2nd Pav attempt

Believe it or not, there are like almost 6 other drafts awaiting to be publish onto the blog. Yes I am really aware of bakers losing the mojo to post updates, but trust me, every single day is a living torment for me whenever I pass by this blog. School assignments and tests really suck the living hell out of a baker. You bake a lot to cope with the stress, but you just can't type anymore.

Anyway, this is long overdue. Remember my post below about pavlova? Now here's the 2nd attempt.

I wouldn't say this one's better, but it definitely did not sunk as much as my first Pav. However, I think I under baked it :D

Nonetheless it was still delicious as hell, slightly more marshmallow and pillow like inside, and the crispy outer shell is so much more thicker as compared to the previous Pav. Topping's the same, rosewater and strawberries with cream.

Banana Bread

One of the most common thing that happen in my house is forgotten fruits. Sometimes you buy them thinking that from now on life is just gonna start changing for the better by start eating fruits but then, they just lay around waiting to get rotten.

I know this is no surprise at all. Every mother or baker probably has got their own favorite recipe. But probably that's what that makes this so special to me, especially when you know a slice of heaven is just a cut and a cup of coffee away for the next few mornings.

Simple Banana Bread

4-5 medium bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar (brown or white up to you)
3 eggs
vanilla
2 cups of plain flour, sifted
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon (if you want)

Prepare a loaf tin lined with aluminum foil and preheat your oven to 170 degree. Mix everything up in a bowl. The beauty of this is don't bother with airing the eggs or anything. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until done.

White Chocolate & Passion Fruit Cake

Tick the box if you have the following at home:

- A packet of passion fruits that you bought thinking that you will use them but you never did

- A chunk of white chocolate that you think you will like to bake with someday but never do

- A picnic to go to to support the local LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender) @ The Pink Dot

Yup. That totally sums but my Saturday. So what I did? I baked a White chocolates and Passion fruit butter cake. Actually this was suppose to be a muffin recipe but really... would you wanna be peeling muffin liners off a muffin when you can just carve into a cake with nothing more to throw later at a picnic?

Anyway this is definitely a keeper. One of those very straight forward wet ingredient into dry ingredient kind of thing. I've tweaked the recipe a little to suit my own taste and I sincerely suggest that chopping the white chocolates a little bit more finer, if you do not want to induce instant diabetic attack... that's is if there's such a thing. Not a big fan of white chocolates... nooooo :(

White Chocolate & Passion Fruit Loaf Cake

2 cups Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
100g White Chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp Salt

125g Butter, Melted
1/3 cup Milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup Passion fruit pulp
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Start with preheating oven to 170 degree Celsius, and line a loaf tin with foil. In a mixing bowl sift the flour, Baking powder and soda. Add in the chocolate, sugar and salt, stir combine and make a well in the centre and set aside. In another bowl, mix together the rest of the wet ingredients till well combined. Pour the wet batter into the dry ingredients and mix together, try to do it quick and not over mixing (magic whisk is the best tool here). Pour batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40-50 minutes.

Passion fruit Glace

1 cup of icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup of Passion fruit pulp
1-2 tsp water

While cake is baking, do the glace by mixing all the ingredients together. You may not need the water at all if the glace is spreadable already. Once cake is out of the oven, pour the glace over the cake and leave to cool completely.

Pavlova

Pavlova. I mean just by saying the word makes me feel like I'm wearing lacy dresses sitting in an English rose garden with some ballerina music playing in the background and gazing upon the mellow hills beyond.

It's basically a meringue topped with cream and fruits, named after the famous ballerina, Anna Pavlova. I must say I have yet eaten anyone else personal definition of a classic pavlova, but I'm definitely turned off by those jumblebee fruit salad with juices crumbling the meringue below, making everything a sweet squoggish mess passing themselves off as pavlova. That my dear friend, is a sin too dear to be forgiven. 

Have I told you I suck in meringue and genuinely fear baking anything that is remotely meringue related? It was until this New year's day that I've overcame my fear and pitched on a wild ride with all the baked sweeten egg whites in the baking world. If something as explicitly detailed as a Macaron can be churn out from my rather amateur hands, what more a meringue which is basically just whipping up the egg whites and sugar? I mean there is no pipping required no macaronage involved... right?

The beating and everything is easy, shaping the meringue disc on the tray is easy (may I say fun too) but the baking was not. I vaguely remember in one of Nigella Bite's episode, she said to put the meringue into a hot oven and then quickly turn it out to a lower temperature. So as to the 'shock' the meringue or something (her facial expression was priceless) then leave the pavlova to bake and eventually cool down together with the oven. I totally did that. I let the meringue bake, leave the tray in the oven when the timer goes off... and I went out.

 

Halfway having lunch with my friends, Mom called in extreme horror telling me that 'whatever you are baking sank terribly in the middle.' I tried to keep cool... No big deal right? anyway there will be cream to cover everything and it is suppose to be soft and marshmallow like in the centre so I'm okay. But when I returned and gazed upon my slightly browned meringue I can't help but to blame myself... Katherine you shouldn't have went out!!!

But well it's not end of the world yet. I still whipped up some cream and chop up some strawberries and assemble everything together. The sinking kindda give me a well to contain the cream and actually, everything is not too bad. Pavlova can be a rather forgiving dessert don't you think? At least anything that can be covered with cream and still look beautiful as long as there's strawberries. And dare I boast, these are rosewater perfumed Strawberries.

Definitely one of the best, tamed and elegant tea time dessert on a hot sunday afternoon.

Nigella's Pavlova

There isn't a specific recipe because I got everything from Youtube. If you were to search Google you'll probably find her Christmas version one or the Chocolate raspberries one. Anyway, for each egg white you will need 4 tbsp of sugar (I use 4 here, so 16 tbsp of sugar for me) and while the whites are beating up, gradually add in the sugar spoonful by spoonful. When it turns into a shiny glossy peak, gently fold in 1 tbsp of cornflour and 1 tbsp of vinegar (white wine or balsamic is fine). Spoon the meringue batter onto a tray and shape into a circle, not too flatly though, and put into a preheated 150 degree oven and immediately turn it down to 100 degree. I left my meringue to bake for bout 1 hour and leave it to cool with the oven completely. I suggest cranking the oven door a little coz in my case, steam wasn't able to escape from the oven and hence was trapped into the meringue and cause the sinking. 

While the meringue was baking, you can start marinating the strawberries by chopping bout 300g of strawberries into small cubes. Sprinkle over bout 1 tbsp of sugar and bout 2 tsp of rosewater (more if you like) Once meringue is ready, whip up some cream and top it over the meringue and then followed by the strawberries. I would suggest chilling the dessert before eating as it taste really, really good. 

Birthdays

Growing up I don't really have much impression of birthday cakes. I do have a mom who loves baking but the last time I remember her baking was for my dad... and that was when my age was still a single digit. I either have a shop bought cake, or no cake at all.

Moving on to present day, I've got to admit I've got great friends who bought me awesome cakes to celebrate my day of the year. I suppose it's not exactly our culture to actually bake a cake for someone... I mean, if the celebration was last minute, everyone's first reaction would probably be 'I'm not going there empty handed, I'LL BRING CAKE!'. If it is something planned, then people would be 'Well since the birthday boy/girl is such an awesome friend/family member, why not let's buy her a kickass fancy expensive cake?' Somehow, the idea of baking a cake doesn't really comes to mind.

I don't know is it because of the hassle the mess or really no faith in the kitchen but if you do look at the westerners (ie, the links on the right hand side) they make their own cake for almost all occasions. Be it birthday, celebrations or whatever they will definitely bake a cake and eat it with their family or something. I'll probably need a few more years to cultivate such wonderful practice of my own but for the time being, I'll concentrate on baking well first.

Below are 2 cakes I baked recently for 2 very lovely boys. Both incredibly bubbly and cute, and as with all the kids nowadays, has got an idol of their own.

The first was a Bob the Builder cake. I've seen little kids screaming the slogan away on the street but heck I've no idea what the hell he does other than looking like a construction worker. Anyway much discussion was done and I've decided to embark on my first try on frozen transfer method.

The idea, is to print out your stencil in the opposite way, place a layer of wax paper and trace it out with buttercream, fill in the colors and freeze the image. Once harden, you just place it onto the cake and 'print' it onto the surface. Sounds pretty straight forward huh? But hell would I know just the filling part took me a good whole 5 hours. But I suppose, it's because of my lack of planning and no freaking idea that mixing food gel is quite like mixing acrylic for paintings.

 working table at 12AM - not a good sign

 I really wanted to do the checkered shirt but my eyes threatened to pop

Mummy of the birthday boy also ask for 60 mini cupcakes for his little friends. Of course I would love to make little hammers and cones toppers but then... oh well let's just say days past without me even knowing that these little things need days to dry. So what we did? The printer!

I'm definitely not going to say this is indeed a cake well done, but definitely not gonna be the last time I do this freezing transfer method thing.

Another cake was a Lightning Mcqueen one. Note: I didn't know what a Mcqueen is and I didn't know it's a movie. Needless to say, the mom did most of the research for the cake (yes please throw rotten eggs at me)

Thanks to the toppers Mommy no.2 provided, I DIDN'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING MUCH!!! Other than the decals on the side and a bit of messy pipping (note to self: please practice your pipping skills), I pretty much left the job to the M&Ms and the cake toppers. Not proud really :(

Aaaaaaanyway, hey I just didn't know much about cartoons okay? XD

Hiatus!

You must be wondering... did this baker abandon yet another blog? It's almost a month and nothing's up. Well I swear to you... I was so busy I almost died baking the other day.

So what's up recently? Well actually nothing much... either than attempting a Bob the builder cake and making more macarons (posts on those real soon), I've been pretty much sorting out things like work and applying for university (I did got in, hurray!). One other thing caught my eye though...online shopping.

I can't explain how addictive online shopping is... you just click away, punch in your card number and wait to get that mysterious parcel to arrive. The thing is... when you are buying something that you know you can't quite find something like that in your tiny little sunny island, no matter how expensive or how long the shipment is you know you just want to get it. Like forbidden fruits that gleam at me from the opposite patch of greenland, I click and click and click and next thing you know, I see my bank slip full of oversea payment. One word: Horror.

These are just one of the few, there's more to come and they are much more beautiful. When I say beautiful, I'm not talking bout simple polka dots like these. I'm talking bout 'Bohemian and swirls of colors' kind of beautiful and I can't wait for them to come next week. I'm not saying that the liners in Singapore sucks, but seriously I think there can be more. So... anyone gonna bring these in and not charge up a hell?

Anyway, end of the day we buy them simply to bake them in it. Thank god I did have a very strong sense of sentimental towards these liners else they would get stuck in the cupboards forever untouched, only to be admired from time to time when I remember to. Someone did mention to me that end of the day these liners are just gonna get thrown away. But you know what? I think the visual impact makes eating these Peanut Butter and Chocolate muffins a little better :)

But yea in the end the liners did end up in the bin. Oh well!

Btw, I've added a new gadget on the side named Katherine's Favorite Things (oh I'm Katherine by the way too) and those links there are tiny pieces of Nirvana that I enjoy reading from time to time. If You too are a food blogger and wanna link up, just drop a comment or email and I'll be more than happy to check you out :)

I hate orange juice with pancakes and also, food blogs that stretch my screen like crazy :D

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I think this year is definitely one of the best year that ever happened to me. Its the year when I daringly challenged myself with macarons, trying out recipes that I would never had dreamt of baking (more of that later) and formed a strong bonding with egg whites.

When I first started baking I was super scared of anything that is even slightly meringue based. I think I've said this before, but I assumed my kitchen is not suitable for beating egg whites and you need those really fancy standing mixers to whip up a batch of meringues. Until one day, I don't know what overcame me but I just went on to bake a chiffon cake... successfully with my Kenwood handheld mixer. Since then, beating eggwhites has became one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.

Here is another breakthrough for me this year, Swiss meringue buttercream. Its a little time consuming, requires a little bit of effort and patience. To be totally honest with you, I was whisking away with my hand on the stove for at least 15 minutes. But I think if you do want some improvement in your kitchen life and do have substantial amount of greed to motivate you, then do it. Especially when you have a dark past with one of the ingredients (egg whites in my case), you'll feel exceptionally triumphant when you taste the cream afterwards. Not to mention I finally have another better option than the usual icing sugar buttercream.

No I am no kitchen goddess (yet, I hope)  But perhaps this walkthrough will convince you a little... if you faced the same problems as I did.



Start with whisking 2 egg whites with 100g or 1/2 cup of caster sugar over a bain marie. That is, placing the mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water on low heat and whisk. I thought by turning the heat up will help everything along faster but hell I was wrong. Everything turn sticky really fast and I wasn't in time to whisk so, seriously just keep the flame low.



As you whisk, the mixture will start to thicken up a bit and has the texture of thick glue. You may feel the sore on your arm and start getting a little annoyed, but just treat it as a little mental trashold exercise.



Continue whisking and the mixture should look somewhat like this. Thicker than ribbon stage and stiff, somewhat like marshmallow fluff but only shinier. The sugar should have all been dissolved by now, and it's time to get the bowl out of the bain marie and start whipping with an egg beater.



whipping.... it took me about 10 minutes to get to...



This stage. Please note that at this point, as sore as your arms might be you'll feel extremely proud of yourself and totally mesmerized by the solid bright white.



But the beauty doesn't last long... yet. It's time to turn that beautiful thick and lush meringue into buttercream!





Add butter bit by bit (I cut them into cubes while they are still cold and leave them to soften to room temperature) and I have to tell you, you'll will be slightly disappointed by the dirty tinted yellow and think the stupid butter has ruined everything, but hang on... just keep going.



And then... it will pick up and everything will be right on track again! Beat till all 165g of butter has finish up and add in a good splosh of vanilla or other flavorings you are after. The end product, should be a thick, creamy, smooth and firm cream and light cream white.... unless you tint the cream with food colorings of course.

Not that hard right?

What I really love about this recipe is how smooth it really is and that you don't bite into sugar granules like normal buttercream. Also because it's really firm and stable yet smooth, it's perfect filling for macarons as it doesn't soften the macaron shells with too much liquid. Yes it's a little time consuming, but hey it only consist of 4 ingredients... and a bit of arm exercise. Fair trade right?

I've faced a few of my demons in the kitchen... how about you? :)