Fiesta cheesecake & strawberry shortcake

I was planning to re-create the strawberry souffle from Flor since strawberries were on sale. But alas, the Japanese cheesecake was not to be. I overbeat the egg whites to stiff peak and the cake rose spectacularly like a souffle and fell just as spectacularly too. Ha ha. But it still tasted great though! Reminded me of fiesta cheesecake which used to be quite popular.

Slight changes to the recipe: used 120g of sugar instead and omitted the lemon. Also, as the eggs were small, I used 6 egg yolks and 7 whites. That resulted in a more pronounced cheese flavor. Will probably attempt again when my poor ego recovers.

Because of this "failure", I ended up making a strawberry shortcake using the genoise. There wasn't much problems with the baking but the I tried to use the mascarpone whipped cream recipe by Tish Boyle which didn't work so well for the cake. Only thing I learned was "sweetening" the tart strawberries by mixing the sliced strawberries with 2 tbsp of sugar and letting it sit for 2hours to macerate.

Flourless chocolate almond cake

Read about this on Times online and Little Teochew and felt that I need to try it. This is also known as Queen of Sheba cake although I'm not sure why.


Flourless chocolate almond cake

200g dark, bitter chocolate (I used Valrhona 66 %)
1 tbsp strong espresso coffee (omitted)
1 tbsp rum or brandy
120g caster sugar
150g butter
100g ground almonds
5 eggs, separated (used 6 small eggs instead)
Icing sugar for dusting

Melt the chocolate, coffee, rum or brandy, half the sugar and butter in a bowl sitting in a pot of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat and stir until well mixed.

Add the ground almonds and mix well. Beat in the egg yolks, one by one.

Beat the egg whites until soft peak, add sugar and beat till stiff and glossy. Stir a couple of spoonfuls into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, before gently folding in the rest.

Turn into a buttered and floured 20cm (8in) round or square cake tin and bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes (less if you like it fudgey, more if you like it cakey) at the lowest rack.

The cake will rise almost to the top of the tin before cracking and falling. Leave to cool before removing gently from the tin, and dust with icing sugar to serve.

Tasting notes & learning points: The cake was intensely chocolaty with a mousse-like texture. The ground almond gives it a slight nutty texture. I might cut the sugar to 100g the next time as I like dark bitter chocolate more and maybe try a cake without the almond for a pure chocolate indulgence.

Pierre Herme's Black Forest Cake

Finally made this cake with Elaine's help today. Thank goodness for Mingtze's optimism and faith in the recipe. It was actually quite yummy. No need to cut the sugar as the sweet cake balances the sourish cherries and cream very well.

Tasting notes & learning points: I only used 2-3tbsp of syrup per cake layer and trimmed the cake to fit a 8 inch ring. I will probably use more cherries next time as I used 200g of cherries but I don't think it is enough. Also, need to fold the meringue properly into the batter. A topping of chocolate shavings will be perfect and I think more whipped cream is not necc. And perhaps to make it less stressful, prepare the chocolate whipped cream, cherries, syrup and cocoa cake the day before. Assemble the cake and chill it for at least 3 hours.

white chocolate sour cream frosting

White chocolate sour cream frosting (for a 9inch cake)
120g white chocolate, chopped
120g sour cream
240 heavy cream

Heat white chocolate and sour cream in double boiler till it is completely melted. Stir often.
Cool to room temperature
Whip heavy cream and fold it into white chocolate.
Frost.


Tasting notes & learning points: It was difficult to melt the white chocolate and I had to put the mixture through a fine sieve to make it smooth before folding in the whipped cream. The sour cream helps to temper the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Tiramisu layer cake 2

Made this again yesterday for tonight's dinner party.

Some changes to the recipe.

1. Added 4tsp of coffee extract to the chocolate genoise while melting the cocoa powder

2. For the cream: Whisk 8 egg yolks, 1/3 cup +1 tbsp sugar + 1/2 cup rum over double boiler to make zabagloine. Whip 500g mascarpone cheese briefly and add zabagloine followed by gelatine mixture and 1tbsp rum to it. Used 300ml of cream instead.

3. Syrup = 120ml coffee + 3tbsp kahlua + 3 tbsp bailey's. Use 6tbsp per layer (12tbsp per cake)

Tasting notes & learning points: yummy, moist & flavourful with a punch. May use less cream next time, maybe 240ml instead of 300

ondeh ondeh

After my success with my first attempt, I attempted onde onde again and failed twice. Twice! You would think that making kueh would be easier than baking cakes.. but no.... these little buggers bring on their own set of challenges.

First time it failed was because I used purple-flesh sweet potato. I loved the colour and thought that it would bring a nice colour to the onde onde. (Ya, I'm superficial) BUT... they were too fibrous and hard. I had put the potatoes through a mesh after cooking and mashing to get rid of the tough parts. Furthermore, less flour was used as the potatoes were dry. The end product tasted too sweet-potato-ish. Not bad if you like the taste of sweet potato, but not for me.

The second time it failed was because the potatoes were undercooked and too hard to mash.
Wells, as they say, first time lucky and third time is a charm. So it worked this time!


Ondeh Ondeh (makes about 40 balls)

300g sweet potato cooked till soft and mashed
2 tbsp pandan extract
100g of glutinous rice flour and more

Mix all the above in a big bowl and knead to form a soft dough. Add flour or water as necc. The end product should be a soft dough which comes together easily and does not stick to the bowl or fingers.

Make the balls by wrapping a small ball of dough around little cubes of excellent gula melaka. The new ones that were given to me are excellent.. soft, crumbly and VERY aromatic

In the meantime, steam 150g of grated coconut with some pandan leaves for 3minutes.

Cook the ondeh ondeh in a pot of boiling water with some pandan leaves. The onde onde is cooked when it is floating in the water for about 30sec. Remove with slotted spoon.

Roll the cooked ondeh ondeh in the coconut to coat the surface.

Serve within the day.

sacher torte

I was planning to try Rose's moist chocolate genoise and came across a post on sacher torte by Chubby Hubby. In the post, S used the same genoise to create the cake. Hence, I decided to try to do the same. There's just one tiny problem, how do you create a cake you've never tried before? Hmm...


Sacher torte

Make the parts

1/2 recipe of moist chocolate genoise gives a 9-inch cake which is sliced into 2 after removing top, sides and bottom - takes 25-35mins (30minutes) to bake

syrup = 80ml cocoa syrup (p189 of Rose's heavenly cake) + 1 tbsp each of dark rum, kirsch and orange liquor

1.5cup of bittersweet chocolate glaze (p306 of Tish Boyle's The Cake Book)

Apricot filling made by heating 1 bottle (250ml) of St Dalfour apricot jam and 3 tbsp of water in saucepan at medium heat till it bubbles. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.

Assemble the cake.

Brush 2 tbsp of syrup on each side of the cake slice. (total 8tbsp needed for the whole cake)
Once the syrup is absorbed, spread 1/3 of jam over the cake layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with remaining jam. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30mnutes.

While waiting for cake to chill, make the glaze. Pour glaze over cake once cake is chilled.

Allow cake to stand for at least 1hour before serving.

Learning points and tasting notes.
The cake was moist and soft. Not overly sweet and the apricot gave a nice tangy-ness. However, the glaze was a little disappointing looks-wise as it did not look as glossy and dark as I thought it should. Maybe I'll try the version on Chubby Hubby next time. Everyone liked the cake but could not discern the apricot flavor, might have to try another brand of jam or make my own the next time. Also, the sponge needs more time to absorb the syrup before putting the jam.