butter in an electric mixer for a few minutes . Gradually add brown sugar and continue to beat until well combined.
4. Add eggs and beat until mixture is well plended, light and fluffy.
5. Add cinnamon and nutmug here if you are using, Mix well.
6. Fold in the flour. Stop immediately once all the flour has been incorporated into the mixture.
7. Add Teh Si into the mixture. Mix well.
8. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Remove these puff cakes from tray and place on wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

 

Look at how moist these puff cakes are. :>

 

Cranberry buttermilk Scones AGAIN

I couldnt decide between cranberry yogurt chiffon cake and cranberry buttermilk scones. Cranberry chiffon cake is something i have always wanting to attempt baking since a long time. Knowing that Johnny likes to eat scones and i also felt like eating some scones, I decided to bake both in one night. My cranberry buttermilk scones still tasted as yummy as the previous attempt. It certainly is a worthy recipe to keep. Check out the recipe here!

Red Velvet Cupcake (Another Attempt)

Red velvet cupcake is one of my favourite cupcake of all time. Loving the cream cheese frosting. So far, the best red velvet cupcake i’ve tasted is the one from 12 cupcakes. I’ve baked red velvet so many times, yet i still cant get it right. Tricky one indeed. This time round is pretty different from my previous attempt: Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese filling. The texture of the cake for the previous attempt is more like a sponge cake, this time round’s was slightly more compact than the previous time. Got my recipe from baking addiction this time. Oh well, both are not what i am looking for. But the frosting this time round is able to stand more firmly than the previous time. I substituted part of butter in the frosting recipe with shortening. Still very sweet  though. i am always unable to get te cream cheese frosting right.  For some reasons, my frosting is always not white. It is somehow slightly yellow (and idk why. Is it because of the butter?). If you have any tips or good recipes for red velvet cupcakes, i’ll be more than happy if you will share with me. Thank you! :>

Chocolate Devil Cupcake

Been ages since i last used the oven. Up till now, i am still baking with my broken oven. The front piece of glass came off so I have to get someone to fix it back. I was thinking of using 3M tape to stick it back but … HMMM. I have been wanting to try making chocolate ganache for forever but too lazy to buy heavy cream since i have to travel ALL THE WAY TO PHOON HUAT just to get heavy cream. I have tried to make chocolate ganache for a few times but they were pretty fail. My very first time: COMPLETE FAILURE. Although this time isn’t perfect yet but at least there were improvements. The trick is to use heavy cream. NOT thickened cream. I used thickened cream for my first attempt and that explained why it was so liquified. To make ganache, you should get cream of at least 38% fat content.  But supermarkets hardly sell heavy cream. I have never seen heavy cream sold in supermarkets, even the higher end ones. So do not  just simply substitute thickened cream for heavy cream. Abandon that misconception. They are DIFFERENT. To double confirm, check the fat content, you’ll never go wrong with that. Made this with my favourite chocolate cake recipe. So far, i have been using that chocolate recipe for my chocolate cupcakes. Just make some slight changes here and there.

Recipe: 

Cupcake: [ Makes about 12 small cupcakes or 6 medium cupcakes]

45 grams all purpose flour
10 grams good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( As this is a really low cake, I added slightly more baking powder )
Pinch of salt
55 grams good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, can be cold or at room temperature
90 grams caster sugar
2 eggs

– Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

– Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Use a wire whisk and whisk the dry ingredients together until they are all well-mixed and evenly distributed.

– Measure the dark chocolate and unsalted butter in a large heatproof bowl and melt them over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can microwave them under medium high heat at 15-25s interval. Stirring during each interval.

– Remove the heatproof bowl from the pot/microwave. Add in the caster sugar and whisk gently – not all of the sugar will dissolve. Mixture’ll be a little grainy Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to cool down slightly (the eggs will scramble if added to a hot mixture).

– Crack in one egg into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture (yes, same wire whisk!) for 30 seconds until it is fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg, and then whisk in the vanilla extract.

– Sift a third of flour mixture into the chocolate batter and folding gently using a large metal spoon or rubber spatula. until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated

– Bake for about 15 mins ( for small size cupcakes).

– Let it cool before you top with the chocolate Ganache.

Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients: ( I’ll update this when i get home) 

Heavy cream

Chocolate

2 tbsp of honey ( optional. For glossy appearance)

Strawberry Cupcakes

 

Chocolate is our all time favourite but at times when we are going for something lighter and refreshing, do consider strawberry cupcake! I baked this together with Green Tea Cupcakes for Wanping’s 19th! I love this cupcake. Its moist, light and fluffy. The strawberry frosting tasted like icecream.

Recipe ( Adapted from Cupcakes with attitude- makes 12-13 cupcakes) 

cupcake
Cake flour- 165g
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Strawberries 100g
Full cream milk 4 tbsp
vanilla extract 1 tsp
Butter 125g
sugar 180 g
Egg 1 large
Egg White  ( from 2 large eggs)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt tgt
3. Process strawberries in a blender to get 100g of puree
combine milk, vanilla extract and strawberry puree in a small bowl and set aside
4. Cream Butter in an electric mixer for a few mins and gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined
5. Add egg and \egg whites
6. Add half the mixture prepared in 2, followed by strawberry mixture in 4. COntinue beating and add the remaining flour mixture and continue to bat until batter is well mixed.
7. spoon batter into cupcake and bake for 20-25 mins.
8. Remove cupcakes from tray and place them o a cooling rack to cool.
9. Pipe strawberry buttercream on top of cupcakes and top with slices of strawberries.

 

Frosting:

Strawberries- 50g
Butter-62.5 g
Shorterning 62.5g
Salt a pinch
VANILLA EXTRACT 1/4 tsp
ICING SUGAR 200G

1. Process strawberries in blender to get 4 tbsp of strawberries puree and set aside.
2. Beat butter/Vegetable shortening for 2-3 mins and set aside.
3. Add icing sugar and mix until ingredients are well combined.
4. Gradually add pureed strawberry 1 tbsp at a time and stop until you achieved the desired consistency.

Green Tea Cupcakes

Last week was insane- when midterms, presentations and assignments was all due at one go. Work really drained my energy away. I was desperately in need of sleep for the past week. After mid terms ended, my first to-do-checklist was to bake something for wp for her birthday that was long overdue. Flipping through my books, i decided to settle with some Green Tea Cupcakes ( since my new green tea powder is going to expire in a mth) and strawberry cupcakes. The frosting was made of mascarpone cheese which was pretty interesting yea. Mascarpone cheese was often used to make tiramisu but frosting? This is my first time coming across such stuff. I am sure to bake this again, but with some slight changes to the recipe the next time. I want my frosting to stand stiff on the cake and not so “fluidish”. Thinking of adding some heavy cream to the frosting. Oh well, i am not so sure too but i shall update this again when i re-make. Nevertheless, my friends finished all of them in no time.!!

Recipe- ( adapted from Cupcakes with attitude- makes 11-12cupcakes)

Cupcake

Self Raising flour – 175g
Green Tea powder- 2tsp
Salt- a pinch
Caster Sugar- 125g
Vegetable Oil- 125ml
Eggs- 2 large
Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Full cream milk- 4 tbsp

Frosting: 

Mascarpone cheese 125g
Icing Sugar 50g

Steps: 

1. Preheat Oven to 180 degree Celsius. Line Muffin tray with cupcake liners.
2. Sift flour, Green tea powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Beat Sugar, oil and eggs in an electric mixer until smooth. Add Vanilla extract.
4. Gradually add flour mixture prepared in step 2, alternating with milk. Do not overbeat-stop immediately once everything has been well combined.
5. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for about 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of cakes and comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let cupcakes st in muffin for 5 mins.
7. Beat mascarpone cheese and half the sugar in an electric mixer until soft and creamy. taste and add more sugar as desired.
7. Slather a thick layer of mascarpone frosting on top of cupcakes and dust over green tea powder.

 

 

Raspberry Friands

As promised, the recipe for these raspberry friands. I made about 20 mini friands with this recipe. My raspberries were pretty sour but they kinda balanced the slightly overpowering sweetness.

Recipe: ( original recipe )

• Melted butter, to grease
• Plain flour, to dust
• 90g (1 1/2 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted
• 37.5(1/2 cup) plain flour, sifted
• 77.7 (1 1/2 cups) almond meal
• 1.5 eggs, lightly whisked
• 90g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
• 50g frozen raspberries
• 1 tbs flaked almonds
• Icing sugar, to dust

1. preheat oven to 180°C. Brush thirty 40ml-capacity mini muffin pans with melted butter to grease. Dust with plain flour.
2. Combine the sugar, flour and almond meal in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add egg and butter. Stir until well combined.
3. Divide among the prepared pans. Divide the raspberries among the centres. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until light golden. Set aside in the pans for 5 minutes to cool slightly before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Dust the friands with icing sugar to serve.

Packed these to sch for my friends. ^^

Bailey Cupcakes

Besides oreo cupcakes, I baked bailey cupcakes for my colleagues on my last day of work. I found them a little too sweet for my liking. Nevertheless, they were all gone within mins! But again, cupcakes are meant to be sweet right? HAHA. I baked them the day before and the cakes were still pretty moist the next day. If you dont really fancy sweet stuff, I recommend that you reduce the sugar level of the cake. Dont forget that the bailey frosting is sweet too. Sweet cake + sweet frosting= MEGASUGARKILL.

CAKE
Ingredients: ( Makes 6 medium cupcakes)
45 grams all purpose flour
10 grams good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( As this is a really low cake, I added slightly more baking powder )
Pinch of salt
55 grams good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, can be cold or at room temperature
90 grams caster sugar ( I cut to 75g and it’s still too sweet for my liking)
2 eggs
Bailey Irish cream ( Up to own preference.  I cant rmb how much i added but i added them in tablespoons and tasted them accordingly to achieve desired taste.)

– Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
– Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Use a wire whisk and whisk the dry ingredients together until they are all well-mixed and evenly distributed.
– Measure the dark chocolate and unsalted butter in a large heatproof bowl and melt them over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can microwave them under medium high heat at 15-25s interval. Stirring during each interval.
– Remove the heatproof bowl from the pot/microwave. Add in the caster sugar and whisk gently – not all of the sugar will dissolve. Mixture’ll be a little grainy Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to cool down slightly (the eggs will scramble if added to a hot mixture).
– Crack in one egg into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture (yes, same wire whisk!) for 30 seconds until it is fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg, and then whisk in the bailey irsh cream.
– Sift a third of flour mixture into the chocolate batter and folding gently using a large metal spoon or rubber spatula. until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated
– transfer the cake batter into the lined muffin tin.
– Bake for 18-20 minutes until the top bounces back when touched lightly and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Baileys frosting:

Ingredients:
– Veg shortening 60g
– Butter 40g
– sifted Icing sugar  100g
– Baileys Irish Cream ( prolly about 3-6 tbsps? it depends on your own preference)

– Beat veg shortening in electric mixer for about 2-3 mins on medium speed.
– Add in Bailey Irish Cream
– Add icing sugar and continue beating until all ingredients are well combined
– Gradually add water to achieve desire consistency. (optional)

 Ops. The frosting is almost the same height as the cake. HAHAHA.

Oreo Cupcakes

It has been almost 2 weeks since i left UOB. I guess it’s a trend to get something for yr colleagues on yr last working day. Well, at least it was in my company. to show my sincerity, i decided to bake something for my colleagues. I had a hard time deciding what to bake for them. I wanted to bake macarons for them but i did not have the courage because macarons are the #numberonehighfailure desert to bake. I tried once last week and it failed TERRIBLY. After much contemplation, i decided to bake cupcakes ; Oreo cupcakes and Bailey Cupcakes. Having tried quite a couple of recipes, i decided to stick to my favouritechocolate cake recipe and make some slight changes from there. I can’t emphasise enough how much i like this chcolate cake recipe. It has never failed me and they taste incredibly rich, soft, moist and delicious. I have baked Chocolate Cupcake with peanut butter filling , chocolatey layered cake, chocolate mousse and blueberry layered cake with this chocolate cake recipe.  My last several cupcake attempts ended up with very soft frosting. This time round, i decided to use vegetable shortening instead of butter and it turned out awesome. My frosting were able to stay its shape perfectly. I kept them in room temperature until the next day and they still tasted moist and rich. Enjoy.

Oreo Cupcakes

CAKE
Ingredients: ( Makes 6 medium cupcakes)
45 grams all purpose flour
10 grams good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder ( As this is a really low cake, I added slightly more baking powder )
Pinch of salt
55 grams good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 grams unsalted butter, can be cold or at room temperature
90 grams caster sugar
2 eggs

– Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
– Measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Use a wire whisk and whisk the dry ingredients together until they are all well-mixed and evenly distributed.
– Measure the dark chocolate and unsalted butter in a large heatproof bowl and melt them over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can microwave them under medium high heat at 15-25s interval. Stirring during each interval.
– Remove the heatproof bowl from the pot/microwave. Add in the caster sugar and whisk gently – not all of the sugar will dissolve. Mixture’ll be a little grainy Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes to cool down slightly (the eggs will scramble if added to a hot mixture).
– Crack in one egg into the chocolate mixture. Whisk the mixture (yes, same wire whisk!) for 30 seconds until it is fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg, and then whisk in the vanilla extract.
– Sift a third of flour mixture into the chocolate batter and folding gently using a large metal spoon or rubber spatula. until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated
– Place 1 oreo biscuit onto each lined muffin tin and transfer the cake batter into the lined muffin tin.
– Bake for 18-20 minutes until the top bounces back when touched lightly and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Oreo Frosting:

Ingredients:
– Veg shortening 100g
– 5-6 Crushed oreo biscuits. Personal preference.
– sifted Icing sugar  100g ( You may want to reduce the sugar to probably about 60-70g because oreo biscuits are sweet too)
– 1-1.5 tbsp of sugar

– Beat veg shortening in electric mixer for about 2-3 mins on medium speed.
– Add the crushed oreo biscuits
– Add icing sugar and continue beating until all ingredients are well combined
– Gradually add water to achieve desire consistency.

Steamed Banana Cakes

Whats for breakfast on Wednesday? Instead of our usual peanut jam and nutella sandwiches, my family had steamed banana cakes for breakfast. In fact, 1 steamed banana cake has lower calories than 1 serving of our usual peanut jam sandwich. I love steam cakes from four leaves, breadtalk and not forgetting the colourful ones sold at pasar Malam, top with some orange sugar and coconut flakes. I was tryng to make the cake rise into 4 corners at the top (like huat kueh) but I failed. My mum brought some really sweet bananas back from my grandma’s kampong. I was contemplating between banana steamed cakes and banana muffins. I was pretty lazy that day so I went with the simpler recipe. It is amazing such an easy recipe can yield such a delicious and moist banana cake. I’ll make this again! I slightly edited the recipe to suit my family. I liike my banana cake to have chunks of banana in it so i added more bananas than what the original recipe called for and i did leave some chunks of bananas in my mashed banana mixture. Since i added more bananas, i reduced my sugar intake from 100g to 70g. Sweetness was just nice . All you need are a couple of ingredients which you most likely already have on hand. You can always pop them in the fridge and steam them the next morning. That was what I did! Enjoy these hot n fluffy banana cakes.

!

Hot, fluffy and chunky banana cakes ^^

Ingredients: (7-8muffins) [  Original recipe adapted from here ]

2 Eggs
70sugar
3  ripe bananas, mashed with some chunks (300g)
150g Self-raising Flour
1/8 tsp Baking Soda
75g oil (any flavorless oil)

Steps:

1. Sift together self-raising flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together Eggs and sugar till ribbon stage.
3. Mix in mashed bananas, beat till combine.
4. Gently fold in flour mixture and Oil, taking care not to deflate the eggs and sugar mixture.
5. Pour Batter into muffin pan, lined with muffin cups.
6. Steam over high heat for 15mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.