Grapefruit Chiffon Cake

The school holiday is coming to an end, I took Friday off and send the duo to Funtopia for some fun time (you may read more about the visit here - fun time @ funtopia), they totally zonked off after the session and sprung back alive after a long nap. Since we were at home and I was reluctant to go out again to face the congested KL traffic, I invited them to do simple baking with me and they joyfully agreed. 

  

Searched through my kitchen and managed to find just enough ingredients to make a chiffon cake. No pandan leaves, no oranges; well, grapefruit chiffon cake it is then!

The cake's smell was really inviting, a strong scent of grapefruit and tasted great too. If you are a fan of soft fluffy chiffon cake, I would invite you to give this recipe a try. ;-)

Original recipe adopted it from Christine's Recipes and i made some modifications to it.

E was happily helping and he was really amazed to see how the egg whites turned into the fluffy meringue. Time for science lesson (what caused the egg whites to triple in volume?) ;-)

Preparation time: 30 min

Baking time: 35-40 min

Serving size: 12 slices

Ingredients

Ingredients A - Cake Batter

• 100gm self-rising flour 

• 1 table spoon baking powder 

• a pinch of salt 

• 5 egg yolks (I used medium size eggs)

• 30 gm caster / brown sugar 

• 100 ml fresh grapefruit juice (from 1 large grapefruit as shown in pic)

• 80 ml cooking oil 

• 1 teaspoon grapefruit zest (about 1/4 of a grapefruit, make sure you wash the skin thoroughly before grating)

Ingredient B- for the Egg Whites  

• 5 egg whites 

• ⅓ table spoon cream of tartar 

• 60 gm caster / brown sugar

The Making:

1. Preheat oven to 180°c. Prepare a 9" baking tray by coating it with a layer of oil or butter and brush evenly. E didn't brushed the oil evenly so part of the top were sticking to the tray >.<
2. Sift the self-rising flour, baking powder and salt together into a clean mixing bowl, mix well using a spatula and set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine egg yolks, sugar, cooking oil, grapefruit juice and the zest. Mix well using the spatula, then gradually add the flour in step 1 and stir to mix well. You shall get a creamy batter now, just set it aside first.
4. Now, change to a large clean mixing bowl (make sure it is clean from oil or water), beat the egg whites with an electric mixer for about 2 min until bubbles form. Add the cream of tartar and sugar gradually (about 1/3 at a time), and continue beating on high speed for another 2 minutes until stiff peaks form. (To know your egg white is ready, just turn the mixing bowl upside down and it shall holds the shape without even sliding. It's the best trick to wow the kiddos :)
5. With a spatula, slowly fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Do it really slowly as you don't want to introduce bubbles into the batter.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray  and bake in the preheated oven at 180°c for 15 mins. 
7. Reduce heat to 160°c, continue to bake for 20-25 mins, or until cooked through (to test, just insert a cake tester into the middle of the cake and the needle shall come out clean. If it's sticky, just bake for another 3-5 min)
8. Once the cake is removed from the oven, turn the baking tray upside down on a wire rack and let the it cool completely. This is important to help the cake rise to its full form.

You can enjoy the cake once it's cool. My kiddos finished half the cake in one afternoon tea session and they said it's better than any other chiffon cakes we've ever bought. :D 

Cheers,

PH

Super Moist (and easy!) Chocolate Cake

We celebrated E's 8 birthday recently, he invited his best buddies from school and requested to have a 2 tier cakes fearing his friends will get enough share of the cake.. lol, how thoughtful of him.

So after some considerations, I decided to combine his request with the letter 8, since it's his 8th birthday day, and here's the final design... A huge "8" moist chocolate cake consists of two 8" round cakes, filled with smooth chocolate ganache.

Added some printed flags.

Centerpiece for the birthday party..

It is rather easy to make, to my surprise. I have been using a different recipe all these while and I thought to try out a different recipe from BBC Food this time, and it was amazingly good! The cake taste even better after keeping overnight in the refrigerator.

See? Moist, fudgy and a consistent density.

Here's the making.

Preparation Time: 30 min

Baking time: 30-40 min

Waiting time: 60min

Assembly time: ~30min

Ingredients:

A) For the Cake

225g plain flour, sifted

300g caster sugar (reduced by 50g)

85g cocoa powder (I used Hersey cocoa)

1½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoon baking soda

2 medium eggs

250ml fresh milk

125ml vegetable oil

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

250ml boiling water

B) For the Chocolate Ganache 

200g chocolate solid / chocolate chips

200ml double cream / whipped cream

Original chocolate cake recipe adopted & modified from BBC good food.

** the above recipe is for a single 8" cake, if you need 2 cakes like me, just double the ingredients.

The Making:

Baking the cakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°c / 350°f. 

2. Line two 20cm / 8" round baking tins with baking parchment. Spray/spread a thin layer of cooking oil to avoid sticking.

* do note that the batter is very very diluted, so use a proper sandwich tin, or make sure you line carefully with the parchment paper to avoid leakage.

3. In a large mixer bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder evenly, then add the remaining of ingredient A (except the boiling water) into a large mixing bowl. Whisk till the mixture is smooth and well combined.

* I used electronic mixer and turned it on high speed for about 3-5 minutes for the batter to mix thoroughly.

4. Now slowly pour the boiling water into the mixture, a little at a time to ensure the ingredients are well combined and all smooth. 

* The batter is very, very diluted, almost like liquid. So don't panic.;-)

5. Divide the cake batter equally between the baking tins, then bake in the oven's middle tray for 30-40 minutes. If it is still liquid or sticky when tested, bake for another 5 min.

* to test, insert a cake tester into the middle of the cake (as that usually take the longest to bake thru). If the cake is ready, the tester should comes out clean, otherwise just bake for another 5 min and check again.

6. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool down completely on a rack while still in the tin.

 

Prepare the Chocolate 

7. While the cake is baking, you may prepare the chocolate ganache. Heat up fresh milk in the microwave oven for about 2 minutes. 

8. Toss the chocolate solid (chopped) or chocolate chips into the bowl of fresh milk. Stir constantly until the chocolate has melted completely and form a smooth texture.

9. Let cool then keep in refrigerator for about 1 hour. The chocolate ganache shall be thickened like peanut butter sauce.

Assemble the cakes

10. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins. Using a cake knife, carefully slice off the uneven top to achieve a flat top, then cut into half of equal height.

11. Spread a generous layer of chocolate ganache over the bottom layer cake, then top with the upper half of the other cake like a sandwich. 

Repeat step 10&11 if you have 2 cakes like me.

To assemble an "8" shape cake like shown above, you have to cut off about 1" from one side of each cakes, and connect them together to form the "8" figure.

• Tips: to ensure the cake stay still on the board, spread a little buttercream / chocolate ganache to the board before placing the cake on top.

12. Move the cake to a cake turner (or a serving plate), spread a generous layer of chocolate ganache then spread out evenly with a palette knife, then continue with the side.

• Tip:  I find it is much easier to spread the chocolate evenly by using a cake turner as I can rotate the cake slowly while I run the palate knife over the cake.

13. That's it, your moist, rich chocolate cake is done! Remember to refrigerate your cake until it's ready to be served..

Enjoy!

Cheers,

PH

{Birthday Special} LEGO Cupcakes for my Little Boy!

Aren't these little LEGO Cuppies looking oh-so-cute? Custom designed for my little boy to celebrate his birthday with the classmates.

This special Yellow Lego Man is for my handsome who is turning 6.

Special mix of pastel green & yellow butter cream.

Some Lego girls too for the little girls in his class.

The bare Lego figurines before I painted the facial expressions.

I shape them using these mould I got during a group buy and let the fondant get harden in the fridge compartment for 30 minutes before removing them.

Painted by hand..

Then I added my sugar-reduced butter cream.. you may get the recipe for the butter cream icing here.

Finished them off with LEGO man or Lego block topping. Which is your favorite? Mine is definitely the Bruce Lee look-alike (the yellow Lego man). 

These little cuppies are really easy to make once you make friends with fondant icing.

Instead of party bags which often contain candies or unnecessary gift, I prepared these pencil cases with custom print message, "Ethan is 6!". Simple preparation, nothing lavish or OTT.

I showed my little boy the cuppies in the morning. Him and the little sister were super excited and requested to have one each. Luckily I have prepared extra so they happily munched off their Lego cupcakes while on the way to school. Best reward for a night of hardwork = their happy smiles and hugs. :)

Happy birthday my little E.
Be brave. 
Be happy. 
Be curious. 
Just be yourself.

Love you always, mommy. ❤️



Pss.. need more idea on cake decoration? Why not check out the following:
Special Lego Cake
Sweetheart and Ballerina Cuppies
Rainbow Cake
Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones

{Birthday Special} Sweetheart Cuppies of my Sweetheatt

Finally, I attempted cupcake deco with buttercream after many moons. I have never liked buttercream as I find it too sweet and too rich, bad for my weight control and also against my wish to allow the Little Ones to have so much sugar intake. However, since they are both above 2yo now I am ready to get loosen up.

As my little bunny's birthday is coming up soon, and I have already got her birthday dress ready, I decided to try out some cupcake decorating today, with homemade buttercream. Ah,  they turned out beautiful, don't they? :)

Cuppies design by PH @ food4littleones

My little handsome were so excited when the cuppies were done, kept asking if he can bring them to the school tomorrow, "they are so cute, Mommy, how did you learn to make all these?". Awww.. worth the effort to just hear him saying these. Yes, I'm a shallow mom. ;-)

Love this Ballerina Cuppie using Eccentric pink coloring, I am going to make a few of them in different shade of pinks. They are easier than it seems when crafted with fondant. I used letter "V" for the bodice and cut out a circle using the kid's cup, then created some ripples with the help of a toothpick. Join both piece with some sugar water and ta-da, the ballerina cuppie is ready!

Ballerina Cuppie

The Heart of the Ocean, another of my favorite. The contrast of the color turned out exactly as I expected. I used Navy Blue color for the ocean effect and Drop Flower tip.

Heart of the Ocean Cuppie

The Sweetheart Cuppies Trio for my little girl.. My duo absolutely love the sprinkles and little hearts. In fact 2 of these were gone right after my photo-shoot. I had to constantly keep an eye on my little girl as she had been eyeing on the ballerina cuppie the whole time! 

Sweetheart Cuppies Trio, in Eccentric Pink

The Little Fish & Little Star Cuppies, easy peasy deco using fondant but huge on cuteness effect. I'm not quite satisfied with the yellow color, so will have to fine-tune these later. All these are fondant cut out using cookie cutters.

Little Fish & Star Cuppies

Lovely cuppies, which are your favourites?

I have yet to finalise which designs to used for my little C's birthday party, but the ballerina is definite in my pick! ❤️

Almost forgotten. For anyone interested to try out some homemade buttercream, here's the simple recipe I used  from "Fabulous Party Cakes and Cupcakes", I got this book from Times book store quite some times back. I have reduced the amount of sugar used by 50% and it turned out just nice.

Simple Buttercream Recipe

• 250g unsalted butter (room temperature)

• 250g icing sugar (original recipe used 500g)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon hot water 

To make, just soften the butter in the mixer on medium speed for about 3 minute - until it is soft and creamy, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix on high speed to 5-10min until the texture turns pale white and really smooth. Your buttercream is ready!

This is enough to decorate the 12 -14 medium size cupcakes depending on your design. In my case, I still have some left over after decorating the 16 cuppies.

If there is any leftover, just store them in airtight container or cover with cling foam and place in fridge (good to keep up to a week) or freezer compartment (up to a month)

Happy cake decorating!  ❤️