Pumpkin Cheesecake

I think Cheesecake is always a love hate thing for me. Love? What's not to love? It's creamy, luscious and such a comfort food on lousy days, or any other day, haha! Hate? It's highly packed with fats and calories! Eating it is just simply diet ruining, haha! So that is why you do not see me baking cheesecake that often. But...this pumpkin flavor cheesecake has been on my mind like...forever! I ever heard a DJ on the radio commenting that the best cheesecake has gotta be pumpkin cheesecake. Really? Gosh? Why in the world have I not baked it yet or even taste it before! But that diet thing came in and I just put it aside. :P Procrastination took over....only after 3 months did I finally baked it! Boy oh boy was I regretful...Pumpkin cheesecake is the BOMB! 

Don't you just love that golden "sun"! I was surprise how creamy and delicious this cheesecake turned out to be! Even if you are not a fan of pumpkin itself, you will fall in love with this, really! Very faint pumpkin taste but you know it is there. One thing to note though is to choose good pumpkins namely from Japan or the least from Australia. I particularly love pumpkins from Japan...their much smoother, creamier and sweeter too! I even eat the skin when it is washed properly and soft enough, haha! :D 

Ingredients for Pumpkin Cheese Cake (makes a 6" by  ~2.5" round)

Cookie Base:
137g Oreo cookies (1 tube pack), finely crushed/blend
40g unsalted butter, melted

•  Finely blend or crushed the oreo cookies together with the cream into fine crumbs.
• Add the melted butter in and mix well. 
• Press the cookie  mixture into a greased 6" (removal base) round cake pan, making sure it is evenly spread out and leveled. 
• Wrap the whole cake pan with heavy duty aluminum foil for water bath baking later. Chill in fridge till needed.

Cream Cheese filling:
200g pumpkin, peeled, cut into smaller chunks

• Roast the pumpkin chunks in the oven at 200C for 20minutes or more till it is fork tender. Alternatively, you can steam your pumpkin at medium fire for 15 minutes. Personally I like roasting it because I think it brings out the taste of pumpkin more.

250g cream cheese at room temperature
70g caster sugar
2 large eggs
70g sour cream 
100ml heavy cream
25g cornflour or Hong Kong flour

• Preheat the oven to 180C and prep a water bath for baking.
• In a mixer, beat the cream cheese, roasted puréed pumpkin and caster sugar till light and creamy. 
• Add in the eggs one at a time till everything is nicely incorporated. 
• Next add in the sour cream and heavy cream to the mixture and mix at low speed till all is well combined and no lumps.
• Lastly sieve in the flour and mix well till no visible flour.
• Pour the cream cheese mixture into the prepared cake pan with the chilled cookie base.
• Using a tooth pick to swirl around the batter making sure there are no trapped air bubbles. 
• Bake in the preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 155C and continue to bake for another 50 minutes (or till the surface is not wobbly any more) 
• Remove from oven and let cool completely.
• Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or better yet overnight in the fridge. Serve cold and enjoy!

It is so so important that you wrap the base of the cake pan properly with double duty aluminum foil! I cannot stress this enough because once the water from the water bath sips in...the cookie base will become soggy! What a waste! So remember, do not assume..double check and make sure you have wrap it properly. :)

Doesn't that look just awesome! Hahaha! I am so stoke when I slice the first piece out and saw this perfectly baked interior! *happiness* :)

Sorry, can't resist not posting another picture, haha! Hope this picture itself will be able to motivate you more. :) 


Okay folks, gotta run and cut this short...have a great week everyone!
Cheers!

Red Velvet & Light Cheese Cake with Pink Ombré Roses

It was my mother's birthday last weekend, just one day after National Day. As usual, the whole family got together to celebrate this joyous occasion with her. We usually dine out at a nice Chinese restaurant of her choice and spent the night, dining and chatting away. I love family gatherings! And it goes without saying that I will bake a birthday cake for the birthday girl. No matter how many times I ask her what kind of cake she likes, she will always answer me the same thing, "Do whatever is convenient, don't need to be too elaborate. Or no need cake also can." That's my mum, forever worrying about troubling other people. Anyway,I figured that its not a bad thing too as I get to choose what I like to try out, hahaha! So I decided on something that I have been wanting to try like forever....Red Velvet & Light Cheese Cake with Pink Ombré Roses.

Baking the layers of the cake was easy, but I was pretty stressed out piping out the roses on this cake! It might look simple, but little did I know piping the roses on the side of the cake can be so difficult, especially when if one didnt get the right piping tip or the consistency of the cream is not right. It cannot be too cold or too warm. I had to redo a few times until I got it right and even so I felt it wasn't nice enough. :P And it was so rush in the end that I didn't have time to get nicer shots of the cake. *haiz!*

Despite of it all, I was still very happy how the cake turned out. It was one of those cakes that I actually won't mind having 2nds or 3rds....if I haven't already had a big dinner. ;P As you all know, old folks just can't stand sweet...so I have to reduce the sugar to considerable amount in the cake recipe and the cream cheese frosting as well. And adding a light cheddar cheese cake layer in the middle was one the best idea for making this, hahaha! Why? Because the light soft and slightly salty cheddar cake makes the taste so well balanced. ;) Perfect balance of sweetness and also making the cake lighter overall. Love it!

The red velvet cake recipe is none other then Martha Stewart's recipe. I have actually made this twice and it was very well received, so I knew I will use this recipe again soon. Was gonna post up the recipe earlier but my poor laptop gave in and I have no access to the photos as yet. Anyway, I will post the red velvet recipe (with slight modifications) here plus the frosting. Kindly refer to the light cheddar cheesecake here.

Ingredients for Red Velvet Cake (Makes 2 X 8" round)
285g cake flour, sifted

1 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

180g sugar

365ml vegetable oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line and greased two 8" round cake pan. Whisk together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
• With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
• Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds.
• Divide batter equally between the 2 cake pans. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Note that I doubled the recipe since it was a 3 layer cake plus roses to pipe. But I will only post one portion of the recipe for easier reference:

Ingredients for Cream cheese frosting:

340g cream cheese, soften227g unsalted butter, room temperature200g-225g confectioner's sugar ( I can't really recall the exact amount)1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and then vanilla; mix until smooth.

To assemble, place one red velvet cake as the base and spread some cream cheese frosting over. The top it with the Cheddar cheese cake. Then spread some cream cheese frosting on top and lastly top it off with the 2nd layer of red velvet.

Ice the whole cake with a thin coat of the frosting and chill. Once chilled, decorate as you desire. If you wish to pipe roses, try using the Wilton's 1M or 2D piping tips. Also use Wilton's food coloring gel to tint the frosting. Remeber lightest to strongest. I actually used a very light shade of pink for the cake coat as shown above. I worry the pink roses against the white background might be too big a contrast.

The cake was moist, creamy and incredibly delicious. I really love it to bits! Everyone, even my brother in law whom doesn't fancy cakes, said it's very good and keep sneaking a few mouthfuls from his daughter's share, hahaha! My mum loved it too and polished off her slice pretty fast, heehee. Happy Birthday Mum!! :) As for this cake, I am very sure I will be baking this again.

Okay, gonna end this post here. Have a great week ahead everyone!

Light Chedder Cheesecake

I love light cheesecakes. It satisfy a craving and yet less guilt involved. I have tried a few versions of light cheesecakes before, all light and creamy but still has a slight differ in texture if you ask me. The first Feather light cheesecake I attempted has a large amount of milk in the recipe, and so it has a more milky taste to it. As for the Japanese Light Cheesecake I tried, it is creamier with a higher ratio of cream cheese. However the lemon juice used in the recipe really "brightens up" the taste, makes it even easier to down. (吃了不会逆).

The light Chedder cheesecake recipe I'm posting today is also uniquely different in taste and texture. With the use of Chedder cheese gives this cake a slight salty taste instead of the usual tang from cream cheese....I like it. :)

This looks so ordinary, but it taste all so good. The slight bouncy texture of the cake makes eating it very delightful. I wouldn't say this is creamy texture, but rather a light creamy cheese after taste. The slight salty and sweet gives it well balanced taste, even my picky sister said it's perfect. :D

I got this great recipe from 星厨房, will re-post it here for easy reference. ;) Thanks hsling!

Ingredients for Light Chedder Cheesecake (makes 8x8 square pan)

6 slices of Chedder Cheese

100ml fresh milk

100g unsalted butter

6 egg yolks

6egg whites (preferably cold, place in fridge after separating)

100g caster sugar

100g cake flour

• In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, fresh milk and tear up the chedder chesee slices in.
• Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use.
• Ladle big spoonful of the milk mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest of the milk mixture in. Stir well.
• Sift in the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps.
• Preheat the oven to 155C with a water bath. Grease and line an 8x8 square baking pan.
• In another large mixing bowl, add the egg whites in and beat till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
• Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites portion into the cheese mixture. And repeat with the other 2 portions and careful not to deflate it.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface.
• Bake the cake in the oven for 50 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.
• 
• Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing and let cool completely before slicing.

Love this cake. In fact I have baked this twice and planning to bake it again next week, heehee. :D It's simple to whip up and it never disappoints. Main thing to remember for this recipe is to beat your egg whites to the right consistency. :)

Okay all, gonna keep this a short one. Will try to post again this week...since I have way too many backlogs...(*_*")

Have a good evening all. (^o^)

MIL's Brithday Cake & Marble Crumb Cake

Mid year school holidays! A nice little break for the kids from books and school. ;) As for me, as much as I love my time with my kids, I always find that my so call "free" time seems to disappear real fast with the kids at home. ;P And that is also one of the reasons why I am not posting as much. :P And before I disappear again for my short vacation, I would like to post up a couple of cake recipes which was done a little while back.

First is my MIL's birthday cake. I have chosen to bake the same Eggless Tiramisu Cake which I posted last month. Main reason for this repetition was because my MIL seems to love this cake a lot the last time I baked it. She even requested to leave an extra slice for her to enjoy the following day (this happens rarely). With that I knew she would love this tiramisu cake for her birthday.

I decided to steal the same decoration method as last year's birthday cake, which is to have a sponge cake wrap around it. Perhaps not as tedious but still quite a bit of work if I do say so myself, lol! I shall only post up the recipe for the dual flavor swiss roll cake here. Please refer to my previous post for the tiramisu cake recipe.

This Swiss roll recipe uses the Egg separation method "分蛋式海绵蛋" which yields one of the softest cake, even after refrigeration. For step by step pictorial help, please refer to my previous post here.

Ingredients for Dual Flavor Swiss Roll Cake: (makes a 13"x10")

Set A:

30g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 large egg yolks

20g caster sugar

Set B:

4 egg whites

65g caster sugar

40g superfine cake flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

• Melt the butter and let cool until needed.
• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and greased it again. Preheat oven to 170C.
• Again under double boiler, beat the egg yolks and sugar (from Set A) till triple in volume and thickens.
• At the meantime, beat the egg white from Set B with gradual addition of the sugar and beat till mixture is stiff peaks.
• In 3 separate portions, add the egg whites into the yolk mixture, folding gently till all is added in.
• Sift in the cake flour in 3 separate portions as well, using the electric mixer at its lowest speed. Do this till there is no visible lumps of flour and making sure not over beating and deflating the mixture.
• Take about 2 tbsp worth of the batter and mix into the melted, cooled butter mixture. Make sure it is well mixed and then add it back to the cake batter and gently stir to blend.
• Take about 190g of the batter and mix in the 1 tbsp of cocoa powder until uniform in color.
• Fill the 2 batters into 2 separate piping bags with a 1cm opening nozzle.
• Pipe along the shorter side of the tray, alternating the plain and chocolate batter until all has been piped out.
• 
• Bake in the oven for 13 minutes or till tester comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before use.
• Cut the cake into half length wise and should be long enough to wrap a 7" or 8" round cake. Alternatively, you can leave it as it is to make it into a Swiss roll cake. :))
• 

Remember to save some mascarpone cream to cream around the cake so that the swiss roll can adhere properly. An adjustable cake ring would be very handy here.

A look at interior...from the last slice which I salvage after the celebration. :) Actually, I like this cake a lot too, it has this well balance taste of mascarpone cream, soft sponge cake and chocolate. I will definitely bake this again for more family gatherings later this year. ;)

I would like to submit this to Bake-Along No. 25 1st Anniversary: A Layered Cake.
It's my first time joining in and I'm so happy that I'm finally taking part in this bake along! (^o^)

The other recipe I wanted to post up is Marble Crumb Cake which I saw over at Daily Delicious almost a month back. I knew the moment I saw it, I have to bake it!

Its so hard to capture a nice picture with this dark and brown cake! Doesn't look as good as it taste, trust me on that. :P

Perhaps this shot will better show how yummy this cake is. Fine crumbs, chocolaty and cookie like crumb toppings. :) I doubled the recipe and posted here for my reference

Ingredients for Marble Crumb Cake (Makes a 7"X7")

Crumb topping

170g all purpose flour

16g cocoa powder

100g light brown sugar

100g salted butter

Mix all the ingredients together until it resembles bread crumbs. Set aside for use later.

Cake:

230g salted butter

200g caster sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

230g all purpose flour

2.5tsp baking powder

130g dark chocolate, chopped

120ml dairy heavy cream (divided in 30g / 30g)

Method:

• Heat 30ml of the heavy cream till almost bubbly. Add in the chopped chocolate and let seat for 5 mins. Stir well and let cool. Preheat oven to 180C.
• Beat the butter and sugar till it's light and fluffy. Add in vanilla extract and continue to mix. Then beat in each egg, one at a time till everything is incorporated.
• Sift in half of the flour, baking powder and mix well. Then add in 30ml of the heavy cream and mix. Then add in the remaining flour and mix well.
• Take about 1/4 of the batter and mix the melted chocolate in.
• Pour both batter in the prepared baking tin, alternating and then stir it with a tooth pick to create the marble effect.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes till the tester comes out clean. If the crumbs are browning too fast in the oven, cover it with an aluminum foil. Remember to let cool before slicing, else the crumbs will fall apart easily.

I had reduce the sugar by 30g, plus I used 70% cocoa chocolate verses using milk chocolate, so this is really not that sweet. ;)

Hopefully these 2 cakes have inspired you to bake something nice for your love ones this holiday. :)

Lavender Macarons with Mango curd buttercream

There was a family gathering over at my sister's place last weekend. My mum and sis prepared lots of delicious food for everyone. To thank the generous host and hostess, I decided to bake something nice for everyone to enjoy. Since both my sister and her husband loves cheesecakes, I decided to make a simple no-bake light mango cheesecake that day. Since the cheesecake looks kind of plain on it's own, the idea of decorating it with some macarons came to mind. (Plus its AB macaron theme this month, hehe) As I didn't want to bake the usual flavors, I went with something slightly more "exotic"...Lavender Macarons! I bet some of you are going..."Ewww....potpourri flavor?! I know I know, it does sound a little unconventional, but since I did make lavender butter cookies before and they turned out wonderful, so I thought...why not?

To match the flavor with the cheesecake, I filled the macarons with mango curd buttercream. Eh...why not just mango curd, why with buttercream? Well, long story short, the curd was a little runny and it just didn't hold well in the macs. Why? Don't really know...even after I cooked it much longer then suggested. :P However the mango curd's taste was fabulous, a great recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Check out her link if you are interested to make the curd.

For the no-bake cheesecake recipe, please kindly refer to my previous post. As for the mac recipe, here it is:

Ingredients for Lavender Macaron Shells: (makes about 20 cookies)

100g almond meal (I ground mine from whole blanched and toasted almonds)
100g icing sugar
1 heaping tbsp lavender (I chopped mine into even finer bits)
38g fresh egg whites (about 2 egg whites)
pinch of salt
some violet food coloring (optional-I used Wilton's violet food coloring gel, a little goes a long way)

80g caster sugar
20ml water

38g aged egg whites (about 2 egg whites)

• In a blender, finely ground the almond powder and confectioner's sugar together till powdery like. Then pour it into a bowl and add in the lavender bits . Then mix in the egg white and salt. Stir and mix well. Mixture will be thick.

• In a saucepan placed over medium fire, heat up the sugar and water. Once the sugar has all melted, place your candy thermometer in and monitor it till it reaches ~108C. Once it reaches 108C, beat the egg white at high speed till it reaches soft peaks, which by then the temperature should be close to 118C.

• Slowly drizzle the sugar syrup into the egg white while the mixer is still at medium speed. Once all the syrup is in, continue to beat till the meringue is glossy.

• Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into the almond meal mixture. Since the almond mixture is thick, you'll need to stir harder to incorporate it well. Repeat the other 2 portions and fold in gently.

• Scoop the batter into a piping bag with an 10mm nozzle. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment paper. Let rest for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 150C with fan off.

• After 10 minutes, bake the cookies in the oven for 14mins.

• After baking, remove from oven and let cool completely before peeling off.

Note: You can dry the mac shells a little by using your oven if that day happens to be a humid/rainy day. Preheat oven to 80C, off oven and place piped mac shells in. When the shells are no longer sticky to your finger's touch, they are good to bake. Else wait for another 5 minutes to let it dry up a little further.

I was really happy my family loved this cake...and the macs. ;) Although most of them have no clue what flavor the mac was, they just happily chomp it down (before I can tell them), lol! I guess the mango flavoring might have been a little overpowering over the lavender, since I did only add 1 tbsp. I have reduce the sugar for this recipe and thank goodness it still turned out fine. *phew!!*  So the macs were not overly sweet, just to my liking. ;) However, the violet color didn't quite show...should add a wee but more coloring next time. :P

  

To my surprise, I actually like the faint flowery scent in the mac. No, not potpourri feel at all...just a sweet scent at the background to compliment the nutty flavor of the almond. :) If I would have filled it with plain vanilla buttercream, it's flowery scent would have stand out even more. But overall, I was really happy I tried something new! Being a little adventurous never hurts ya?

I am happy to submit my post to this month's Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

Thanks Alan for hosting!

Okay, will end this post here. Thanks for staying with me!

Purple Sweet Potato Bread & a" POPing" fun gathering

First, apologies for the long silence. Have been busy dealing with urgent matters and now that it's been resolved, I managed to have a breather or two. But again, I wonder if anyone missed me at all since now there are so many wonderful blogs out there. :P Nevertheless, I felt bad not putting up a post for the past 2 weeks and got worried that this tardiness might end up being a habit. ;P Anyway, I do hope my faithful readers will understand and still come by to support me when they can. :)

Today's recipe is Purple Sweet Potato Bread using the 17hr pre fermented dough technique. At first I thought the pumpkin version was my favorite, but now I can't decide which one is it after I baked this purple sweet potato version....it's equally good!

This loaf you are looking at is actually the 3rd time I've baked this recipe. Yes...its really worth repeating it so many times. :)

Here is the recipe that you all are waiting for:

Ingredients for Purple Sweet Potato Bread using 17hr pre fermented dough: (makes two 9X5X5)

Pre-ferment Dough:

377g bread flour

216ml water

11g fresh yeast (I used 8g active dry yeast)

5g salt

11g skim milk powder

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap or a big zip log bag. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

Note: The dough will expand in the fridge. So whatever container you put the dough in, do give some allowance for growth.

Main Dough:

162g bread flour

16g skim milk powder

5g sea salt

65g caster sugar

135ml water

5g fresh yeast (I used 4 g active dry yeast)

43g unsalted butter

269g mashed purple sweet potato

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable and pass the window panel consistency.

• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top. If open top, brush with egg wash. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

As always, this technique yields the softest and very bouncy "Q-Q" bread texture. The bread stayed soft even on the 3rd day. :) My kids love this bread a lot and I think the pretty color also plays a big part in that, lol! They would simply ask for a spread of butter and chomp it right down. :)

I guess by looking at the texture itself you can see the softness. So once again I recommend you try this out, you'll fall in love with it, I guarantee! :D

Even made some buns with seaweed and luncheon meat...for my kiddos breakfast. :)

Before I end this post, I like to say thanks to a group of wonderful bloggers that I had the honor to meet up over the last weekend. In no particular order, they are Grace, Jane, Jo, Edith, Eelin, Doris, ZhouYuan, Esther, Cathy and Jess. I was really glad to be part of this fun gathering which I felt at ease talking and exchanging baking fun with them. I do hope there will be more coming and soon. :) And special thanks to Eelin whom initiated the event and also Jo for graciously offered her lovely home to the gathering.Kindly visit these fellow bloggers on details of this event. :)

Thanks for coming by again. Hopefully will post up something yummy again soon. Have a great day all!

"Swiss Rolled" Mango Yogurt Cheesecake

Last weekend was my MIL's birthday and for the past month, I had been pondering what kind of cake should I be baking for her. Nothing too "adventurous" either in taste or looks, especially if it's meant for an elder member of the family. But I wanted to bake something real special too, not something I've done before. :P So with much consideration and "engineering" involved, I decided to go with this Swiss Rolled Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake. Why Swiss rolled? Check it out yourself:

 

If you remember a while back when I did the Pikachu Mango Swiss Roll Cake, you'll know where I got this idea from. Nice? I sure hope it had made the birthday lady a littler happier seeing this cake. If there is a phrase to describe what I went through to make this cake, it's "没有功劳，也有苦劳" (rough translation: even if I didn't get any credit for it, I sure did gave my full effort in making it). You folks must be wondering what effort? What's the big deal? Well, the thing was I made a major mistake in the process of baking the Swiss roll cake around it. When I piped the Chinese characters "生日快乐"， I didn't realize that it will turn out to be the mirror image when I placed the sheet cake up! Left with no choice, I re-baked the Swiss roll sheet again, deco and all....*sigh!!!* Well at least there's a lesson learnt here! I'm pretty sure I won't be making this mistake again....I hope!

I got idea of making fruit yogurt cheesecake from Wendy of Table for 2 or more, where she made a Passion fruit Yoghurt Cheesecake. It looked really light and refreshing, something nice to have after dinner. So it was definitely a good choice for me. :)) I followed her recipe to the dot except that I replaced the passion fruit with fresh mango puree and the plain yogurt with mango yoghurt. As for the Swiss roll, you can use my Pikachu mango Swiss Roll cake recipe. :))

Besides the minor "set back", I really enjoyed making this cake. :) It still turned out as I expected it to be. (BIG relief!). :P It was light and freshing, with a slight tang from the yogurt which I find it easy to go down even after a heavy dinner. :))

As you can see from the sliced up cake, the yogurt layer and the cheesecake layer are not in proportion. :P I should have doubled up the cheesecake recipe and reduced the the yogurt filling. O well, next time! BTW, sorry for my poor photography this time, sure didn't do justice to the cake, heehee *thick skinned!*

Hope you all like this cake I made and a little inspired to bake a nice birthday cake yourself for you loved ones. :) Either way, have a good good weekend! Cheers all!

Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake & Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon

There are quite a number of backlogs that I have not got a chance to post up for the past few months. And it seems to be stacking up steadily as the days goes on. I can say I'm usually a fast baker, but now due to time constraint, I've become such a slow blogger. *sigh* So today I'm going to "kill 2 bids with one stone", 2 recipes in one post. :) Don't be surprise if eventually I'm posting up 3 in 1 in the future, lol! So please bare with my long post today. :P

First up is Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake. Made it because I was craving for a cake, not just a simple sponge or butter cake, I want with layers and icing and of course with chocolate!

It's be ages since I last made myself a luscious yummy cake...just for myself not for someone's birthday, heehee. I got the primary idea from Hearty Bake's Orange Sponge Cake post a while back. I was totally captivated by the sponge cake and swore to try it out myself. The outcome was great of course(thanks for the recipe Jessie!) but I did made some minor changes to it to suit my taste. :) Here is my version:

Ingredients for Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake: (makes a 6"X3" round)

4 egg yolks

30g sugar

1/2 tsp orange essence

75ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of 1 naval orange

40g cake flour

40g plain flour

50g melted butter

4 egg whites

90g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

• Sieve the flours twice and set aside. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 6"X3" round pan with removable base.
• Place the egg yolks and sugar over a heat proof bowl over a double boiler on a gentle simmer. Using a hand beater, whisk the mixture till foamy. Then add the juice and zest and continue to whisk till ribbon stage. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for later use.
• In another bowl, beat the egg white and cream of tartar together till foamy. Gradually add in the caster sugar while the beater whisk at high speed. When it reaches stiff peaks, stop the mixer.
• In 3 separate portions, fold the whites into the yolk mixture till all is combined.
• Also in 3 separate portions, sieve the flour mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold in till all the flours are not visible.
• Lastly add in the cooled melted butter and fold in gently and careful not to deflate the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and give it a light tap on the table to remove some bubbles.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Toppings and filling:

200ml of non-dairy whipping cream,
15ml freshly squeezed orange juice
Nutella for spreading between cake layers
200ml semisweet chocolate, chopped small (I used Valrohna)
100ml dairy heavy cream
20g of butter


Assembly:

• In a mixer, whip the non dairy cream with orange juice till stiff peaks. Note that if your whipping cream is unsweetened, you can add some confectioner's sugar to your liking.
• Slice the cooled cake horizontally into 3 layers. Then spread a layer of nutella on one of the disc. Top it off with some orange whipped cream and cap it with the next cake disc. Repeat till you place the last disc on top. Ice the whole cake with the remaining orange whipped cream and let it chill for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, heat the dairy heavy cream till almost bubbly, then add in the chopped chocolate and butter in. Let it stand for 5 minutes. After 5mins, stir the mixture till soon.
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the cake and let it naturally flow down on the sides. Chill the cake for an hour before serving.

I was very pleased with the end result. The sponge cake was soft with an evident orange scent. Plus the orange and chocolate flavor comes together perfectly. With the hazelnut spread, it gives another hint of nutty flavor at the back, pretty nice I must say. :)

This cake was pretty easy to whip up. Definitely can be made into a nice birthday cake for your love ones. Perhaps I will do that the next time. :) Feel free to substitute the hazelnut spread to just plain chocolate if nuts is not an option. :)

Next recipe is an all original HoneyBeeSweets creation, Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake! Heehee, it's very nice I can tell you that, so no worries if you decided to give my recipe a try. ;)

This chiffon is soft and creamy with a nice banana and chocolate flavor. I actually made this twice already since my kids loved it so much. ;) So here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake: (makes a 22cm to 24cm chiffon)

Egg Yolk mixture:

4 egg yolks

70g caster sugar

80g ripe bananas

80g cream cheese (room temperature)

60ml fresh milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

70g vegetable oil

75g cake flour

75g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Egg white mixture:

5 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

80g caster sugar

100g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 55% cocoa Valrohna)

(Note: Try not to use chocolate chips as it might just sink all the way to the bottom)

Method:

• In a blender, add in cream cheese, banana, fresh lemon juice and milk. Blend the mixture till smooth. Then pour the mixture into a large bowl, add egg yolks and vegetable oil and mix well.
• Sieve the 2 flours and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and stir well till smooth.
• Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy, then gradually add in the caster sugar with the beater on at high speed. Beat till stiff peaks.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• In 3 separate portions, fold in the whites to the yolk mixture but not over mixing and deflating the batter.
• Lastly stir in the finely chopped chocolate chunks into the cake batter. Then pour the batter into the tube pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the tester comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and invert the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I was glad this experiment turned out well. Perhaps next time I will try out with more interesting flavors, heehee. :D Maybe substitute the cream cheese with sour cream or yoghurt perhaps? We'll see. :)

BTW, I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from Noms I Must.

Okay folks, hope you all have a nice long weekend and Happy Labor Day!