Birthday Mini Cake

Another year gone by... time is moving so fast and it's my birthday again. 33 years old now, i hope i am getting wiser in living my life. recently i really can't catch up with baking and i missed last birthday bake due to pregnancy blues. So from now on i promise to myself at least one cake a year is a must, especially one my birthday.

this is a mini cake made from round chocolate sponge cake and fondant cover. i will try to write the method here, hope you can understand.

- bake a sheet of your favourite chocolate sponge cake

- cut 3 sponge cake with round cookie cutter diameter 8cm

- stack them together with buttercream to resemble a tube around 12cm high

- cut a circle using round cutter to fit the top of the cake

- use a textured rolling pin and roll ivory fondant

- measure a piece of fondant as same height & round of the cake for covering the side of the cake

- divide into 4 equal pieces and leave them for a while

- place them one by one to the side of the cake and smooth with your hand

- finish by attaching daisies, ribbon and number (all of them are made by using fondant cutter)

it's a bit diffcult to make it perfect, since the fondant is very soft to stand upright, and the texture is easily flatten when pressed too much. and it should be eaten soon cos' i notice the cake begin to swing to one side on the 3rd day :)

Yam Cake

I like to eat yam bread with yam filling, i wonder whether it's really made from real yam or only concentrate. (you can see real yam at the background). My husband like to eat steamed yam with shredded coconut and sugar. i don't really like to eat that way, it feels very dry and hard to swallow. we found a good yam in fresh market couple days before and i decide to try a yam cake recipe from Sedap magazine.




Kue Talas (Yam Cake)

100 g flour
50 g sugar
60 g vegetable oil
50 g yam, steamed & mashed
25 g coconut milk
35 ml water
2 drop pink coloring
1/8 teaspoon violet coloring
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 g sugar


methods:
1. process yam, coconut milk, water and food colorings in food processor or blender
2. stir vegetable oil into yam mixture
3. sift flour, stir in sugar
4. pour in yam mixture into flour and stir gently. add egg yolk and stir until combined
5. beat egg whites and salt, drizzle in sugar slowly and beat until soft peak
6. fold into yam mixture gently until combined
7. pour into 30x25x3cm pan lined with paper
8. bake in oven 190c for 20minutes until done



i used a 22cm chiffon pan but it's too big, the batter only reach 1/3 of the pan. after 1 hour, the top already done and brown, but it shrink back a little when cooled. i think the pan is too high that the cake is not baked perfectly.

Chocolate Cake

it's been a long long time since my last bake, and this is the first time after deliverying gwen, i visit my kitchen again. during the pregnancy, kitchen makes me sick the most, especially the smell of garlic being fried, yucks! and i lost my baking mood at all, like i've never been into it so much all this time. so after settling for a couple months now, i decide to try a simple recipe but yummy chocolate cake recipe for my premiere. taken from KOMPAS newspaper, it's a kind of sponge cake but more delicate since more yolk is used, and it's easy :)

Chocolate Mint Cake

ingredients:

12 egg yolks

3 egg whites

120 g sugar

60 g flour

30 g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp mint essence

120 g margarin, melted

methods:

preheat oven to 190 c. sft flour and cocoa powder. beat egg and sugar until firm, fold in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and mint essence. gently fold in melted margarin. pour into 28x28x3 pan and bake for 25 minutes.

you can use any kind of icing for this cake, from rich ganache to simple chocolate buttercream. i used ganache in this picture, it really good! very spongy..

Cake of Roses

I always intriguing by fondant roses, they are so sophisticated and romantic, very perfect for wedding cake. I've made myself once before but they look dreadful! And then Thata gave me peggy porschen book "Romantic Cake", she write a very detail of sugarpaste rose making, with photos! (Thanks lot Ta...:p)

It's always different when we imagine something in our mind than when we make it real. I have captured all the details and picture of peggy's how-to-make-a-rose and it look very simple. I thought it would be only take a few minutes to complete a rose. In fact, it took me about 1 hour to finish my first rose and it doesn't even look like a rose!

The next attempts show gradual improvement. There must be several trial and error after I found my way to create a rose looklike ones.

Here are the "how-to" for making roses:
1. prepare 3 balls of fondant, one of them larger than the other

2. place these balls between 2 pieces of plastic
3. push down the larger balls until very thin and roll into spiral shape, this will be the centre

4. push down the other 2 balls from middle to side, these will be the first petal

5. take one petal, thin side up, lay it around the centre over the seam

6. tuck the second petal slightly inside the first petal and squeeze around the centre

7. slightly curve the petal out with your finger

For rosebud you need 3 balls, for open rose you just add 3 petals, for larger open rose add another 5 petals and so on. Sorry I can't included the photos, just buy peggy's book for sure! :p

FoodBuzz Featured Publisher

On Feb 2008, I received an email from Shannon Elliot, an editor from http://www.foodbuzz.com/ saying that she interested in my blog and asking me to join foodbuzz featured publisher program. I never heard of foodbuzz before and I astonished that my humble blog could draw such attention to a community which ready to make me their publisher too. There’s a slight thought that it’s only a joke email and I ready to delete it, but curiosity drives me click on the link she sent in her email, then I found out what a foodbuzz are. To become a publisher, there’s no extra effort, I just have to place the banner of foodbuzz and post journals as usual in my blog, and they will pay me money based on how many viewer came to my blog. Nothing to lose and something to win, I sign the contract in March and I become the featured publisher for foodbuzz!

Unfortunately, since then, I have not post anything to my blog at all, what a shame! But of course I have excuse… :p it is my work at office that drive me crazy, year end closing, financial audit, tax issues, blah blah blah… no time and no mood for baking anymore, I even hardly visit my small kitchen during March and April. Until I received a small gift from Shannon today, a box of moo minicard personalized with my name and blog. Very cute and exquisite, make me feel I am already a publisher :p but the same time ring my bell about my absence from publishing. So, finally I write this journal today as a start and there will be lot more journal to come…I hope…:p

Ruben's 2nd Birthday

I was introduced to Debbie Brown website by Thata couple months ago and fall in love with her Dippy Dinosaurs cake. It’s perfect for Ruben’s second birthday since he fond of dinosaurs and Dippy seems quite easy to make. Finally bought her 50 easy party cake book on October 2007 for Rp 200.000, expensive but worth it.

I try Debbie’s Madeira butter cake with a little modification ( plus 1 egg and ½ cup milk), but I’m not satisfied with the result. It came out rather hard and dry. But it had a perfect halfball shape that make the fondant covering is quite easy. The problem arise at shaping Dino’s head, first attempt looks like pig and second attempt rather like alien. Finally third attempt a little bit looks like dinosaurs. I had to use cmc for its head to hold up.

Beside Dino cake I also prepare simple goodie bag for Ben’s friends and his classmates (there are only 3 children in the class!). I made transportation butter cookies and blocks cake for the goodie. Butter cookies already baked one week before birthday and iced with fondant. I used royal icing to stick fondant to cookies.

Block cake is chocolate lapis Surabaya. It takes more time than usual covering since each side of the blocks need to be covered and piled the borders. I was run out of time and only 3 blocks were finished…

Actually no celebration this year for Ben, we only invite 2 boys from next door (who are Ben’s best friends) to come over to our house. After some singing and photo session J I let them play with the Dino. They were amazed by the blue creature and can’t keep their hand picking the fondant and eating them!

Anniversary Cake

October 25, 2007, my 4th anniversary. No special celebration. So at weekend I decide to make a cake to practice my fondant covering, and also practice making fondant roses. I made 4 different color of roses to represent those 4 year of marriage I've been through. I used wilton color petal rose, pink & ivory.

Side angle, not bad... very simple style...

my roses still look odd...:p I think their petals are too thick...

a little accent of cornelli laces...:p

Strawberry White Roll

actually i'm not fond of roll cake since my couple attempts resulted in broken cake or a bald cake when they're rolled up. but this roll cake is fully egg whites and it resulted in a elastic cake that is quite easy to roll. and it's deliciously fruity. the only matter i still can't release myself from a baldy roll cake, although this is far more better than traditional roll cake, it still unevitably baldy at several section (not quite obvious in the picture, right?)...:p

Strawberry White Roll

100 gram cake flour
25 gram corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
70 gram caster sugar
100ml orange juice (from 1 orange)
Grated orange rind from 1 orange
¼ tsp salt

350ml egg whites
100 gram caster sugar
100 gram strawberry, chopped
100 gram canned mandarin orange, chopped

Prepared a 32cmx2cm square pan, grease and line with baking paper.
Spread the chopped strawberry and mandarin over the pan.
Sift flour, corn starch and baking powder, set aside.
Stir together 70 gram sugar, orange juice, orange rind and salt until sugar dissolved.
Fold in flour in 2-3 phase, stir until combined, set aside.
In another bowl, beat egg whites and slowly drizzle in sugar. Beat until forming soft peaks.
Gently fold egg whites into flour mixture in 2-3 phases.
Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 25 minutes or until top is golden.
Remove from oven and unmold the cake into a non-stick mat/paper.
Spread butter cream or jam, roll up.

this recipe is taken from Olahan Lezat Telur from Sedap. i think it's quite like angel food cake. at the time i was running out of mandarin orange so i simply skip it. the orange juice alone is enough to give it a fresh orange taste. i spread store bought butter cream over it and roll it up, but it looks like the roll is not tight enough that we can see in this picture the middle of the cake is loosen.

i really dream of a fine sharp knife for cutting all my cake. (or a perfect cutting skill?)...

Cake ala Taiwan

this recipe is taken from Cake Decorating book by Sedap. this is actually a sponge cake but rather plain since the oil take over all butter. the combination of oil and milk make it very moist and the texture is soft and spongy.

Caka ala Taiwan

100 gram vegetable oil
30 ml milk
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
5 eggs
150 gram sugar
150 gram all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180c degree and butter and flour a 22cmx6cm square pan
Bring to a boil oil, milk and salt, stir until foamy. Remove from the heat.
Stir in 2 beaten eggs when warm and stir until thicken.
In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and form ribbonlike trail.
Sift in flour and baking powder and fold gently.
Fold in oil mixture until combine, do not overmix.
Oven 40 minutes

i bought a little durian monthong couples day before. i process the durian with a little water and corn starch then boil it until thick. it's quite a combination.

Green Tea Cake

my brother in law brought me a pack of green tea powder (matcha) from Tokyo last month. i was always wondering how it would taste in a cake. then i got this recipe from Jenny SP, a friend from my baking mailist. it quite easy to prepare and little time in oven because of its thin layer.

Green Tea Mousse Cake
200 gr cake flour
2 tbsp matcha powder
3 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
70 gr confectioner's sugar
4 egg yolks
100 gr salad oil
170gr water
2tsp vanilla extract
6 egg whites
80 gr confectioner's sugar
prepare 3 pieces of 20cm square pans and line with parchment. preheat oven to 180c. sift together cake flour, matcha powder, baking powder, salt and confectioner's sugar. in a bowl mix by whisk egg yolks, salad oil, water and vanilla. mix in flour mixture into the bowl and whisk until combine.
in a mixing bowl, beat egg whites and confectioner's sugar until stiff. slowly fold whites into the egg yolk mixture, fold until combine.
pour mixture evenly in 3 pans and bake 6 minutes, rotate the pans and bake another 5 minutes.

Green Tea Mousse
3 egg whites
75 gr caster sugar
2 tsp matcha powder
35 gr butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a pich of salt
place a heatproof bowl over a shimmering water. whisk egg whites, sugar and matcha powder until sugar dissolved and mixture reach 70c about 7 minutes. turn into mixing bowl and beat at high until soft peak, reduce speed to low and beat in butter, a piece at a time. beat in vanilla and salt. beat until glossy about 5 minutes.

actually i subtitute the mouse with whipped cream and sprinkle the top with shredded chocolate and it turn out that green tea is very matched with chocolate.