Category: Cakes

Honey Cheese Sponge Cake

Honey Cheese Sponge Cake

TGIF! It’s been quite a while since i have posted but i have been baking weekly still. I’ve been rather hardworking going to libraries, browsing through cookery and baking books, reading and feeding my knowledge. Learning is a never ending process.

There’s a recent craze about this Le Castella that comes to Singapore and they are everywhere in the media. Castella (カステラ?Kasutera) is a popular Japanesesponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup. When this cake comes to Taiwan, the wait was 5 hours and when it comes to Singapore it was a 3 1/2 hours. The Queue was CRAZY and I was initially jumping with excitement but after i’ve seen alot of media photos of the cake, with alot of so-so reviews, i was reluctant to try.

Le Castella T1

Some friends tried it and gave the feedback that it’s not worth buying, they taste like normal sponge, just softer or fluffier. The cakes look inconsistent, dense and charred on the surface. An over-baked charred skin is a huge turn off to me, becasue a charred skin could overpower the original taste of a good cake/any baked goods.

18302_1494582538

There’s also a link here –> http://www.asiaone.com/singapore/taiwans-famous-castella-cake-town-heres-our-verdict which doesn’t seems to have very good reviews about the cake as well..

And so.. i did my own version (adapted from guai shu shu’s cheesy sponge cake). There are still rooms for improvement, however this is my first try =)

Honey Cheese Castella Recipe

 

a04ee09e-31c9-42e5-84c3-f62677156355

 

Ingredients:

The yolks batter
80g melted butter
6 egg yolks ( i used 60g eggs)
100g of cake flour
60g honey
20g milk
1/2 tsp salt

The white meringue
6 egg whites
60g sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Grated cheddar cheese or any cheese preferred

 

Method

 

  1. The yolk batter – Pre-heat oven to 160 degree
  2. Whisk egg yolks and 2 tbsp of sugar till light and fluffy
  3. Add salt, milk, melted butter and honey, mix well.
  4. Add cake flour, mix well until smooth, put aside.

 

 

  1. The white meringue – Pour all your whites in clean mixing bowl, using a machine and whisk till it’s frothy, add in your cream of tartar. Gradually add in your sugar in batches when the whites becomes soft peaks while whisking till it reaches soft peak form.
  2. Take 1/3 of the white meringue, fold it into the yolk meringue. Do this in 3 batches until fully combined. Try not to over mix and deflate the batter.

 

 

Baking time!!

 

  1. Line your baking tin. I used a rectangular tin for my bake today. Pour in half of the batter.
  2. Spread/Sprinkle cheddar cheese all over your cake and top up the other half of the batter over it.
  3. Level the top lightly, and bang it on the table a few times to remove large air bubbles trapped inside the cake.
  4. Steam bake for 30-40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
  5. Remove from tray. Cut and Serve =)

 

I might be baking mine for too long or did not use the water bathe method so the cake comes out slightly more dry as compared to the original recipe. However, the cake taste heavenly of honey, it’s soft and fluffy and it stays that way for the next 2 days!

dcb1eb41-72db-486c-b874-3579c5930a77

68bf20cd-b7cc-4aba-aa50-00beb504d36e

 

 

Follow #Instagram: Judybakez
Follow Facebook: Judybakes-Singapore

 

 

Pandan Chiffon Cake -All Natural

Pandan Chiffon Cake -All Natural

I love Panda Chiffon since i was a kid, i could remember how soft and fluffy these cakes are together with the fragrance of pandan and coconut cream and how i love eating these. Cakes were not as fanciful as what we have in this century now, bakeries were all very traditional and cakes were quite plain looking during those times, it needs the skills of a baker to bring out the fragrance of a bake to attract customers to their shops.

Pandan chiffon can be seen and bought easily almost in all kinds of bakery shops now, price ranging from as cheap as $5 to as much as $18 per cake. Not sure how many of you felt this way, but personally i never liked the taste of fake essence and lots of baking powder to make a cake rise to become fluffy, especially the after taste of the chemical will always stays in my tongue, “spoiling” my tastebud for a moment. That’s commercially baked, huge quantity, lots of chemicals and cheap, comparing to home bakes which i would love to use as much natural ingredients as possible, lots of work and time, in result to a more expensive cake, but no matter how much does a home baker charge for a bake, they will never recover their labour cost with the number of hours they spent – it’s all about passion. Support home bake, appreciate their hard work, support their passion =)

pandan-chiffon-05

pancake-chiffon-chart
I forgot where i have found this chart online but it’s a good piece of information to share. Most recipes online uses pandan essence/paste and food colouring, it’s much easier especially for beginners but you could slowly change and adapt to this all natural recipe, trust me, you will taste the difference!

So, here’s my recipe on my pandan chiffon cake after a few quick research..

Pandan Chiffon Recipe – For 23 cm Tin

The yolks meringue
6 egg yolks (I couldn’t get 60g eggs so i used 55g eggs instead)
30g sugar
75g canola oil
15g pandan water (Pictures shown at the end of the recipe)
60g coconut cream/milk (Prefer freshly squeezed from market)
135 cake flour / top flour

The whites meringue
8 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
90g sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven at 160C
2. Using a hand whisk or hand machine, whisk yolks till double in volume. Slowly add in 30g of sugar and whisk till pale and fluffy.
3. Stir in oil and combine. Add in pandan water and coconut cream, stir till well mixed.
4. Sift in the cake/top flour, using hand whisk to whisk till well combined.
5. The egg white meringue (important!!) – Pour all your whites in clean mixing bowl, using a machine and whisk till it’s frothy, add in your cream of tartar.Gradually add in your sugar in batches when the whites becomes soft peaks while whisking till it reaches almost stiff peak form.
6. Take 1/3 of the white meringue, fold it into the yolk meringue. This will make your yolk meringue lighter before adding it back into the white meringue to combine,
7. Now that your yolk meringue is lighter, pour it all into the white meringue and fold. We do not want to over fold or over combine this as it will deflate the batter.
8. Once you are done, pour your cake batter into chiffon tin. Level the surface, and give it a few taps on the table to remove large air bubbles.
9. Bake in the oven at 160C for about 70mins. If the top gets too browned, prepare a aluminium foil to cover the top after 40mins of baking.

10. Remove from oven. Quickly turn your chiffon tin upside down and let it cool off totally.

pandan-chiffon-03
11. Removing the cake – Personally i feel the chiffon cakes that i make, it’s easier to remove them with hands and it will look much prettier as compared to using a knife.

pandan-chiffon-02pandan-chiffon-04

Cut and serve!

 

How to get pandan water?

Cut pandan leaves and filled it in a blender. Add water, just enough to blend and get the juice out of the leaves.

Using a sieve, drain the liquid out and best to let the liquid sit in the fridge overnight. The liquid will separate into 2 parts, we will gently pour out the top part of clearer pandan water (which we can use for cooking desserts), leaving the dark green colour for our pandan cake.

pandan-water-01pandan-water-02pandan-water-03pandan-water-04

 

Do tag me or #hashtag #Judybakez if you have tried my recipe ^_^

#Stay happy
#Keep learning
#Skills are for life

Follow #Instagram: Judybakez
Follow Facebook: Judybakes-Singapore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Half Baked Cheese Cake

Half Baked Cheese Cake

Generally, who doesn’t like cheesecake? My love for cheesecake started when I first ate a Chicago cheesecake from coffee bean. Today, there are many many different variations of cheesecake, including the current popular Japanese soft and fluffy cheesecake.

To me, a cheesecake has to be light and to be able to finish a full piece of cake or more without feeling too heavy. The texture has to be soft, smooth, melts in the mouth, without the floury aftertaste, not to mention less sugar.

My 2nd baking class that I attended was a cheesecake baking class with my 20 years bestie, love her to bits! We learnt to bake a light japanese cheesecake and a some oreo cheesecake.

And so after that I tried many recipes …

And finally, i’m settled for this: – A half-baked cheesecake. It is light, fluffy, doesn’t taste too heavy of cheese (very thick cheesecake is heavy, rich but you usually can’t take more than 1 piece), but this? you simply can’t stop popping into your mouth after the first bite. Usually a baker only taste but never eats his/her own food but this, omg~ I have to restrain myself from eating too much of it!

And so.. my number 2 cake fan drop by for some cakes 😄😆 

Ok! Here is the recipe of half baked cheesecake. The visuals are already so satisfying!

half-baked-cheesecake-15-10-2016-02

Ingredients:

  • 200ml fresh milk
  • 300g cream cheese
  • 18 gm caster sugar
  • 18 gm corn flour
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 58g cold butter (cubed)

Egg white meringue

  • 2 egg whites
  • 60gm caster sugar
  • 200gm tart crumbs / sponge cake crumbs (for the base)

Method 

  1. Preheat oven at 160C
  2. Bring the milk to a boil.
  3. Add sugar & corn flour into egg yolks and whisk till slightly pale in colour .
  4. Slowly pour in the hot milk into the yolks, whisking it as you pour, becareful as you do not want to cook the eggs.
  5. Pour the egg mixture back into the pot and cook till custard form.
  6. Add butter and whisk into the hot egg custard till a little shiny and smooth looking.
  7. Put in the cream cheese, roughly mixed and leave it aside to let the cream cheese soften in the heat.
  8. Egg white meringue:- In a machine, whisk the eggs till it starts to foam, then slowly add in the sugar by batches. Whisk till soft peak.
  9. By now, the cream cheese would be soften, using the whisk, whisk till smooth and combined.
  10. Add 1/3 of the egg white meringue into the cream cheese mixture. Fold in the meringue gently, be careful not to deflate the mixture. Pour in the rest of the meringue and mix well.
  11. Line a cake tin/ring with baking paper. Pour in the *base (tart crumbs or cake crumbs), gently press to shape.
  12. Pour in the cream cheese mixture, and bake in the oven for about 40mins at 160C.
  13. Let it cool in room temperature completely, then chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours.
  14. Remove from fridge, decorate your cake and serve!

The cake came out plain like a big yellow sun, so with some decorations on the cake, it looks as good as those that you have bought from stores!

Here’s a quick video of the baking process. Please feel free to communicate on the chat box on right hand side 😊💃🏻🍰

Things To Take Note:

  1. Do note that i am using the steaming bake method, by putting a tray of water on the lowest rack throughout the baking time.
  2. *Base: You can use anything for your base, any of your bakes that are left overs could be used for the base of the cheesecake. Just blend it in the blender till you get crumbs!

Do tag me or #hashtag #Judybakez if you have tried my recipe ^_^

Here’s another video made by dine inn

 

 

#Stay happy
#Keep learning
#Skills are for life

Follow #Instagram: Judybakez
Follow Facebook: Judybakes-Singapore

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake

Hi 🙋🏻 I’m so excited to share a video that I spend an hour editing last night! Haha.. I made a black sesame chiffon cake. A little tough doing 2 things at once because all I have is a phone for videoing OR taking photos and you need to pause and stop in different parts. Hence I did some little mistakes here (to me):

– This cake is a little under baked (a little moist and harder to remove as the surface sticks on the fingers)

– I wanted the cake to be softer, intended to whip the egg whites to soft peak, but I overwhipped it and it became stiff peak, but that’s fine as well. Stiff peaks are easier to handle.

If you are baking using this recipe, please adjust your baking time and temperature accordingly or bakes till you insert a skewer and it comes out clean.


Ingredients:

  • 6 egg whites
  • 60 gm caster sugar
  • 80 gm cake flour
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 30 gm black sesame powder
  • 5 egg yolk
  • 30 gm caster sugar
  • 50 gm extra light olive oil
  • 80 ml milk

Method

  1. Preheat oven at 160C
  2. Sift cake flour, sesame powder and baking power in a bowl.
  3. Add sugar into egg yolks and whisk till light and fluffy.
  4. Pour in the milk and oil mixture slowly by batches and mix. Next pour in the sifted flour and mix.
  5. Egg whites :- In a machine, whisk the eggs till it starts to foam, then slowly add in the sugar by batches. Whisk till stiff peak.
  6. Take 1/3 of the whisked egg white into the flour mixture and fold.
  7. Pour the mixture into the rest of the egg white meringue, and fold gently till evenly mixed.
  8. Pour in a chiffon tin (mine is a 23cm tin) and bake for 1hr – 1hr 15mins. Test by inserting a skewer.
  9. Take out the tin from the oven and invert on the cooling rack till it is cooled enough to remove from tin.

Enjoy the video and feel free to communicate on the chat box on right hand side 😊💃🏻🍰


#Stay happy

#Keep learning

#Skills are for life

Follow #Instagram: Judybakez

Pandan Cake with Gula Melaka Cream Cheese Frosting

Pandan Cake with Gula Melaka Cream Cheese Frosting

Every bake starts with a craving for some flavors or taste. Baked a strawberry with fresh cream swiss roll on Saturday for friends but I ended up leaving it in the fridge when I left home T_T

Fresh cream has always been my favorite for all kinds of cakes. I remember tasting different types of cakes from the bakery and didn’t understand why some cream taste good while some are not.

There are two widely used types of creams for cakes, the fresh cream and the buttercream. Buttercream is made by creaming butter with powdered sugar, which I always feel they are too buttery and oily, on the other hand, you will be able to eat more of fresh cream as the fat content is lesser or probably less buttery for some people.

I usually get my whipping cream from phoon huat (red man) because it is the most accessible for me. Here are the 2 different types of whipped cream, fresh cream and dairy cream. Dairy cream contains higher fat content, I would recommend hand whisking method because when you over whipped dairy cream, it becomes lumpy and eventually turns to butter, whereas it’s much easier to whip fresh cream and you won’t need to worry about over whipping.

 

e39843c6-9d0e-4ca8-b725-4c741fe85dfd

 

Pandan Cake with Gula Melaka Cream Cheese

Ingredients (A)

3 egg yolks (I used 60g eggs)
30g sugar
50ml coconut milk
2 tbsp of pandan extract*
45g of corn oil
60g cake flour (sifted)
½ tsp of baking powder (sifted)

*Pandan extract: I blend 6 pandan leaves with about 3-5 tbsp of water.  Use as little water as possible. Press through a fine sieve or squeeze to extract the liquid. If you have the time, let it sit for a few hours, or overnight in the fridge. The green extract will settle at the bottom and you can remove the excess water before using.

77400f43-8930-482c-a819-bcf849121955

Ingredients (B)

3 egg whites
45g sugar

Cream cheese filling

Gula Melaka (Coconut sugar) ½ block (crushed for easier melting)
2-3 tbsp water, just enough to melt the sugar
Cream Cheese 200g
Whipped Fresh Cream 50g
20g castor sugar
 

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven at 170°C.
  2. Mix together coconut milk, pandan essence and oil in a bowl.
  3. In a bowl, put together egg yolks and sugar. I used a hand whisk, whisk till light and fluffy.
  4. Next, add in the coconut milk mixture, gently whisk to mix.
  5. Add in sifted flour & baking powder, and whisk to mix evenly.
  6. Egg whites – Put the egg whites in a large bowl, whisk on high speed till bubbly or frothy. Add in sugar by batches while whisking. Whisk till soft peak.
  7. Gently fold in 1/3 of the meringue (whisked egg whites) in to egg yolk mixture. Pour the yolk mixture into the meringue, and fold till combine. Do not over-mix.
  8. Grease and line the prepared tin with parchment paper. Gently pour the mixture into the tin and spread with a spatula to even out so every corner is properly covered. Bang on the table top surface a few times to remove large air pockets before placing it into the oven.
  9. Bake for 15mins or till surface is slight browned. You can test with a toothpick. Remove from oven and let cool on a wired rack. Remove the parchment paper so the cake does not absorb the condensation during cooling process.

 

Frosting

  1. Put Gula Melaka in a pot with water. Bring it to boil till sugar melts and let it cool.
  2. Whipped cream cheese together with sugar till creamy, bout 4-6 mins on high speed, scraping the sides of the bowl regularly.
  3. Add in the cooled Gula Melaka, whisked till mixed. Next add in the whipped cream and give it a final mix and your frosting is ready!

Finale: Assemble!

 

Follow Instagram: Judybakez
Follow my blog: http://www.judybakez.com
Follow Bigo Live: Judybakes