Tofu Cheeecake

Two to three years ago, tofu cheesecake became popular and is touted as a healthier version for cheesecake lover. For myself, I love it simply because I love soya. The love degree increases further when I adjusted my version to include lemon and pairing it with mixed berries compote. Hence, the actual name for my cake should be, "Lemon Tofu Cheesecake with Mixed Berries Compote"!

I have also made a much lighter version by adding layers of vanilla sponge in between. This is to cater to people who don't like heavy cheesecake or for first timer who are new to cheesecake. This version is so light and refreshing that I can't resist eating 2-3 big slices at one go myself!

I like the versatility of this cake in that it is easy to vary the design presentation, on top of adjusting the inside content to suit individuals needs. This include optional cookie base, vanilla sponge, lemon juice and zest. Having said this, if there's an order to have all the options, it is also a cake which requires much work due to the different components.

This cheesecake is a simple presentation, without the usual digestive cookie base.

This cheesecake is with birthday wordings and digestive cookie base.

This cheesecake is what I would call a classic presentation, with big piping of cream encircling the mixed berries compote. 

A cut view of the cake showing all the differen layers. It is a lot more time consuming to prepare but the result is awesome! 

Waffles

I love waffles, especially the pandan ones. The combination of coconut and pandan is so irresistible that I never fail to like any desserts or pastry with these two ingredients. Naturally, I was very delighted when we had a school lesson on it during my course. As fate would have it, I fell sick during that lesson and missed it. Nonetheless, I was comforted that I had the lesson material and recipe with me.

Since then, I had been debating whether to buy my own waffle maker... what's the use of having the recipe and not having the tools to make it! A decent one from a reputable brand is not cheap however, and so I held back my buying urge.

Two years later, I finally had the chance to make a very special batch of waffles - dairy and egg free for the Angels, to go with the special ice cream I made for her (I had posted this in an earlier blog: http://little-bake-shop.blogspot.com/2011/01/little-hall-of-fame.html). The waffle machine belongs to the Angels' mum. Today, it sits in my home, short term adoption while the Angels' family is away for a year plus. The first opportunity I had, I made a batch of my favourite of pandan waffles.

Pandan Waffles - first batch of waffles I made specially for myself. Ate 2 big slices of it for brunch on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Some weeks later, I hosted a tea and waffles party for two of my friends family. The kids are overjoyed, especially when they get to choose their own favourite ice cream to go with the waffles.

Tea and Waffles Party - the children really enjoyed their waffles with ice cream more than anything else!

Cupcakes Workshop for Children at The Little Arts Academy

Some months back, a friend introduced me to the Little Arts Academy. I paid them a visit and decided to volunteer some time with them to conduct children workshop for their Little Chefs Unite! programme. The first session was on 13th Aug and I did cupcakes with the children.  

As I was worried that the 2 hours session would not give me enough time (my usual workshop are 2.5-3hrs), I did some extra preparations from home. The children were wonderful, giving me full attention and did everything pretty well. Everyone was also very cooperative and took turns to do every thing, from measuring ingredients, mixing, stirring, carrying trays and even cleanup! As with any workshop, little incidents would cropped up along the way and I am very glad that past experiences from teaching the homeschool group came in handy. J from LAA also gave me assistance during the workshop and though I was initially worried that we couldn't finished in time, we actually finished a quarter hour earlier.

   

Little Chefs Unite! cupcakes workshop at Little Arts Academy.



The children's creative work in cupcakes decorating.

My next children workshop with LAA will be 29 Oct, doing cookies pops and I am looking forward to that already! For parents who are keen to sign their children on the workshop, please contact LAA through their website at:
http://www.thelittleartsacademy.com/category/workshops/

Oreo Cheesecake

I love cheesecakes but don't bake them much. They taste really wonderful but not many of my family members enjoy them and I usually end up having to eat most of them, which can be too much by myself. This is why I am especially fond of my tofu cheesecake, which is very much lighter and yet so yummylicious that I can't get enough of 3rd or 4th helping!

This Oreo cheesecake recipe is one which I had for years but never get down to trying it as I am not a fan of Oreo cookies due to their sweetness. However, three days ago, a lady requested to have a private class on my cheesecake workshop and she chose Oreo for the baked version. This gave me opportunity to bake this extra for myself and after freezing it that night, I finally took it out to garnish the top and had it for breakfast!! Not my typical breakfast but today is not my typical day either, having been trying to fight off the flu bug for two days.

Oreo Cheesecake, a.k.a Cookies & Cream Cheesecake - I love the extra creaminess which came from the addition of condensed milk. The thicker crust is my typical as I feel that it helps for those who may find the filling too rich and heavy.

Some recipe calls for melted white chocolate, which is made up mainly of milk and sugar, besides cocoa butter. I opted to replace it with condensed milk instead as the taste is very similar and it helped to omit the process of melting chocolate. It helps also for those who like me, do not like eating the balance white chocolate after the baking. I managed to buy cookies without the cream filling for the crust from a baking supply store and that also helped to save time from removing the cream, as well as prevent wastage.

One thing to note when baking, the addition of the crushed cookies should be done only when the cheesecake is half baked as otherwise, you will find them floating to the top. A remedy if you have forgotten this, use a folk to push them down when the mixture is half set during baking.

Mooncake Making Workshop for Adults 2011 - A Charity Workshop

Years back, I had put up some chocolate gifts items and donated part of the proceeds to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. I had always wanted to do a similar personal project again but it just didn't materialise.
This year, having conducted a volunteer workshop for the Little Arts Academy (LAA) children's workshop, I decided to partnership with them and do some fund raising for their Business Times Budding Artists Fund.

What motivated me in doing this? In my years of academic and professional training, I had been very blessed in receiving one bursary and two scholarship sponsorships. Though the total sum was not huge, they were significant in that I wouldn't have otherwise received the kind of education and experience I have now.

LAA's mission is: "To provide a creative learning environment and a broad-based arts curriculum where all children can discover their artistic potential and develop skills and personal values that will enable them to transcend personal, social and financial circumstances". This fund sponsors arts training for underprivileged children at LAA.

As it was just a few days back that I had the children's workshop at LAA, I had very little time for planning. J at LAA, however, was very fast to put the details on LAA's website http://www.thelittleartsacademy.com/category/partners/ and had also sorted the administrative details for me. I am very grateful to her and also to the Academy for helping me with this cause.

Above is my own effort in publicity and I hope there is enough participants to help raise a reasonable amount for the whole effort. To register, please email: enquirieslaa@toph.com.sg or call 6513 3013.

Friends, if you are reading this, my heartfelt gratitude to you for lending your support in signing up for the workshop or in helping to pass on the massage to any of your friends who might be keen.

A Very Special Thank You Received

 The day before National Day, I finally got to visit an ex-colleague, K and her family at their colonial terrace house at Portsdown,  a remote area near Commonwealth and Queenstown district. It is an old neighbourhood where you would get train running behind your backyard, which I had missed waving to bypass trains since the visit is way after the train line had closed.

I brought them a tofu cheesecake with mixed berries compote and we had it for tea. They really enjoyed it and had second helpings, leaving two slices to enjoy the next day. It was a charming afternoon at the nostalgic old house, all the more nicer with the very friendly and hospitable hosts. K's french husband, P, shared with me many nice information and little stories related to baking, cooking, travelling and all the other good things that one can do in the French countryside, with it's abundance fresh quality produce and wonderful scenery.

K and P also showed me the numerous home made stories books which they had created for their daughter when she was younger. Daddy wrote the stories while Mummy did the illustrations. I love all the imaginative stories and the charming water colour illustrations that went with them. What is really special is that the character, Shushana is an Asian girl and the drawings were all drawn in Asian context. They even gave me a set of four story books which got published some years back. They have a blog http://draw4children.blogspot.com/ which shares their inspirations on what motivated them to create these stories books and the books may also be bought through their mail order.

All this while, their daughter, Gaia, was drawing at our table side. When I tried to take a look, she hurriedly covered it up. I thought she was just being shy and left her alone.

The set of lovely story books I received, which was written and illustrated by the couple.

As evening came, K invited me for dinner and also offered to show me how to bake her quick baguette, which was very much enjoyed by her family and has become a staple at their meals. As we set down for dinner at the table, I noticed that Gaia has tucked a piece of folded paper under my napkins. As I picked it up, I realised it was the piece of drawing which she was working on earlier and she had made it into a card for me. As I went through her drawings, my heart felt a touch of warmth and I was deeply moved by this almost 12 years old (she turns 12 by this month end) way of showing her appreciation for the cake I made for her family.

The sequence of drawings on Gaia's Thank You card. I never expected such a heart warming gesture from a child and I was also greatly impressed by her drawing skills and had specially ask her to autograph the card. I also got to know I have been affectionately nicknamed 'Magde-lin' because of the madeleines I baked for them earlier on.

Thank you Gaia! Your little gesture is a great source of encouragement for me to continue working and improve my baking. Thank you too for letting mummy know that you would love a raspberry cake for your upcoming birthday instead of a chocolate one, it is definitely coming your way soon!

Eggless, Dairy and Gluten Free Cupcakes

My success with mixing my own gluten free flour mix makes me want to experiment more with this mixture. Unfortunately, it is currently limited to chocolate sponge cake only. For some reason, without the addition of cocoa powder, the taste, texture and end result is very disappointing for a eggless, dairy and gluten free vanilla sponge cake. My guess is that the fat content in the cocoa powder somehow enhances and improve the overall result. Either that, I need to readjust the ratio of all the other ingredients. It is definitely something that I will continue to work on, so that I can create more cake flavour combination.

For these cupcakes, I also tried something new - making a chocolate ganache icing without cream. It is somewhat less tasty than the dairy version but on its own, I would say it is very good, especially for people who can't enjoy the regular version. For easier spreading, I left the ganache to set outside at room temperature, rather than in the chiller.

Dairy, Egg and Gluten Free Cupcakes! Due to the low rise of the cake mix, I needed to put more in order to have a decent height for the cake. This resulted in 8 cupcakes per recipe, instead of my usual 12.


The overall verdict? They not only looked good, but tasted yummy too! I ate one and the rest, I was very happy to give to the Angels.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

I was invited to join the home school group for their National Day celebration on Mon. J and I thought it would be most appropriate to have a birthday cake for our  beloved country and what better way than to have it in the form of our national flag!

Due to the children's special diet, it has to be dairy, egg and gluten free again. This definitely called for my chocolate pudding cake, which is dark brown in colour. As I do not want to have icing made of shortening and margarine, I decided to cover the whole chocolate cake in another layer of white soya pudding. The result? A hefty 7 layers, 8inch square cake which weighed 2.4kg !

The crescent and stars were painstakingly cut out from thick cardboard and 'dicast' out from the red coloured pudding. Once the layer set, it is then filled in with white pudding.

The different layers can be seen here, with a much thicker outer layer, due to two different size of cake rings used and I didn't want to create wastage by trimming it off.

I wasn't confident of the end result initially but was well pleased with the end result. I also had a wonderful time with the children and parents - singing our national anthem, reciting the national pledge in both English and Mandarin, a parade around the estate and a party with good food. As the group gathered around the cake to sing Happy Birthday to Singapore, I couldn't help but felt proud... to be a Singaporean.

Buffet Dessert on Tier Cake Stand

I have always wanted a cake tier stand to add to my collection of kitchen and bake wares. However, finding one which is pleasing and yet at the same time affordable has not been easy. Thus, the search continued after a year on... till I received one recently, from a very dear friend and her partner as a belated house warming gift!

I couldn't't hide my joy of delight as I carefully unwrapped and opened the gift in front of her, at her insistent that I opened it immediately. Yes, it is beautiful, classic looking and of the colour I had wanted! It may not be of expensive high quality porcelain or bone china, nor is it branded. But because it was from two very dear friends who took time and effort in searching what my heart desire, it is all the more precious than ever.

So I told her, one day I would like to bake an assortment of pastries and present them on their gift, and we would have afternoon tea together, just like what hotels or high end cafes do! Well, one and a half month have gone since I got this precious gift and I have yet to invite them for tea. But I had a chance to present it to another group of dear friends last Saturday, when we had a gathering over at my place. I specially made three different dessert for the occasions and served them buffet style.

My precious 3 tier cake stand, a gift from two very dear friends.

Black Sesame Ice Cream, one of my favourite ice cream flavour.



Durian Mousse Cakes and Chocolate Slices. The latter is dairy, gluten and egg free - the same cake which I made for the Angels while the durian mousse is an improved version of my earlier attempt - richer and more texture as I kept the pulp instead of pureed them.



Chiffon Cakes

I love chiffon cakes for their super soft, fluffy, moist texture and light taste. Of late, I have baking them quite often for family gatherings, especially orange chiffon cake.

It took my a long time before I bought my first tube pan for my first attempt, mainly because I don't like baking cakes which requires whisking separated egg yolks and egg whites. Further more, chiffon cakes requires quite a big amount of eggs, which gives it it's eggy fragrance. I do not own a high end mixer and what I have takes me a long time to whisk up the yolks and whites separately. But after that first attempt, I never grew tired of making it, simply because it taste so good and it is often well received.

Orange Chiffon Cake, an all time favourite with my family and friends

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake, an attempt on a new flavour

The grounded black sesame gives this chiffon cake it's unique colour

It is only after my attempt that I then realised why established bakeries charge so much for their chiffon cakes. Chiffon cakes takes quite a fair bit of time, from preparation of ingredients, to whisking, mixing, baking and cooling. The key factors to successful chiffon cakes:
- fresh quality ingredients, to gives it's good taste as well as healthier choice (I squeezed and zest my own oranges, used canola oil instead of palm oil)
- properly whisked eggs, so that proper aeration can be achieved to give the cake its rise
- avoid over mixing, so that air bubbles is not deflated
- correct baking temperature, to help the cake achieve it's rise
- correct baking time, too long a time the cake will dry out while too short a time, the cake will not be fully bake through

I guess my next attempt would be either a banana or pandan, the latter if I can get around to juicing my own pandan juice as I do not own a blender for that at this moment.

Cake for the Angels II

A week before Angel's birthday, I received a texted message from J, asking if she could order two cakes for her daughter’s celebration. The first was to be collected 2 days later and the other, two days before Angel’s birthday. I had already been looking forward to bake her cake, so adding one more shouldn’t be a problem I thought. However, as I re- read her message, I realised there was a new challenge this time round. In addition to the usual dairy and egg free, the second cake was to be gluten free as well! Was I up to the challenge, she asked?

Well, with the earlier experience from Angel junior's cake, the first one would not be difficult. The second cake, however, I have no confidence as I've not done it before. However, I replied J that I would give it a try.

I had been planning a strawberry cake as Angel love strawberry. However, as it was to be collected much earlier than I had expected, I haven’t had time to get decent quality ones. After a quick check with J, I decided to use frozen mixed berries for the pudding instead. I had expected the pudding to be a dark pinkish colour, however, it turned out to be a funny purple! Based on my previous experience working with frozen mixed berries, the result was totally unexpected. Then I recalled, the bag of berries was of another brand, thus, the ratio of dark and red berries wouldn’t have been the same.

Purple cake, with the pureed dark berries still visible in the pudding. I have never been good with my hand writing nor drawing and it is always a very daunting task whenever I have to do both when decorating a cake. When on paper, you can always start with a fresh piece of paper  to redo if you don't like it. But on a cake, you can only do it once.
Here, the ladybugs were drawn using red berries puree, dark chocolate buttons and pearls - not the best but not the worst... I hope.

I found my one and only reference recipe for a gluten free sponge cake which looks promising, but it uses eggs, which I decided to replace with my usual egg replacer. It also requires xanthan gum, which is pretty costly to buy but J saved me by passing me hers. She also gave me some left over gluten free flour mix to experiment, on top of the 3 different types of wheat free flour which I had stand by to mix my own.

The batter mix turns out really dry and I hesitated whether to add more liquid than stated in the recipe. My experience tells me it would be way to dry to go into the oven, but at the same time, the ingredients were not my usual and I just couldn’t be sure. In the end, I decided to go for a in between, adding more liquid but not to the usual fluidity of my other batter. After I put the cake mix to bake in the oven, I was practically glued to the oven door as I couldn’t wait to see the end result. Past half time, the surface of the cake looked really dry and no sign of rise. My excitement somewhat deflated and I couldn’t help but began to say a silent prayer. There wasn't any more ready mix gluten free flour left and mixing my own would likely be a more difficult task as it would require more steps to experiment, despite the availability of recipe.

As it turned out, the cake did rise, albeit just a tiny bit, towards the last 10 minutes! I waited impatiently for the cake to cool down so that I could slice a cross section to check the texture. Half hour later, I had my answer... the sponge was surprisingly pretty moist and soft, totally unexpected of the dry appearance and the low rise level! I couldn't help but feel elated. It meant I could do more gluten free cake moving on! For the icing, it was another pudding base, but this time round, a chocolate one, converted from my signature chocolate mousse cake recipe.




Double chocolate pudding cake, dairy free, egg free and gluten free! The illustration on this cake is definitely much better than the other.

 

Angel, celebrating her 7th birthday with another friend from the home-school group. We were very blessed with good weather and wonderful time with a 2D1N camp out by the beach.



With this cake's success and comments received, it seems destined that my signature cake would still be chocolate after all, be it the regular dairy version or the special diet ones. Even Angel herself feedback that she prefers the chocolate one too, even though she likes berries and purple is one of her favourite colour. Seems all the more appropriate now,  that I have adopted a chocolate cake graphic to represent little bake shop! 

Durian Mousse Cake

Many people love durians, myself included. At the restaurant, we have a durian dessert which I had helped created,  using our in house home-made ice cream. I love that and had long wanted to make a durian mousse cake, which would resemble an ice-cream cake of sort, if served frozen.

Opportunity came last week, when I had to prepare a cake as dessert for my brother's housewarming reception for forty over people. As it was buffet style, I did one 10 inch tray and a 7 inch round for two separate group of guests.

Durian Mousse Cake - I finally tried making this in my kitchen, 2 cakes at one go due to the large no. of guests invited by my brother.

The cakes were made thinner than my usual, to be served buffet style and decorated simply with meringue rosettes which was then torched lightly.

The cakes' texture turn out pretty good, but a tad too sweet and the taste a little on the light side. This surprised me as I thought durian should taste stronger than other fruits. As I found out from this attempt, durain may smell really strong, but when it comes to making dessert with them, it would be good to increase its ratio higher for better taste, while amount of sweetness lower, to compensate for the fruit's natural sweetness. Will definitely attempt this again as durian is one of my all time favourite fruit!

Madeleines

These French petit fours were baked as a last minute gift, just before I met an ex-colleague for lunch. Ever since we had arranged to meet 2 weeks before, I knew I wanted to bake her and her family something. Somehow, work and projects got in the way and I didn't really plan ahead.

Most cakes would have to be prepared minimum a day before. However, as I got home from work the night before, I was too tired to do anything. The next morning when I woke up, 3 hours before I was to leave my home to meet K, I was contemplating to give up the idea or to come out with something fast. As I desperately tried to think hard, I suddenly remembered the new silicon madeleines mold I bought. Madeleines shall be it then! They are relatively easy to be prepared and they get baked within 10-15mins.

The recipe from my French chef calls for the batter to be rested in the chiller over night while most other recipes recommends an hour. Here I had only half hour, which is during the time when the oven gets pre-heated while I had my shower! The madelines turned out nice, though looked rather plain looking. Despite the short time I had, I quickly melt down some chocolate, tempered it and coated the edges of every piece from the first batch, while the second batch was still cooling down.

I must say I was very happy with the result, though I had to postpone my appointment by 15mins.

Madelines - they make nice, delicious little gifts. An extra touch of chocolate make the presentation even more special.

As it turned out, I was caught in the rain when I left my home and had to delay my meeting time by a total of 45 minutes. Despite running in the rain with the box of madelines swaying frantically in my hand, the recipients received them in good conditions, to my great relief.

Another thing to note for madelines other than the batter resting time, they tast best when baked on the day itself. To make in advance, cling wrap them airtight after they have cooled down from baking and keep in chillers. Before serving, let defrost completely to room temperature before removing the wrap to prevent condensation collecting on them. They are best served with tea or coffee as the sponge tends to be on the drier side, being a genoise base cake.

Ginkgo Barley Beancurd Dessert

Finally, I had satisfied my craving for this dessert, which I had such a long longing ever since I left my internship at the Chinese restaurant more than a year plus back. Those bought outside just did not make my mark. There are many variations to it's name, depending on which ingredients is listed first, though ginkgo tends to be listed first usually. Perhaps because it is the most expensive and hardest to prepare among the three.

Ginkgo Barley Beancurd Dessert, "白果薏米腐竹糖水". I guess what make's the restaurant version special is the addition of soya milk, which makes the broth richer and more fragrant, the extra oomph, especially for those who love soya like me.

It is actually a very easy dessert, just wash and boil, with the exception of ginkgo nuts, if you are preparing from scratch. It took me almost 4 hours for a half kilo bag, from cracking shells, peeling skin, removing the bitter piths and sugaring them in boiling syrup. As mentioned in my earlier post "Qing Tang", I do not fancy ready bought.



Ginkgo Barley Beancurd Dessert - The way I love it, with lots of ginkgo nuts and a rich fragrant soya broth.


It will be some time away before my craving for this dessert comes again, but I am all prepared for it already, with a stash of sweetened, ready prepared ginkgo nuts in my freezer!

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake

This mousse cake is specially made for one of my aunt who turns 58 this year. I love using strawberries in my cake making and decorating. However, sweet strawberries are not easy to come by. Those available at regular supermarkets may appear red and juicy, but once a bite is taken, the taste is usually disappointing. The gourmet range is a better bet, but not only do they cost a lot more, they are also not readily available. Hence, I like to stock up imported IQF version in my freezer, which make it readily available whenever I need them.

Having said the above, IQF fruits are usually good when making components which uses a puree, or when mixing into your yogurt or ice cream. They are not ideal for decorating as once defrosted, the texture tends to be soft and the fruit tends to weep. The garnishing and decorating still have to depend on fresh ones.

The cake comprised of two layers of chocolate sponge, with strawberry slices and mousse in the centre. The cake is then topped with another layer of mousse, with strawberry slices arranged in a circular pattern on top. Finally, when the mousse is set, a jelly layer is poured on top to embed the strawberries and also to create a nice see through effect.

For personal taste preference, I like to pair this mousse cake with chocolate sponge, rather than vanilla. Like the mango mousse cake in an earlier post, I find some fruits go better with chocolate. These are banana, mango and strawberry.



I simply love the top view of the cake, however, choosing similar sizes and shapes for the strawberries will create some wastage. 



The IQF strawberries gives a nice natural colour to the mousse. 

 


FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011

Addendum:
When I made my aunt's cake, I knew the strawberry wasn't sweet and was more on the sour side. However, I went ahead with it as that was the last box I could get hold of at the supermarket. A week later, I made another exact cake, using the same batch of ingredients, including the strawberries for my brother's house warming.

Yes, I managed to keep the strawberries fresh, despite a week long. All thanks to the new fridge I bought beginning of the year, specially for my baking needs. With right temperature control and careful handling, I had managed to keep most of my ingredients fresh and perishables for longer period. Another factor is that most of our imported fruits are harvested when they are still pretty raw, thus longer shelf life, but unfortunately short in taste.

The mousse, made from the IQF strawberries tasted really good. However, the overall taste of the whole cake was below the notch, due to the sour strawberries slices. I come to conclude, never ever make a cake with strawberries if sweet ones are not available. It really spoils all the effort you've put in, no matter how pretty it looks, or how fragrant it smells.

Steam Egg Custard in Pumpkin

I remember first having this dessert during my very first visit to Bangkok many years ago and fell in love with it ever since. Over the years, I tried creating it but with varying degree of success, mainly due to the custard not able to set properly while the pumpkin is already way too soft.

Much to my delight, I had a module on Thai dessert making during my course and we were given a copy of the recipe from our Thai chef instructor. The Thai uses palm sugar and coconut milk. For my version, I like to use gula melaka for its stronger flavour, and coconut cream to reduce the liquid content.

Sieve the egg mixture through a cheese cloth to get a smooth texture. I don't have one at my new place and had used a fine sieve, hence, resulting in air bubbles in the custard. There is no exact cookin time as it is dependent on size of pumpkin and level of heat. After 45min, check periodically at 15min intervals. The top of the custard will set first and may give a false impression that the whole custard is cooked. As a guide, tap the top of the custard lightly. If it jiggles, it is an indication that the custard is not yet cooked through.

Generally, it takes an hour plus for the custard to set, and the pumpkin is usually pretty soft by then. Hence, let it cool down before cutting to retain the pumpkin shape and to get nice wedge cuts. This dessert may also be served cold.



Sung Ka-yaa Fug Thong - Steam Egg Custard in Pumpkin



Mango Mousse Cake

I made a lot of  mango mousse cake while at the restaurant where I was attached during my baking school days. As they served it for buffet and required large quantity, it was made using commercial sponge pre-mix and mango puree. I find the sponge rather tasteless and usually a tad dry. The puree which was from the same local supplier, I felt it contain too much flavouring and chemicals. The amount of whipped cream was also a bit on the high side, compared to the amount of puree. The overall taste however wasn't too bad and one really couldn't fault them for their choice of ingredients due to their operating costs and the prices charged.

When it comes to making this cake at home, I am more selective in my choice of ingredients. Mango are not always in season and even if they are, they usually differ in taste. To maintain consistent taste in my mango mousse, I usually use a particular french brand of puree which is all natural and contains no additives. For garnishing and decorating, I would choose the ripe ones when buying them from supermarkets as these tends to be sweeter.

I paired this mousse with my usual chocolate sponge, as I love the combination. The top of the cake has a very thin layer of coloured gelatin, to prevent the mousse from drying in the fridge and to create a nice shine. This is more visible in the heart-shape cake below.

This is one of two 4" cake which I specially made for 2 close friends. The bottom layer of sponge is specially left exposed, to show the chocolate/mango combination. As usual, I like to garnish with gooseberry, besides the mango cubes and chocolate deco.



I had some leftover mousse from the two small cakes and made this 5" heart-shape one for myself and my roommates, using leftover cake trimmings which I compressed down to form the cake layers. This one is more cake than mousse, which is fine for personal consumption.



Homemade Ice Cream

One of the things I learned at the restaurant and fell in love with is homemade ice cream. It enabled me to use all natural ingredients, adjust my preferred choice of sweetness and also create my own flavours! Making it at the restaurant and at home, however, produce very different results due to differnt machine used. At the work place, we use paco jet, a high end machine which churns out fine soft texture under 2 mins. At home, I use a small home base version, which is a blessing bestowed on me as the Angels' mum has allowed me to adopt it from them.

For the Angels, I came up with the soya range, after some research from the internet. This range tends to be more icy and sorbet like, without the milk fats from the milk and cream. However, they taste just as good and I even have comments that they are better than some regular ice cream. In terms of texture, the soya range also tends to be harder and very difficult to scoop without defrosting. For this reason, I like to make them as popsicles. They do not melt as fast, compared to the dairy range, which is richer and softer in texture.

Soya chocolate ice cream. A copy of the recipe is posted in an earlier post, "Little Hall of Fame".

Most chocolate manufacturer would without fail, manufacture milk and white chocolate which uses dairy ingredients in the same plant. Hence, extra care has to be taken when buying dark chocolate for non dairy recipes. Always, check the ingredient list and buy from a reputable brand.

Durian and soya strawberry ice cream popsicles. I love this popsicle making set which has cute teddy faces for the handles. The sticks however seems a little flimsy and I worry whether they will break any time soon, especially when we all love to bite into them when eating.  



Cake for the Angels

I finally did it! A non dairy and eggless birthday cake, which is completed with icing decorations and wordings for the Angels!

Ever since I started my course at the culinary school, I have set in my mind to make such a cake for one of my friend's daughters. One of her daughter has some food allergies and hasn't been able to enjoy the usual birthday cake. My friend has also been trying out recipes to make cakes, muffins and cookies suitable for her.

This cake was actually for the younger daughter who does not have any allergy. However, to enable her older sister and other children who have similar allergy in the homeschool group to enjoy the cake together, the cake has to be egg and dairy free.

The chocolate sponge was my usual recipe, minus the eggs and the milk replaced with soya. The result is a denser sponge, more like brownie, but delicious none the less. I didn't want to use non dairy icing to piece the cake together, as most non-dairy version uses shortening or margarine, which I felt is too unhealthy for the amount needed. Hence, I opted a soya pudding, flavoured with orange zest. An earlier version which used orange juice couldn't set, despite overnight, and I had to redo the whole cake all over on the morning itself.




The final cake, which I had to rush to redo on the morning as the first pudding filling couldn't set.



I have never really decorated a kid's cake before, other than the bear and panda cupcake. Did some search online and got the butterfly idea. For this, I had to contend with the shortening icing, with some food colouring. The flower petals are made with small orange pieces. Am very happy that the girls, the children and even the parents enjoyed it, together with the soya ice cream I made as well (view post "Homemade Ice Cream). One point for me to note for the older Angel's birthday coming up in July - make more ice cream as they disappeared so fast, with the children asking for more helpings!






The Angels, together with few of the homeschool children and parents. They sang the Happy Birthday songs in different languages and one of the children even hold the birthday gal's hand. I was almost moved to tears by the sight and atmosphere.

Qing Tang Dessert

I had craving for ginkgo barley dessert today, which used to be prepared at the Chinese restaurant at which I was attached. I specially met my mum for breakfast at the mall, then bough some fresh ginkgo and a pack of soya milk. It is a tedious process to prepare the fresh ginkgo, which had to be cracked, boiled, peeled, bitter stems removed and then boiled again in sugar syrup till soft and sweet. Though time consuming, I prefer these fresh ones than those pre-cooked ones than comes in vacuum packs. Somehow, I think they contain chemical, even if not stated on the packaging. Otherwise, how can they be kept for such a long time, furthermore, without refrigeration?


While the ginkgo nuts were boiling in the sugar syrup, I went to dig out the other ingredients from my pantry. To my dismay, I couldn't find the dried bean curd sheets, which I couldn't remember finishing them before.Not contend with not having my dessert, I dug out other ingredients, to make Qing Tang instead.

The thing about cooking your own is, you get more ingredients than sugared water. Plus, you can add or replace anything you fancy. In this instant, I had to replace sweet potato with pumpkin and the big sago pearls with small ones, since I was using what I had at the time. The end result is more than satisfying, with it's assortment of ingredients. Only thing is, I  missed the chewy big sago pearls, which the small ones could never replace.

One thing to note when preparing this dessert, most ingredients have to be boiled separately as they require different cooking time. For the sago pearls, the residue water is starchy and thus has to be separated. The only two ingredients which do not require cooking are lily bulb and peng da hai  (澎大海). The latter is a seed, which is washed and soaked in water for it to release a thread like membrane. The key to getting a clear soup is to boiled the longans and red dates together, then the soup sweetened according to taste, before mixing in all other cooked ingredients.


Qing Tang, a supposedly cooling dessert, with barley, dried longans, red dates, ginkgo, sago pearls, white fungus, lily bulbs, pumpkin cubes and peng da hai.



Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake

With monthly family birthday and festive celebrations from December to April, my signature chocolate mousse cake, despite it's variations, has been too much over used. Thus, I decided to try something new for my younger brother's and sis-in-law's turn, by combining two of their favourite: strawberry and cheesecake.



Simple deco with initials and big, red strawberries. I was very fortuante to have really sweet strawberries for this cake, which makes the pairing exceptionally nice.

 It's a light cheesecake with strawberries layered between vanilla sponge and topped with more sweet strawberries. It turn out much better than I had expected, though the vanilla sponge needs a bit improvement. This sponge being my first attempt is a tad dry and thus not spongy enough, good thing that a honey syrup managed to rectify this.

Red Bean Paste Dessert

I have never really like red bean paste dessert, probably a result of food that uses mass produced, ready-made red bean paste from which are more often than not, overly too sweet and with no bean taste in them. These are usually not pure bean paste, but a mix of red bean paste and other cheaper ingredients, usually root vegetables such as potato which gives a similar paste like texture.

While preparing sweetened red beans for the restaurant’s la chendol dessert the other day, I found myself with a large bowl of beans left at the bottom of the pot that was too soft for my purpose. I decided to keep them and make a red bean paste dessert the next day.

Upon Aunty D's suggestion, I bought lily bulb, lotus seeds and white fungus. These ingredients needed to be washed, and the latter two, soaked and boiled in sweetened sugar syrup. Once cooked till softened, I drained them out and kept the syrup aside.

The red beans are then blended to a smooth paste, adding the syrup set aside earlier. All the ingredients are then put together with more water added to achieve a thick soup consistency. This is then brought to a boil, with extra sugar added to achieve a mild sweetness.

The end result? A hot Chinese dessert which I absolutely fell in love! This red bean paste dessert is called '莲生贵子', a play on the ingredients' name. A popular dessert often served at wedding banquets due to its auspicious annotation.




The red bean paste soup, with cooked sago, lotus seeds, white fungus and lilly bulbs.



Plated Dessert at the Restaurant

Friends have been asking me what kind of desserts do I make at the restaurant where I work? After much delay, I finally have gotten these nice photos to show, courtesy of my Chef, who is also the owner of the restaurant.

I have to clarify here that not all of these dessert are my own creations. The first three desserts listed were already on our menu before I worked there. For those of which ideas originated from me, I had a lot of pointers from my Chef on plating, which is a very new skill to me, and also taste pairing. To which I would like to take this opportunity to thank him. THANKS Chef M!, for giving me a chance to work with you and to learn new things.

So here are the delicious sweet treats, beautifully presented :)

Chendol Cream - Chef's creation and one of restaurant's signatures.

  

Sago Melaka - a traditional dessert at the restaurant. What makes ours special is the thick, fragrant, caramelised gula melaka syrup which one can never have enough of, including myself!

Banana Caramel Pudding - steam banana cake served with vanilla ice cream is a all time favourite for the old and young. Am proud to help make the cake softer and more fluffy.

La Chendol - I love the traditional chendol dessert and felt the need to serve our own version in the restaurant, on top of our modern one - Chendol Cream, and it MUST come complete with the green jelly, red beans and attap seeds. Thus, I created a new ice cream, chendol, which is a concentrated version of the traditoanl shaved ice with it's syrup mix. It turned out to be another of our popular dessert and as for myself, I can just eat the ice cream on its own, over and over again, ever day if I can have it!

Frozen Durian Soup - another of my favourite, with a big dollop of pure durian puree on top of a scoop of delicious D24 durian ice cream and crunchy feuilletine in a special concocted syrup.

Jackfruit Log with Raspberries - simply love this combination of sweet, tangy jackfruit icecream with coconut sable, roasted coconut and sour raspberries!

Jackfruit Fritters with Coconut Ice Cream - love this dessert and it's presentation, which is very fine dining style. Takes a fair bit of time to prepare but stunning and delicious outcome!  

Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream - this is an all pumpkin dessert that includes ice cream, soup and caramelised cubes within. A definite hit for pumpkin lovers including myself! 

Banana Fritters - a different take on our local goreng pisang and my very first fried dessert, which sometimes gives me heart attacks as the chilli batter falls off before the banana goes onto the plate.

Chocolate Parcels - this is another of my favourite presentation which is also the hardest to prepare. Chocolate ganache wrapped in spring roll skin, tied with vanilla pod skin and fried till crispy. With each bite, molten chocolate oozes out, paired with vanilla ice cream, it is a match made in heaven!

Cheesecake? - named by Chef because it taste like one and looks like one. This is actually a Grand Marnie panna cotta paired with raspberry jelly and crumble on top. I created this for the white and red colour layers for the Christmas holiday season.

Chocolate Tarts Trio - original, rum & raisins and curacao with candied ginger. This set was created specially for Christmas take-aways.

Bombe Alaska - a dessert that I never thought possible in our small set up but am proud that I made it! 3 layers of luscious ice cream (banana, chocolate, chestnut) covered with meringue and drizzled with warm rum. Unfortunately, we are unable to serve it flaming like the photo here, which is done here purely for photo effect.