Moist Chocolate Cake

Softest and moistest chocolate cake ever!

 

I actually tried to make this last week, but failed miserably, hence the lack of posts since 2 weeks ago. Then, I replaced the sugar with molasses and ended with a cake which did not have any chocolate taste at all since the molasses overpowered everything else.

This time, I stuck to sugar and used only a little molasses, so I can now taste the chocolate. I even increased the sugar, but I think it can still be a little sweeter.
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Recipe

Ingredients:
Vegetable Oil 1/3cup
Caster Sugar 200g
Fresh Whole Milk 200ml
Eggs 2
Flour 110g
Cocoa powder 60g
Baking Powder 1/2tsp
Baking Soda 1/2tsp
Vanilla Essence 1/2tsp
Molasses 1tbsp
2 in 1 Coffee mix 1tbsp

1. Warm the milk and mix in the sugar until dissolved.
2. Add in molasses, vanilla essence, coffee mix and oil and mix well. Set aside till cool.
3. In another bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda together.
4. Lightly whisk the eggs and add into the milk mixture.
5. Slowly add in the flour in batches until you have a runny batter.
6. Line your baking pan with baking paper so that it will be easy to remove later on, as the cake will be very soft and fragile.
7. Pour the batter in, and steam at medium heat for about 50 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

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Gingerbread Cookie

Since it is Christmas, I baked something X'mas-y this time - Gingerbread Cookies!

Glad to report that it tasted pretty good, with the scents of ginger and cinnamon. Slightly crusty at the sides, but still soft and a little chewy on the inside. But somehow, the frosting did not harden, unlike the ones you see sold outside. Well, it was slightly dry and crackly, but not totally solid; more like the frosting you get on cupcakes.

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Recipe

Gingerbread dough ingredients:
All purpose flour 300g
Salt 1/4tsp
Baking Soda 3/4tsp
Ground Ginger 3tsp
Ground cinnamon 2tsp
Unsalt butter 110g
Caster Sugar 100g
Molasses 1/3cup
1 egg

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices in a bowl and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add molasses and egg into the butter until well combined.
4. Add in the flour mixture gradually until you form the dough.
5. Refrigerate the dough overnight.
6. On a floured surface, roll the dough and cut to shapes.
7. Bake at 180 degrees C, for 8-12 minutes depending on size of your cookie.

Frosting Ingredients:
Unsalted butter 50g
Icing sugar 110g
Vanilla Essence 1tsp

1. Cream the butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in vanilla essence and sugar and mix well.
3. Put into piping bag and decorate your cookies.

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Tetsu + Coffee Club

Visited Tetsu at Tanglin Mall. Been some time since I last had a good Japanese meal.

 

Was feeling hungry so I ordered an appetizer - Hiyayakko or Cold Tofu. The condiments, which consisted of bonito, seaweed, spring onions and minced ginger, and sauce actually came in a separate bowl from the tofu. The combination, together with the crunchy and juicy cucumbers, actually blended quite well.

 

For mains, I ordered the Jubako Set. You had a choice of kushi-age or kushi-tem. Kushi-age means it is breaded and fried, while kushi-tem is fried with tempura flour; I chose the former.

 

The set comes with 4 mini appetizers - pickles, cold braised chicken, salad and a mini cold tofu. Out of the four, I think the cold tofu was the most unique as it was topped with mashed century eggs and the overall flavour was pretty interesting.

 

3 pieces of sushi; I cannot remember what was wrapped inside, but this was pretty ordinary.

 

The kushi-age which consisted of pumpkin, mushroom, beef, scallop and prawn. Especially noteworthy was the mushroom for its juiciness, and the scallop for its sweet freshness. These were served with 4 different sauces for you to dip in - flavoured salt, chili sauce, mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce.

My set also came with coffee. Overall, the whole meal was satisfying and well worth the money.

 

We subsequently adjourned to Coffee Club and I had the Raspberry Ice Parfait. The raspberry was frozen hard, while the piece of cake wedged in between was hard and pretty rough in texture. A total waste of my calories! This was an utter disappointment, a stain on what would otherwise had been a night of good food.

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Cedele Depot

Finally, I had my pancakes!

They were still as comforting as I remember. I even remember the last time I had them was back in late 2007. The pancakes were very soft and fluffy - something which I can never seem to achieve when I tried to cook my own pancakes. The knob of butter was suppose to be vanilla butter, but the vanilla taste wasn't all that strong. What I really love is the maple syrup. The maple syrup here is really thick and dense, unlike the ones you buy from supermarkets which are usually pretty watery.

They had a menu of lassi drinks as well - basically yogurt-based drinks. I decided to try the Apple Cinnamon Lassi. I think it was simply apple juice mixed with yogurt and lots of cinnamon powder. Really nothing special about this.

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Beef Wellington

Saw this item on food shows couple of times and they looked delicious. Seldom see it in Singapore; only seen it once but I have never had the chance to actually try it so I actualy have no idea how a good one actually tastes.


This is actually beef tenderloin wrapped with minced portobello mushrooms and parma ham, and baked within a pastry shell. I think the taste of mine wasn't all that bad, just that the juices seeped out during baking, causing the bottom of the pastry to be soggy. The original recipe also called for puff pastry, but I was lazy to make, so I did a flaky pastry instead. The process was also a labour of love.

First, I had to pan sear the beef to seal in the juices.

Then, I laid the parma ham over cling film.

Spread my sauteed minced portobello.

Place the beef  and wrap it all up.

Wrap with my pastry and bake.

Served with on a bed of greens with balsamic dressing.

The saltiness and aroma from the ham, the buttery pastry all balanced well with the mushrooms and beef. The ingredients didn't come cheap so I was glad it tasted pretty nice to me as whole, sans the soggy pastry bottom.

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Recipe

Pastry ingredients:
Flour 185g
Cold Butter 125g
Milk

1. Cut the cold butter into cubes.
2. Cut the flour into the butter using knives until crumbly.
3. Add in milk slowly until you get a dough-like texture.
4. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate until you need to use it.

Tenderloin Beef 350g
Portobello Mushrooms 400g
Proscuitto Parma Ham ~6 slices
Onion 1
Mustard
Salt
Pepper

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Sear all sides at high heat to seal in juices. Set aside.
2. Mince the mushrooms and onions until mushy. Saute in a pan until all moisture has evaporated and you have a dry paste.
3. Lay the ham on cling film, and spread the minced mushrooms over it.
4. Coat the beef with mustard and place it over the mushrooms.
5. Roll and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
6. Roll out the pastry so that it is large enough to wrap the beef.
7. Egg wash the top of the pastry and score across. Bake at 200 degrees C for about 30-40 minutes.

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Chocolate Orange Mille Crepe

I had wanted to recreate what I first had in Japan. Unfortunately, as you can see from all the postings here, I have never been much of a great cook in the savoury department.


I always thought chocolate and orange went well together, almost like chocolate and banana, just that the citrus-y flavour of the orange gave it a different dimension compared to pairing with bananas. I almost wanted to not do this as the original recipe uses whipped cream and seem ultimately sinful. But I chanced upon the idea to substitute it with light creme pattiserie instead.

In terms of flavour of the creme, I did achieve what I had set out to do. Unfortunately, I have never been great at making crepes or pancakes. While the crepes this time were slightly fluffy and not too dry, I was not able to make the whole crepe uniformly thin. I made about 38 crepes in total. These were then layered with alternately layers of chocolate and orange creme pattiserie.

Guess I'll stick to the oven as often as I can...
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Recipe

Crepe Ingredients:
(You want a ratio of 1 part flour, 2 parts milk, 2 parts eggs)
Eggs 200g
Milk 200g
Flour 100g
Baking powder 1tsp
A pinch of salt

1. Mix all the ingredients together and let stand for 30 minutes.
2. Cook over medium heat. When you see bubbles underneath the crepe, flip over and cook for another minute.

Chocolate Creme Pattiserie Ingredients:
Egg yolks 2
Milk 200ml
Dark Chocolate 50g
Sugar 40g
Flour 20g

1. Heat the chocolate in the milk until melted and you get a chocolate milk mixture, and slightly boiling.
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add the flour and mix well.
3. Take the hot milk and add into the egg mixture slowly. Whisk as you pour the milk in.
4. Return the combined mixture into the pot, and boil over medium heat. Keep stirring as you boil it, until you get a thick texture like custard.
5. Pour into a bowl, and cover the top with cling film to prevent the top from hardening.
Orange Creme Pattiserie Ingredients:

Egg yolks 2
Milk 200ml
Sugar 40g
Flour 20g
Orange juice 3tbsp
Zest of 1 orange
1. Heat the ornage juice in the milk until slightly boiling.
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add the flour and mix well.
3. Take the hot milk and add into the egg mixture slowly. Whisk as you pour the milk in.
4. Return the combined mixture into the pot, and boil over medium heat. Keep stirring as you boil it, until you get a thick texture like custard.
5. Remove from heat and fold in the orange zest.
6. Pour into a bowl, and cover the top with cling film to prevent the top from hardening.

Assembly:
1. Lightly whip about 100ml of whipping cream.
2. Divide into half and fold each half into each of the orange and chocolate creme.
3. Spread creme onto crepe, and cover with another layer of crepe. Alternate layers with both creme.

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Ah Chew's Dessert

I had wanted to go to Cedele at Raffles City for some pancakes, but up till almost 11, it was still not open, even though the website had stated it would at 9.30am. So, in the afternoon, I decided to have desserts to comfort myself.

Took the cold steamed milk and egg custard, which was soothing given the searing heat of the day. The egg-y taste was a little stronger than that of the milk. I would have preferred otherwise. I so miss the Yee Shun Milk from Hong Kong!

I bought home the mango sago with pamelo as well. It was not too sweet, although I think the pomelo was a little too bitter. The flavour was also quite dense and creamy, but all in a good way.

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Oriole Cafe & Bar

Today's lunch was at Oriole Cafe & Bar, located at Pan Pacific Suites at Somerset.

 

I was in a salad mood, so I ordered the Harissa Prawn salad. It was supposed to be served with romaine lettuce, but they ran out of it, so I had mine changed to mixed greens. It consisted of grilled spicy prawns, canberries, tomato salsa and garbanzo beans topped with a pomegrenate dressing. I was expecting to see pomegrenate seeds but didn't.

Nonetheless, the dressing was sweet and fruity. A pretty light and refreshing salad which doesn't go too heavy on the palate. The prawns were sizeable, slightly spicy and nicely grilled. The grill flavour was just right and not overly charred.

For mains, I orderd the Philly Steak and Cheese sandwich, partly because cknewsstand recommended it, and partly because I've so often seen this on food shows and they always looked wickedly inviting.

It was layers of thinly sliced beef, sweet onions, peppers and mozzarella cheese sandwiched with a toasted sesame bun. The bun was still warm and slightly crispy on the outside, and the toasted sesame contributed its aromas.

I was a little disappointed with the beef as, while it was not dry, I had expected it to be juicier. The cheese had also solidified and was not melting. Perhaps what I saw on the food shows had raised my expectations a tad too high.

Overall, I still think the meal as a whole wasn't too bad for its mid-range prices. I did see some pretty interesting drinks on the menu, but did not venture forth as some contained alcohol.

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Turkey Ham & Cream Cheese Omelette

What happens when you ate a ham and egg sandwich and are still hungry?

Make an omelette! An impromptu mix and match of whatever ingredients I had yielded a savoury delight! The saltiness of the ham, and aroma of herbs and cream cheese blended well with my runny egg.

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Recipe:

Ingredients
Eggs 2
Ham 1 slice
Cream Cheese as desired (I used low fat)
Dash of herbs (I used McCormicks Salt Free All Purpose)
A pinch of salt

1. Whisk the eggs and salt together.
2. Oil your pan lightly and put in the herbs to release the aromas. Add in and cook the eggs over medium heat.
3. Slice the ham into half. Place one half over the eggs.
4. Place cream cheese on top of the ham, and the other half piece of ham over the cream cheese.
5. Fold the omelette over and cook till desired done-ness.

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Snacks from Tohoku Fair

Bought some snacks from the Tohoku Fair at Isetan Orchard. First up, is a mix of crispy seafood. I can't remember the name of this, but it's a little sweet and salty.

Clockwise from top left:

• I think this is sort of like ikan-bilis coated with seaweed; you can actually taste the flavour of the seaweed.
• No idea what fish this is, but this is pretty crunchy. No overly fishy smell here.
• These prawns may be small, but their flavour packs a punch! The strong prawn flavour totally permeated my mouth.
• Looks like some flat fish you find in certain Chinese dishes; this is probably the least outstanding of the four.

This is Sake Toba. It's smoked and dried salmon. I love smoked stuff, and the smoky flavour here is not too light nor too strong. Even though it's dried, it is not too hard. Actually, it was still moist and flaky inside.

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Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding

Sticky Toffee Pudding is a british dessert consisting of moist sponge cake and covered in toffee sauce, and in this case, with dates added in.

I have actually forgotten the exact texture of the one at Marmalade Pantry; all I remember is that it was moist and fluffy. I think the texture of mine can be a little more fluffy but probably is not too far off. However, I'm guessing the one at Marmalade Pantry used brown sugar, as I vaguely recall a hint of the smell of brown sugar. I used white sugar, hence the lighter brown as well.

I did add a little cinnamon on my own to give it colour, and because I thought it would go with the dates. Since the toffee sauce and ice cream are already pretty sweet, I also reduced the amount of sugar called for.

Served with toffee sauce (recipe here) and a dollop of vanilla ice cream (recipe here).

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Sticky Date Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:
Pitted dates 180g
Water 250ml
Bicarbonate Soda 1tsp
Baking Powder 1tsp
Flour 175g
Salt 1/2tsp
Unsalted Butter 55g
Sugar 80g
Eggs 2
Vanilla Essence 1tsp

1. Boil the pitted dates in the water. Remove from heat, add in the bicarbonate soda and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, salt and vanilla essence to the butter.
4. In a seperate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
5. Add half of the flour mixture into the egg mixture, and beat lightly.
6. Add in the dates and water mixture, then the remaining flour mixture. Beat lightly to ensure it is well mixed.
7. In a bain-marie, bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes, then 160 degrees C for another 10 minutes. The right texture should be when your cake tester comes out with a little moist crumbs.

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BK Premium Angus Beef Burger

Been the longest time since I had BK, so I decided to indulge a little...

Was planning on having a Whopper, but saw this when I stepped in and decided to try it - Premium Angus Beef Burger - served with lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and steak sauce.

Yes, that piece of black thing is the beef patty. The poster made it seem as if it was a slab of meat, but it was the usual minced beef patty. The steak sauce has a very familiar taste to it - probably A1 or Worchestershire. The beef was a little dry, and I honestly could not tell what the difference is from the regular beef patty of a Whopper.

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Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

It's not the first time I made ice cream, but it is the first time I made it 'properly'...


I've done Bailey's and chrysanthemeum flavours before, but I was lazy previously and only churned the cream 3-4 times as it froze. This time, I churned it 5-6 times over a span of 5 hours. The result is a creamy texture and no ice granules within. However, even though I did reduce the amount of sugar used, the end product is still a little too sweet for my liking, so I'll have to reduce it further next time.

The little black specks you see are the seeds of the vanilla bean.

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Ingredients:
Full cream milk 1cup
Heavy cream 2cups
Egg yolks 6
Sugar 120g
1 Vanilla Bean
Pinch of salt

1. Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of cream and salt, preferably in a non-stick pot.
2. Split the vanilla bean length-wise. Scrap the seeds into the mixture, and put the whole bean in. Cover and steep for 30 minutes.
3. Whisk the 6 egg yolks until slightly frothy.
4. Pour the milk/cream mixture from Step 2 into the egg yolks.
5. Return the mixture into the pot and stir over medium heat. Stop when the mixture thickens slightly, but be careful not to let it curdle into custard!
6. Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream in a seperate bowl.
7. Strain the milk-cream-egg mixture from Step 5 into the cream. Whisk over cold water until the mixture cools.
8. Put into your ice-cream maker as per manufacturer's instructions.

In the event you do not own an ice-cream maker like me:
1. Place the mixture in the freezer, until it thickens but not completely frozen.
2. Using a hand whisk or an electric beater, whisk the mixture well for about a minute.
3. Place the mixture back into the freezer. Repeat the steps as many times as possible. Finally, place into a container of choice and allow it to freeze completely.

Note: The more times you repeat the above steps, the creamier the texture and the less likelihood that your ice cream will develop ice granules. Also, the time taken for it to solidify reduces as you repeat the steps, so watch the time.

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Toffee Sauce

In preparation for my Sticky Date pudding, I made in advanced the toffee sauce today. The taste reminds me the Werther's Original candy. One word: Sin.

Ingredients:
Butter 30g
Brown or Raw Sugar 120g
Cream 150ml
Vanilla Essence 1/2tsp

1. Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to boil.
2. Simmer until sauce thickens and darkens in colour.

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Carrot Cake

Cute little carrot, anyone?

Attempted Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, including these adorable little carrots which I made out of marzipan.

You can see strands of carrot here and walnuts. This is the first time I made a cake using cooking oil instead of the usual butter. Using cooking oil gives the cake a more crumbly texture. I think the cake would have done better aesthetically, if I added more cinnamon powder for a darker colour. But the cake did turn out moist and not too sweet, balancing well with the sweeter frosting. Frosting turned out a little more liquid than I would prefer, probably because I used more cream cheese than called for.

Since I had no lessons today, I made a raisin loaf again. This must be my nicest looking loaf so far, with that beautiful brown.

As I was making the carrot cake, I wish I was actually making a sticky date pudding! Oh well, that shall be my next attempt!

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Carrot Cake Recipe

Cake Ingredients:

Walnuts 100g

Carrots (grated) 340g

All Purpose Flour 280g

Baking Soda 1tsp

Baking Powder 1tsp

Salt 1/2tsp

Ground Cinnamon 2tsp

Eggs 4

Caster sugar 300g

Vegetable Oil 240ml

Vanilla essence 2tsp

Crushed pineapple 200g

1. Toast walnuts until lightly brown and fragrant.

2. Mix well flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder, and set aside.
3. Beat eggs until frothy. Add in sugar and continue beating until mixture is pale yellow in colour. Beat in crushed pineapple, oil and vanilla extract until incorporated.
4. Add in flour mixture from Step 2 and beat until well mixed.
5. Fold in carrots and walnuts using a spatula.
6. Divide batter into 2 equal portions, and pour into 2 identical sized and buttered pan of choice.
7. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 35 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

Unsalted butter 57g

Cream Cheese 227g

Icing sugar 230g

Vanilla essence 1tsp

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1. Beat butter and cream cheese together until well mixed.

2. Sift icing sugar and add in, mixing well.

3. Beat in vanilla essence and lemon zest.

If too liquid, refrigerate for a while in freezer so that it is thicker and easier to coat.

Assembly:

1. Make sure the 2 cake sections are flat. Slice to flatness if necessary.

2. Spread frosting above one section, and place other section above it.

3. Using remaining frosting, coat cake all around.

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Aston's + Marmalade Pantry

My toy still has yet to arrive, so here's some crappy pics again...

Had dinner at Aston's Prime at Centerpoint. Took the Ribeye with Brussels Sprouts and Jacket Potato. The brussel sprouts was very tender and tasty, because it was probably cooked in butter. The meat was flavourful and not tough at all. Last time I was here, I took the prime rib, which I think is less aromatic than this ribeye. Overall, a good steak, although I'm missing Hog's Breath's Blackened Prime Rib now.


Have never been to Marmalade Pantry; only tried its sister place at One Fullerton once before. Went there for desserts and decided to try their Sticky Date and Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Bean ice cream, which they are supposedly good for. I was also curious how it tasted like since I once saw Rachel Allen baking it on her show.

It was an interesting texture; it was fluffy, sweet and you could taste the hint of dates. It tasted more like it was steamed rather than baked. The pudding was served warm and went well with the creamy, cold ice cream.


We had ordered a Classic Chocolate Fudge cake right at the start as we saw some people eating it and it had looked huge and decadent. Somehow, they forgot to serve us the cake, and by the time we actually asked about it, they had all sold out. So, we switched to the Sea Salt Caramel Cheesecake.

The cheese was rather light and creamy, but not overly rich nor heavy. I could taste the sea salt, but the caramel taste was lacking. The biscuit layer deserves a special mention. Of all the cheesecakes I had eaten, you could taste the large crumbs of the biscuit layer. This was totally different. It was almost powdery in texture. While it doesn't crumble under your fork, it simply disperses in your mouth. Once again, this was a new textural sensation.

Have not tried Marmalade Pantry's main courses though, but I would sure like to if I have a chance, not to mention there seems to be a high number of pretty ladies at this place!

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