Victoria sponge cake with strawberry butter cream filling~

One day I whipped up a bowlful of Strawberry Buttercream because I wanted to have a different filling for my strawberry macarons... I made such a mess making it and in the end I didn't think it went very well with the macarons. So ... what to do with a LARGE BOWL of strawberry buttercream? Use it for a cake of course!!! haha! i looked up a random recipe for a Victorian sponge cake (which is usually filled with jam and cream) and made it! it was really simple and turned out really nice and spongey ^^ 

For the sponge: (from http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/130363/victoria-sponge)


Ingredients
125g self-raising flour
125g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
2 tbs milk

• 1. Cream butter and sugar together with electric beater till pale and fluffy. 
• 2. Add the eggs one and a time, beating between each addition. Sift in the flour and add milk and mix together.
• 3. Divide mix between 2 pre-lined 7 inch round cake tins and bake in pre-heated 180oC oven for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in tin and turn them out onto a wire rack.
• Strawberry Buttercream
• 3 egg yolks
  90g caster sugar
  2 tbs water
  125g softened, unsalted butter
  90g strawberry jam  
  
• 1. Beat egg yolks on high speed with electric mixer for 10 minutes until pale and creamy.
• 2. Place sugar and water in small saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer until syrup reaches 121oC. Slowly pour syrup into the creamed yolks while beating at medium speed. Beat on high for 10 minutes, until cool.
• 3. Add softened butter bit by bit while mixing on medium speed. Beat on high for 2 minutes. Add strawberry jam and beat for 2 minutes.

Layer one~~

2nd layer with iced topping!

Green tea Chiffon cake

After my failed green tea chiffon cake and my semi-sucessful orange chiffon cake, I really wanted to try again!! After the first two tries I had learnt some valuable lessons (from my mistakes). 1) The more eggs in the recipe, the more volume it will give the cake. 2) Remember to quickly invert the pan when taken out of the oven so the cake won't sink.
I'm not sure about you guys... but when I fail a recipe.. i get annoyed =___=" and then I need to bake something else that does work XD hahha.. but yeh!! Another thing is that it just makes me want to succeed the next time!! AND THIS TIME I DID! MUahhaha >:D so happy =) So I hope if you guys had failed before... try this recipe!!! quite fail proof i reckon =p

I got this recipe from Kirbie's Cravings!!

Ingredients
(A)
1 3/4 cup cake flour - I used plain flour and it worked out fine
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp matcha powder (green tea powder) - i think next time I will add more because I couldn't really taste that much..

(B)
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk

(C)
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 175oC.
2. Combine (A) ingredients in a bowl and stir well to blend.
3. Add (B) and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until moist peaks
formed. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff and shiny peaks are formed.
5. Fold 1/2 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture using a spatula. Stir and fold until no egg white streaks remain. Fold in remainder of egg whites.
6. Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan.
4. Bake for about 50- 55 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Invert cake pan and let cake cool completely in pan upside down. (I inverted my cake onto a bottle so the neck of the bottle was in the pan hole ^^) When cool, loosen the edges of pan cake to remove cake.

FAIL Green tea chiffon cake!! it sunk =(

Semi-successful orange chiffon cake.. just think it wasn't "chiffony" enough and too cakey xD recipe here

THIRD TIME SUCCESS (coz there is no such thing as luck =p)

On a side note... I got this for an early birthday present from my dad!!!

Our old one broke.. well had it for prob over 10 years.. SO YAY!! Guess I will be doing more baking =) =)

Puff... puff... puffys!!!

I was scrolling through a blog I'm following "Foodagraphy. By Chelle." and found this recipe for cookie topped choux puffs ~~

http://vintagetrinkets.blogspot.com/2010/11/cookie-topped-choux-puffs.html 

I got excited because the photos looked like PUFFYs from the shop =D So I thought I'd give it a go to see if it tasted like the real thing! hehe.. now you can give it a go too!

PUFFYS

Cookie dough (plain)
25g all purpose flour
25g unsalted butter
25g castor sugar

*For chocolate dough, use 20g all purpose flour and 5g cocoa powder

1. Place the unsalted butter in a bowl and use a spoon to mash till slightly softened.
2. Add in the sugar and mix to combine.
3. Add the flour (and cocoa powder if using) and use a spatula to mix till combined.
4. Wrap with cling wrap and roll into a mini cylinder. Place in the freezer to chill for at least half an hour.

Basic choux puffs recipe
30g all purpose flour
30g cake flour
40g unsalted butter
100ml water
5g castor sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs (100g)

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2, Place water, butter, sugar, salt in saucepan.Heat the mixture till the butter melts and boils (at least 95°C).
3. Remove from heat, add the flour into the saucepan. Stir the mixture quickly to mix.
4. Place the saucepan back over medium heat. Stir constantly until dough forms and comes away from the sides and a thin layer of skin forms on the base of the saucepan, remove saucepan from heat.
5. Dump the dough into a mixing bowl, and while the dough is still warm, add in the eggs one at a time. Stir quickly to incorporate. 
6. Transfer the dough to a piping bag. Line a tray with baking paper. Snip off the end of the piping bag and start piping swirls of the dough onto the tray - or just spoon it on
7. Remove the cookie dough from the freezer, slice into pieces and place on top of the piped puffs. Press down slightly and ensure that the cookie rounds are in the center of the puffs (if not you'll end up with lopsided cookie tops!).
8. Place in preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Cool before filling with desired fillings.

Vanilla crème patisserie
1/2 vanilla pod
250ml milk
50g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
25g all purpose flour
20g unsalted butter

1. Scrape the vanilla pod and add to the milk in a saucepan.
2, Add the pod and half the sugar into the saucepan and heat till just boiling stage. Remove vanilla pod.
3. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, add in remaining sugar. Add in the flour and continue to whisk to combine.
4. Add the heated milk mixture to the egg yolks gradually. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the milk mixture into the yolks bit by bit, before adding the rest of the milk, whisking constantly.
5. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over low heat. Stir constantly using a wooden spatula to prevent the mixture from burning.
6. When the mixture has thickened considerably to a sticky thick consistency, remove from heat and stir in the butter.

7. Pour into a bowl and cool. When cooled, cover with cling wrap, ensuring that the cling wrap touches the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate till ready to use.

My puffys

Chelle's puffys

REAL puffys