Chocolate Chip Muffin with Crumb Topping

For the last day of this school term, my son has requested me to make some muffins for his classmates and teachers. Since these muffins are for kids, I am planning to bake chocolate muffins for them. In order to make the muffins more presentable, I have searched some books for the crunch topping recipe.

I am so surprised that the kids love the muffins a lot and the teacher has written a "Thank You' note to me. I am so glad and this has motivated me even further. I will bake more of my new recipe for them to try!

Ingredients

Crumb topping (Crunch topping)

55 g pecans

34 g oat

56 g unsalted butter

57 g all-purpose flour

45 g granulated sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp baking powder

1. Chop the pecans and oats to a coarse chop, either by hand or food processor.

2. Melt the butter and allow it to cool down. It is important to make sure that the melted butter to cool down before adding into the dry ingredient as it will melt the sugar.

3. Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix until a lumpy consistency is achieved.

4. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

Chocolate chip muffins (6 muffins)

130 g all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

50 g granulated sugar

1/8 tsp salt

60 g unsalted butter

80 ml milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

100 g chocolate chips

Crumb topping (optional)

5. Preheat oven to 180'C and bring egg, butter and milk to room temperature.

6. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla essence.

7. In another large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. (Optional: Prepare the Crumb Topping and set aside). Stir in the chocolate chips.

8. With a spatula, fold the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients and stir only until the ingredients are moistened and combined. (Do not over mix or you will have tough muffins).

9. Fill prepared muffin tins two-thirds full with batter. Sprinkle Crumb Topping on top if desired.

10. Bake in the convection oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean from the middle.

11. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan.

Soft and fluffy Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

I was so shocked when I saw plenty of pumpkin in the supermarket and it reminded me of Halloween festival. My family does not celebrate Halloween; in fact my son always complaining of having nightmare around this season. I think it is due to his illusion from the scary advertisements. Anyway, since there are so many pumpkin, I have the urge of baking Pumpkin Chiffon. Unlike other cake, Chiffon cake is light in texture and can be prepared in a short time without much hassle.

Before preparing the baking ingredient, it is important to prepare the pumpkin in advance in order to make sure that the pumpkin puree is cool down before blending with other baking ingredient. As I shared in my other Chiffon cake post, the secret of having a fluffy texture for this cake is to have a perfect stiff egg white. Without a perfect stiff egg white, you will never get the soft texture of Chiffon Cake. The eggs need to be at room temperature so they will reach their full volume when beaten. Always use fresh egg as it is much easier to beat. Adding a little cream of tartar helps with it. although you can leave it out. Cream of tartar is used to give stiffness to the egg whites, so that the cake will not collapse easily. Not to forget to use a very clean mixing bowl to ensure egg whites can be whisked up easily until very stiff.

It is important that the batter is baked in an ungreased tube pan which allows the batter to cling to the sides of the pan as it bakes. The tube in the center of the pan lets the hot air circulate so the heat can reach the center of the bake and not over bake the cake. The cake needs to be turned upside down immediately upon removing it from the oven as this keeps from shrinking and losing its volume.

Hope the above tips, you will be able to bake a soft and fluffy Pumpkin Cake!

Ingredients

Egg Yolk Batter
80 g cake flour
70 g pumpkin puree
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
30 g castor sugar
5 medium egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
80 ml milk/ coconut milk
40 g oil

Ingredient B
5 medium egg white
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional)
40 g castor sugar


1. Preheat the oven to 175'C and have ready a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake tin.

2. Sieve cake flour and baking powder together. Put aside.

3. To make the egg yolk batter, whisk egg yolks and castor sugar together until the batter is pale yellow. Combine with salt, oil and milk together. Stir in one direction until smooth and well-combined. Fold in flour until forms a smooth batter.

4. You may filter the batter to remove the lumps.

5. In another bowl, put in egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean mixing bowl. Use high speed to whisk until frothy. Add in sugar slowly. Continue to whisk until stiff but not dry. (Please refer to the video "How to whip egg white")

6. Once the egg whites are ready, gently fold in the stiff egg whites (in three additions) to the cake batter. (Please refer to the video "How to fold in egg white")

7.Pour the batter into a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake at 175'C for about 10 minutes and then 165'C for around 30 minutes. You may test the cake readiness using the toothpick method.

8. Remove from oven, invert (turn upside down) and leave to cool completely before removing cake from the tin.

Natural Color Rainbow Cake

Finally, it comes to the eve of my son's birthday (9 Years Old). Tonight, I have to bake at least 6 layers of butter cake with different color. Why at least 6 layers? It is because I might fail in the first attempt and need to re-bake it. Anyway, it is a really an exciting night for me. 

For the coloring, I opt for natural color. As a health conscious person, I am really worried on the chemical in the food coloring. With mentally and physically prepared, I am planning to use natural color for this cake. I think it is really important to get yourself physically prepared as you need to do a lot of cleaning and cooking in order to get the different color. Why mentally? It is because the color that you want to achieve may not be as nice as the artificial coloring. The color may not be as intense or as sharp as you thought.

You may refer to my website on the preparation of "Natural Food Coloring". Although it is tiring, I would say it is worth to spend some time as you do not have to worry on the chemical in the food coloring. Trust me....healthy is the most important. Do not think of tiredness...just take it as an enjoyment to prepare healthy food for the family.

Having said that, I do really feel proud of myself for spending so much time and effort in preparing the natural color for this cake. At the end of the day, you will feel the satisfaction when you see your kids enjoying the cake that is safe with natural color. No preservatives and no artificial coloring  :)

Ingredients for 1 layer of 8" round cake
100 g cake flour
60 g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
90 g butter
20 ml (milk and coloring)
3 small eggs
(NOTE: For the green color cake, you may add in 1 tsp of green tea. Other ingredient remain the same)

1. Preheat oven at 170'C.

2. Whisk butter and sugar until fluffy. Then, slowly blend in the eggs, milk and coloring while folding in the flour until everything is blended well.

3. Pour into a baking pan. Layer the batter well and bake for around 5-10 minutes. (Make sure that you had layered a piece of wax paper onto the bottom of baking pan)

4. Cool down the cakes, and put into fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. This step is to ensure that the cake layers are harden and much easier to handle during assembly steps.

I have forgotten to take 2 batches of color....maybe I am too rushing  :)

Assembly the cake

This is the most important stage. We do not want to have a topple or uneven cake. I am using butter cream for my layering icing because it gives a stronger holding power as compare to whip cream. As a beginner, I always go for a safer approach. If you are a beginner, please watch the video on How to Decorate with Buttercream before started on the assembly steps. 

Butter cream
240 g butter
600 g icing powder
4 tsp vanilla essence
120 ml milk (or less, depending on the butter cream consistency)

Layering a thin layer of butter cream in between each layer of butter cake 

1. Butter cream acts as the 'glue' for the layering. Thus, before starting any layering, apply some butter cream on the cake board. Then, put on the first layer which is red onto the board. Make sure the cake layer sticks well on the board.

2. Then, starts applying a thin layer of butter cream on top of that red layer. Thickness should be around 2-3 mm as you do not want the cake to be so creamy. Do not worry of the appearance. 

3. After the butter cream is evenly spread onto the red layer, put orange layer on the top. Apply butter cream and repeat the same steps for other layers. 

4. Please remember to follow the RAINBOW COLOUR arrangement: RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, VIOLET

5. With the remainder of the butter cream, you may use to layer the side of the cakes to make sure that the gap is filled. 

6. Transfer the cake into the freezer to harden the cake again before frosting.

Frosting the cake: Cream Cheese frosting
225 g Cream Cheese
60 g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
150 g icing sugar

NOTE: You may need to adjust the sugar according to the frosting consistency at room temperature. If the weather is warm, you need less of the icing sugar as cream cheese is softer. I have accidentally using 200 g and it is actually flowing down (eye tears) when I used it for my frosting.

Colorful layers....the color is not as attractive compare with 'food coloring'

Soft and Fluffy Black Sesame Chiffon

Once you have master the skill of making chiffon, you can blend in any ingredient to make it into different flavor. Since my son has to attend a Birthday Party later, I am planning to bake a Sesame Chiffon Cake for him to bring over. Why Sesame Chiffon? It is simply because I love sesame and it is the only ingredient that I have.

Since the packet of sesame that I had is already premixed with sugar, I am planning to reduce some sugar quantity in this recipe. To start off my experiment, I will normally try to maintain all the quantity in my original recipe as this will make my life whenever I need to tweak the 'formulation'.

I am lucky enough that this Sesame Chiffon is quite easy to bake and no adjustment on the original recipe is needed. One time succeeded!!!! If I would to improve this cake, I am planning to increase the quantity of my sesame by 10g in my next trial. This will make the sesame flavor denser.

Off I go......start experimenting  :)


Ingredient A
Egg Yolk Batter
80g cake flour
25g sesame powder
1tsp baking powder
30g castor sugar
5 medium egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
80ml milk
50g oil


Ingredient B
5 medium egg white
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g castor sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 165'C and have ready a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake tin.

2. Sieve cake flour, sesame powder and baking powder together. Put aside.

3. To make the egg yolk batter, whisk egg yolks and castor sugar together until the batter is pale yellow. Combine with salt, oil and milk together. Stir in one direction until smooth and well-combined. Fold in flour until forms a smooth batter.

4. You may filter the batter to remove any lump.

5. In the other bowl, put in egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean mixing bowl. Use high speed to whisk until frothy. Add in sugar slowly. Continue to whisk until stiff but not dry. (Please refer to the video "How to whip egg white")

7. Gently fold the stiff egg whites (in three additions) into cake batter just blended (being careful not to deflate the batter). (Please refer to the video "How to fold egg white")

8. Pour the batter into a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake at 165'C for about 40-50 minutes.You may test the cake readiness using the toothpick method.

9. Remove from oven, invert (turn upside down) and leave to cool completely before removing cake from the tin.

Opps....there is a small defect at the corner.
Next time will be more careful when trying to remove from the pan  :)

Dry, soft and fluffy Sesame Chiffon!!!

Low Calories Blueberry Cheese Cupcake

Today I am really craving of Cheesecake! I kept on thinking of the creamy cheesecake texture melted over my throat.

With the limitation of time and ingredients, I came out with this recipe. We only use around 45 minutes from weighing the ingredients to fully bake the cheese cake! That is really amazing, isn't it?

Since this recipe is so simple, I have offered my kids to do some mixing steps and baking for me. I am doing the cleaning and scooping the cheese mixture into the cake mold. My son is helping me in preparing the base and cream mixture while my girl is performing the most important task .....ON and OFF the mixer!

In this recipe, I am using low fat cheese cake so that it will lower some of the calories  :)
The most important step of making this cake is having a smooth cheese mixture. Thus, the mixing process is really important here. Other than mixing, there is no other challenge in baking this cake. It is a real cake for beginners... you can image, even my kids can make this cake!

This cake is really yummy and my kids really love it!!!

Ingredients
250g low fat cream cheese (Philadelphia low fat cream cheese)
5 tbps of caster sugar
140g low fat yogurt
1 egg
50g fresh blueberry

90g digestive biscuit (or any high fiber cookies)
1 tbsp melted low fat margarine/butter

1. Preheated oven to 160'C.

2. Use a roller to roll over the digestive biscuit until fine. Use a spoon to mix digestive biscuit and melted margarine well. Pour into paper cups. Press flat by using spoon.

3. Mix cream cheese and caster sugar at medium speed for about 3 minutes until fluffy. Stir in egg until it is well mixed. Lastly, add in yogurt and blended well.

4. Add in blueberries and combined with the mixture with a spoon. 

5. Pour./Scoop cheese mixture into paper cup with 3/4 full using a spoon. 

6. Bake in preheated oven over hot water bath for 30-35 minutes. Cool them down before store in refrigerator for about 4 hours before serve.

In

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I am the type person who do not really like cheesecake. However, I am amazed with this fluffy and soft cheesecake. The taste is mild and this cheesecake is not as dense as the traditional cheesecake and yet the cheese flavour taste so good when it melts in your mouth. I was first get to know about this cheesecake 6 months ago and I have no time to explore it until these few days when it is nearer to X'mas since this is holiday season and no activities for kids as well.

The secret of baking this cake is the egg white. You must have a stiff white egg in order to get a fluffy soft cheesecake. You may refer to this link on "How to beat egg white."

Initially I thought using more egg white will help the texture but it turns out very wet and soggy. Thus, in this recipe I have reduced the egg quantity in order to improve the cake texture.

Another thing to take note is the batter. It is necessary to sieve the batter in order to remove all the big lumps. This will make your cheesecake more perfect.

Ingredients
40g Cake flour
15g Cornstarch
40g Butter
125g Cream Cheese
80ml milk
3 medium egg yolks
75g sugar
2tbsp lemon juice
3 medium egg white


1. Preheat oven to 150'C

2. In a bowl, combine milk, butter and cream cheese together. Heat and melt them using a double boiler method. Slowly whisk them until a smooth mixture is formed. Let it cool down.

3. Sieve both cake flour and cornstarch together and put aside.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 40g of sugar until pale yellow. Slowly blend in the milk cheese mixture from step (2) and then add in lemon juice.

5. After that, slowly mix in flour into the mixture (4) until the mixture is homogeneous.

6. If there is large lumps, sieve the mixture (5).

7. In a clean bowl, whisk egg white with sugar until a stiff white egg is formed. Please refer to "How to whip egg white".

8. After obtaining a stiff egg, fold in the egg white slowly into the cheese mixture (5). Please refer to "How to fold in egg white".

9. Pour the batter into a wrapped square tin or spring foam. Bake the cake in a boiled water pan. (Similar method as you bake cheesecake).

10.Bake the cake at 150'C for 1hour and 20 minutes. You may test the cake readiness using the toothpick method.

11. Once it is ready, off the oven and let the cake continue to sit inside the oven with the door ajar for another 5-10 minutes. A sudden change in the environment temperature will cause the cake to shrink.

12. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down fully.

13. Chill the cake in the fridge for overnight and ready to serve.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Extra soft)

I  have been trying a lot of different recipes and fine tune my technique in order to bake a soft and fluffy Chiffon Cake. It takes me about 2 years to master this cake. Although I have failed a lot of times, my passion towards baking will never die. I would say baking Chiffon Cake needs some luck. Today, you may bake it successful but the next day you may fail even though you are using the same recipe. Below are some notes that may help you master in Chiffon Cake.

I would say, having a perfect stiff egg white is the secret of baking this cake. Without a perfect stiff egg white, you will never get the soft texture of Chiffon Cake. The eggs need to be at room temperature so they will reach their full volume when beaten. Always use fresh egg as it is much easier to beat. Adding a little cream of tartar helps with us, although you can leave it out. Cream of tartar is used to give stiffness to the egg whites, so that the cake will not collapse easily. Not to forget to use a very clean mixing bowl to ensure egg whites can be whisked up easily until very stiff.

Another important ingredient in the cake is the oil. The presence of oil and coconut milk in the recipe will give a moist texture to the cake. Coconut milk used in the recipe will further enhance the taste of the cake. You may substitute with soya, however the taste will never be the same as compare with coconut milk. As for the oil, you can use any flavourless oil; vegetable, canola, corn or even sunflower oil.

To make the cake healthier, it is highly encourage to use home made pandan juice than using green coloring and pandan essence. With the help of a blender, extracting pandan juice from the plant is much easier. I would normally stored the pandan juice for overnight before using. On the next day, a layer of  concentrated pandan residue will settle at the bottom. I will normally use that layer as it has a stronger taste.

It is important that the batter is baked in an ungreased tube pan which allows the batter to cling to the sides of the pan as it bakes. The tube in the center of the pan lets the hot air circulate so the heat can reach the center of the bake and not over bake the cake. The cake needs to be turned upside down immediately upon removing it from the oven as this keeps from shrinking and losing its volume.

Hopefully you will also succeed with the baking! 

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Ingredients A

100g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 medium eggs yolks

40g castor sugar

1/4 tsp salt

30ml oil

60ml coconut juice

50ml concentrated pandan juice

1/2 tsp pandan essence (optional)

Ingredients B

5 medium egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

40g castor sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 150'C and have ready a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake tin.

2. Sieve cake flour and baking powder together. Put aside.

3. Whisk egg yolks and castor sugar together until the batter is pale yellow. Add in the salt, oil, coconut juice, pandan juice and pandan essence together. Stir in one direction until smooth and well-combined. Mix this mixture into the flour.

4. Beat until smooth (about one minute). Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. You may filter the batter if there are a lot of lumps.

6. In the other bowl, put in egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean mixing bowl. Use high speed to whisk until frothy. Add in sugar slowly. Continue to whisk until stiff but not dry. (Please refer to the video "How to whip egg white")

7. Gently fold the stiff egg whites (in three additions) into cake batter just blended (being careful not to deflate the batter). (Please refer to the video "How to fold egg white")

8. Pour the batter into a 22cm ungreased chiffon cake pan and bake at 150'C for about 30 minutes until lightly brown. Change to 180'C and continue to bake until 100% cooked and golden brown.

                         

9. Remove from oven, invert (turn upside down) and leave to cool completely before removing cake from the tin.