Tortally Sponge Cupcake

I joined a baking group in Facebook, and in the group there was a popular recipe circulating around, created by one of the group member, Michelle - Jello Chiffon Cake.  I actually wanted to give it a try but I have not got myself a chiffon tin yet, and I could not get any Jello powder as well, hence I'm giving a try on this instead.

It is really not too bad indeed, the cake has a fruity taste, and probably because of the gelatine content in the Tortally powder, the cake top of the cake was rather crunchy too :)

The basic sponge cake follows the same recipe that I did for Lavender Sponge Cake (originally adapted from Jeannie's blog).  I did a bit of modification for this particular recipe.

Ingredients
150g cake flour - sieved
125g caster sugar
5 eggs
15g cake emulsifier
1tsp baking powder
90g of Tortally (take any flavour you like, I took the strawberry one)
100g butter

Method

1. Prepare muffins linears.
2. Preheat oven at 150C.
3. Melt butter and set aside to cool.
4. Beat flour, sugar, eggs, emulsifier, tortally powder & baking powder together, at high speed, probably for 5min, until the batter becomes very smooth & creamy.
5. Pour in the melted butter, fold it into the batter, from bottom to top, so as to ensure the butter is well incorporated into the mixture.
6. Once the batter is ready, fill each muffin case about 80% full.
7. Send to bake for 25-30min.  If a skewer come out clean, it means the cake is ready.

Lavender Sponge Cake

Baked this cake couple of weeks ago when I found some Lavender buds while topping up my supplies at Phoon Huat.

It smells great, lavenderly nice.  And the floral smell actually lingered around in the mouth for a while!  Texture was really really soft & fluffy :)

The basic sponge cake recipe was adapted and modified from Jeannie's blog.

The lavender sponge cake!

I spilt my batter into 2 portions, baked in 2 smaller tins, and baked a regular flavour one for my son :)

Ingredients

150g cake flour - sieved 

150g caster sugar

5 eggs

15g cake emulsifier

1tsp baking powder

2tsp lavender buds (you can go with 1 tsp if you like a lighter flavour!)

2-3 drops of violet colourings

80g butter

Method

1. Grease and lined a 8" square baking tin 
2. Preheat oven at 150C.
3. Melt butter and set aside to cool.
4. Beat flour, sugar, eggs, emulsifier & baking powder together, at high speed, probably for 5min, until the batter becomes very smooth & creamy.
5. Pour in the melted butter, fold it into the batter, from bottom to top, so as to ensure the butter is well incorporated into the mixture.
6. Coloured the batter, then mix in the lavender buds.
7. Once the batter is ready, pour it into the baking tin.  Shake the tin gently to level the mixture, you may also use the spatula to level the cake top if it is uneven.
8. Send to bake for 60min.  If a skewer come out clean, it means the cake is ready.
9. When done, remove the cake from the oven to cool on the cooling rack for few minutes.  Then you may invert the cake to remove the baking tin & baking sheet.  Once this is done, you can invert back the cake to cool completely.

Rocky Earthquake Sponge Cake (Coffee & Cinnamon)

So, I had another accidental creation last night :)  

I meant to bake a Coffee Cinnamon Sponge Cake, all was going well until I realised I had prepared a smaller baking tin!  And, I had already filled in too much batter into the baking tin!  I was only about 2.5cm from the brim!  I was lazy to prepare another tin so I just wanna try my luck and see how it turns out.  As expected, the top cracked, but probably because I had drizzle the cake top with chopped almonds, the cake top looks just like a land that just quake and filled with little rocks!  Hence, this funny name!

Anyway, I could smelled the fragrance of the cake when it was baking, really nice!  And the texture was soft & fluffy, risen really well!  Taste-wise, I had 3 slices this morning for breakfast and the 2 boxes of these that I brought into office this morning was gone within 20mins :)

This recipe was adapted and modified from Jeannie's blog.

Ingredients

150g cake flour - sieved 

75g caster sugar

75g brown sugar

5 eggs

15g cake emulsifier

1tsp baking powder

2tsp cinnamon powder (you can go with 1 tsp if you like a lighter flavour!)

1tsp coffee oil

80g butter

Chopped almonds to drizzle on top of the cake

Method

1. Grease and lined a 7" square baking tin (use a 8" tin if you want a smooth surface, instead of a 'earthquake' top)
2. Preheat oven at 150C.
3. Melt butter and set aside to cool.
4. Beat flour, sugar, eggs, emulsifier, baking powder, cinnamon powder & coffee oil together, at high speed, probably for 5min, until the batter becomes very smooth & creamy.
5. Pour in the melted butter, fold it into the batter, from bottom to top, so as to ensure the butter is well incorporated into the mixture.
6. Once the batter is ready, pour it into the baking tin.  Shake the tin gently to level the mixture, you may also use the spatula to level the cake top if it is uneven.
7. Sprinkle chopped almond over the cake top.
8. Send to bake for 60min.  If a skewer come out clean, it means the cake is ready.
9. When done, remove the cake from the oven to cool on the cooling rack for few minutes.  Then you may invert the cake to remove the baking tin & baking sheet (be sure to have a tray/ cloth beneath to collect the chopped almonds that might drop off).  Once this is done, you can invert back the cake to cool completely.

Matcha Ogura Cake

With the succeed of my last Ogura cake, I decided to make another one, this time of another flavour; Matcha!  Again, it turned out nice, soft & fluffy! Slurp!

Just add 2 tsp of Matcha powder to the recipe that I first post for this cake, and there you have it! :)

This time, I also cut off a small portion of the cake and tried to layered some red bean paste with it because I thought matcha & red bean just match so much!  But the final verdict... I still prefer the Ogura as it is :)

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Another version of the Matcha Ogura :)

Copy Amos Cookies

I wanted to try to bake some Famous Amos Cookies since my kiddos love them (yes, myself too!), so googled a bit and found this recipe that looks quite good.  Gave it a tried last night, and:

1. Doesn't look like it at all, not even a bit :(
2. I was hoping to find my kitchen fill with the FA aromatic smell, but nah.  To be fair, yes, it smell nice but far far far from the distinctive FA smell..
3. It taste decent, probably a bit like the FA, but seems more like coffee chocolate-chips cookies to me.
4. Texture is the only thing that did not let me down, really crunchy!

Ok, it did not failed like a burnt cookie, just not like a real FA.  And I took a bit of short cut...I infused the coffee oil with the egg for less than an hour and I used only a little bit of processed oats. Anyway, it taste pretty good, so I want to jot this down in my little recipe library.  And, I shall named it Copy Amos!

Actually doesn't look that bad..

Packed some for my colleagues and they like it!

*Below recipe is the modified version

Ingredients

125g salted butter - softened

75g brown sugar

A pinch of salt

1/2 egg

1/2 tsp coffee oil

1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
20g of oats - processed to bits
20g of ground almond
30g of your favourite nuts - chopped
75g of semi-sweet chocolate chips
150g of self raising flour

Method

1. Beat egg with vanilla essence & coffee oil, set aside in fridge overnight to infuse the aroma.  If not, at least 2 hours.
2. Lined cookie tray with baking paper.
3. Preheat oven to 170C.
4. Beat butter, suagr & salt to combine.
5. Beat in egg, follow by the rest of the ingredients except flour.
6. Lastly, fold in sifted flour.
7. Placed half teaspoon of the mixture on the tray, spacing slightly apart from each other.
8. Bake for 9-10min.
9. cool completely before serving.
10. To allow the flavour and fragrance to develop further, store cookies in airtight container overnight before serving.

Rainbow Swissroll with Cream Cheese

A good friend of mine requested for this particular cake after seeing some rainbow cakes posting on Facebook.  The last time I made a swiss roll was like more than 10 years ago, so yeah, the rolling isn't very good :(  But I really like the colours, so thought to share the 'technique' of creating this.  I'm pretty sure the more expert bakers will make a really nice one :)

Sponge cake recipe adapted & modified from Happyhomebaking.

Ingredients

For cake:

3 eggs

65g sugar

80g cake flour

20g unsalted butter - melted

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Colorings (I used 5 colours)

For filling:

100g cream cheese

40g sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Lined a 9"x12" swiss roll tray with parchment paper.
2. Preheat oven to 190C.
3. Whisk eggs & sugar ay high speed until light & creamy.
4. Whisk for another 1-2min at low speed to stablish the air bubbles in the batter.
5. Sieve in flour and fold into the batter.
6. Add melted butter & vanilla essence and fold until well combined.
7. Divide  batter into portions and coloured accordingly.
8. Transfer the coloured batter into piping bag.
9. Piped 2 lines of the same colour, then follow by the next one.
10. Bake for 10-15min, or until the surface turns golden brown.
11. Set aside to cool and prepare the filling.
12. Whisk cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.
13. Add in sugar and vanilla essence and whisk at low speed for another 1-2min.
14. Upon cooling, remove the parchment paper and place the sponge cake on another clean sheet of parchment paper (have a piece of damp cloth beneath it, it will helps to prevent the parchment paper from 'slipping').
15. Spread with cream cheese filling and roll up the cake by lifting it up with the parchment paper.
16. Place the rolled cake with the side down.  
17. Leave the cake in the fridge to set the cream (for easy slicing).

Sunny-up Baked Bread with Cheese & Ham

Eversince I purchased my airfryer, I have been following the AF group in FB closely, learning from all the gurus the delicacies that this machine could feed me.  Indeed, this is one of the best investment in the household, and I now could not imagine my life without it!

And this, is one of the simple recipe that I learnt.  I made this numerous times for breakfast and it taste really great!

Ingredients

2 slices of bread 

1 slice of ham

1 slice of cheese 

1 egg

Utensils

Ramekin dish

Method

1.  Butter the ramekin dish and preheat oven/AF to 180C.

2.  Tear up the bread into smaller rectangle slides, and line them up in the ramekin.  be sure to cover up the dish.

3.  Tear up ham and cheese into smaller pieces and scatter them on top of the bread, but try to leave a 'dent' in the center.

4.  Crack the egg on the ingredients, with the yolk staying in the 'dent'.

5.  Send to bake for 8-10mins.