Work Catering Week 3: Whoopie pies!

After visiting Whoopie Pie bakery in Camberwell a few weeks ago, I was inspired to make some for this week's catering for work ^_^

Blueberry and almond whoopie pie

Raspberry and white chocolate whoopie pie - top looks bigger than the bottom XD

I went for 2 flavours: Red velvet and Carrot & Walnut! Red velvet - for the bright red colour! and Carrot and walnut for a healthier option. It also made it easier to make one filling for the 2 flavours: CREAM CHEESE FROSTING! my favourite!

I didn't have a whoopie pie pan but read you can use mini-muffin pan and just fill them 1/4 full. They rose slightly too much.. so instead of sandwiching two little cakes together, I cut each one in half and sandwiched them with the frosting. 

Red velvet whoopie pies
Recipe adapted from taste.com.au
Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temp
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs 
3 tsp red food colouring
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease 4 mini-muffin pans. 
2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until light and fluffy. 
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add food colouring, beat until combined. 
4. Sift flour, cocoa, bicarb soda and baking powder into a large bowl. Add half the flour mixture to butter mixture. Stir to combine.
5. Add vinegar and half the buttermilk. Stir to combine.
6. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and buttermilk until just combined.
7. Place 1/2 tsp mixture into muffin holes. Bake for ~6-8 minutes or until cooked through. (because they are small it takes no time at all!). Allow cakes to cool before removing from pan.
8. When cooled, either sandwich two cakes together with cream cheese frosting or cut cakes in half and spread with cream cheese frosting.
Recipe for cream cheese frosting here.

Carrot and walnut whoopie pies
Recipe adapted from taste.com.au
Ingredients
125g butter, softened at room temp
160g brown sugar (1 cup, lightly packed)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (~2-3 carrots)
45g (1/3 cup) walnuts
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
330ml (1 1/3 cups) buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 190oC. Grease 4 mini-muffin pans. 
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until pale and creamy. Beat in egg.
3. Stir in bicarb soda, carrots, walnuts and cinnamon. 
4. Fold in flour and buttermilk in alternating batches, until just smooth. Mixture should be a bit stiff. 
5. Place 1/2 tsp mixture into muffin holes. Bake for ~6-8 minutes or until cooked through. (because they are small it takes no time at all!). Allow cakes to cool before removing from pan.
8. When cooled, either sandwich two cakes together with cream cheese frosting or cut cakes in half and spread with cream cheese frosting.

I'm happy with the red colour! maybe need to have more filling......

Ok.. they aren't the best of shapes ><"

Comments were that they looked cute ^_^" just like little burgers and I'm not sure which one was more popular... personally I like the red velvet ones =p I think next time I shall try making larger ones and pipe/spoon them straight onto a lined baking tray :) Also to pipe the filling so it's pretty ^^" 

I think I already know what I'm going to bake for next week!!! excited!! =D I'm going to try some slices again... =p 

Work Catering Week 2: BROWNIES!

Week 2 of catering and I decided to make BROWNIES =D I didn't have heaps of time to bake so these brownies were a one pot wonder (and also less dishes to wash =p). I've made these berry and nut brownies before but this time they were thicker =D I also added pecans for a nice crunch :) 

Big tray of brownies! yum yum!! I ate the edges =p

You can find the recipe here. I just doubled it for a thicker brownie. These were definitely a HIT and got many nice comments (thanks everyone ^^).

Trying out some food photography xD

Ready for catering~

To cater for non-chocolate lovers and to balance out the sweetness I also made Lemon and Coconut "brownies"... that's what the recipe called them but I would rather call them a slice because they weren't "brown" and didn't contain chocolate =p I guess they use the same method as brownies e.g. melting butter in pot and stirring in eggs... 

anyways! I halved the amount of sugar (as per the comments made) and added more lemon zest and juice. I think you can increase the lemon for a tangier flavour.

LEMON and COCONUT SLICE
Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients
250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
zest of 3 lemons
70ml fresh lemon juice
icing sugar, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line a 20 x 30cm pan with baking paper.
2. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar. 
3. Add eggs, 1 at a time and stir until mixture is thick and glossy.
4. Sift in the flour and stir till well combined. Stir in coconut, lemon zest and juice. Pour into prepared pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool then dust with icing sugar.

Close up of lemon and coconut slice.. lovely and golden~~

I love hearing all the comments and seeing all my food gone =D Can't wait for next week... still thinking about what to make.. hmmmm~~

Calculator cake! - for all those accountants out there~

Here's another post to add to the decorated cake collection! My friend made this calculator cake for her friend's birthday! 

Birthday Calculator cake~

She used white and black fondant icing and mixed the two to get a grey colour. So much detail gone into the decorating! Each of the buttons and the labels. Fondant icing looks so fun to play with =D And it's such a creative idea! So just thought I'd share it :)

CASIO brand ^^

Do you know the MUFFIN man?

Yes I know the muffin man .. He lives in Drury lane~~ =p

Here's the recipe for RASPBERRY and WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS that I made for work the other day :) Great easy recipe which tastes delicious!
Recipe adapted from That's life

Makes 12

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
50g butter, melted
1 cup frozen raspberries
180g white chocolate (chips or chopped)

1. Preheat oven to 190oC and line 12 hole muffin pan with patty cases. 
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and sugar in large bowl.
3. In small bowl/jug whisk eggs, milk and butter together. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients along with raspberries and chocolate and mix until combined (do not overbeat!)
4. Spoon mixture into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean and muffins are golden.

For my Banana and Walnut muffins, I added 1/2 cup brown sugar in place of 1/2 caster sugar. Added 3 bananas, mashed and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to replace raspberries and white chocolate.

my FIRST work CATERING =D

Hi guys... I'm so excited to anounce I just had my first WORK CATERING experience!! I guess you're wondering how it came about.... WELL.. a friend was helping to organise lunch time seminars at work however lunch wasn't provided.. as it didn't fit in the budget >< Although there were snacks such as chips, biscuits etc. I just wondered what the budget actually was .. and found out I could actually do quite a bit with that money! So I just asked the person in charge of the food if I could help cater =D

Packing the muffins in their carry boxes ^_^

All the muffins ready to go =D

So... my first work catering experience was today! I made muffins - something nice and simple and that I could make a lot of without spending too much money! After asking others for flavour suggestions I ended up deciding on Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins.. and Banana and Walnut muffins - both simple classics~ If you get it right. The recipe is here :)

So.. did I get it right? =p You will have to ask my colleagues about that XD I took a risk and used a recipe that I hadn't tested... but thank God I think they worked out ok :) Made a total of 48~ and didn't take that long either! So maybe this is the beginning of something BIG for BakingTray! Watch this space ;P

Baking at night~~ raspberry and white chocolate muffins

Banana and walnut muffins

Plated up and ready to serve :)

Like the signs? hehe

Any suggestions on what I should make next week? =)

Japanese Cheesecake - not your average cheesecake ^_^

This has been on my "to-bake-list" for a while so when cream cheese was on sale, I knew exactly what I was going to bake! I love the texture of this cake.. it really is light and fluffy and not too heavy as some cheesecakes can be. So you can eat many slices and not feel sick =p

Japanese Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Christine's recipes

Ingredients
250ml (1 cup) milk
250g cream cheese, cubed, softened at room temperature
60g butter, softened at room temperature
6 egg yolks
55g plain flour
20g corn flour
1 lemon zest 
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
130g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 150oC. Grease and line 2 rectangle pans.
2. Place large bowl over pot of simmering water making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Pour in milk. Add cream cheese, stir occasionally until completely dissolved and mixture turns smooth.
3. Stir in butter till dissolved.
4. Remove from heat and let mixture cool down. Add egg yolks and combine well. Make sure the mixture isn't too hot as to cook the egg yolks.
5. Combing plain flour and corn flour. Sift flours into cream cheese mixture, a little at a time. Mix well between each addition making sure there aren't any lumps.
6. Stir in freshly grated zest and set aside (I forgot to add this!!! So I think it made the cake taste a little eggy ><)
7. Place egg whites into a clean bowl and beat with electric beater for ~3 minutes. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat. Gradually pour in sugar and blend until very stiff peaks form (I think I may have not beaten enough and so I didn't quite get the height I was looking for).
8. Fold in egg whites into cream cheese mixture with spatula (a third at a time) until incorporated. DO NOT stir or beat.
9. Pour mixture into 2 baking pans. Place pans into larger baking tray. Add hot water in the tray up to half way. Bake for 50-60 minutes.
10. Turn off oven. Leave door ajar for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack. Chill in fridge for at least 3 hours.

Not too happy with the height...but LOVE the flavour =D

I really love this kind of cheesecake (well I love all kinds of cheesecake but this type especially because it just melts in your mouth =p). The texture also got a thumbs up from my food critics XD which is a big deal! haha

So give it a go!! I think I'll want to try again too :)

Mum's birthday: Pandan Chocolate Zebra chiffon cake

It was my mum's birthday earlier this month. I always find it hard to buy presents because I don't know what she wants.. and usually she doesn't like the things we buy xD and gives it back to us. So I thought the best thing would be to bake a cake =) Priceless right? haha I saw this recipe on Sweet Samsations blog (Really liking her blog atm!!) and the cake looked SOOO COOL!! so had to make it!! 

I love the zebra stripe effect of the pandan and chocolate :) and this time I used REAL pandan leaves so the flavour was more pronounced ^^" The only thing was I didn't have a smaller round chiffon cake tin so the height wasn't there.
 

Pandan Chocolate Zebra Chiffon cake

Recipe adapted from Sweet Samsations

Ingredients

5 egg yolks
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup pandan juice (10 pandan leaves blended withabout 6 tablespoons of water)

1 tsp pandan essence (i only used one)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar in until pale in colour and sugar has been completely dissolved.

whisking egg yolks and sugar

Pandan leaves soaking...they were thawing after being in the freezer ><

2. Mix in coconut milk, pandan juice, essence, vegetable oil, and salt.
3. Sift in plain flour and baking powder, fold until combined.


Green pandan-ness ^^

4. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites till frothy, adding a third of the sugar and all of the cream of tartar in. 
5. Continue to beat and gradually add the remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.


Egg whites whisking away.. thanks Kenwood ^^

6. Fold in 1/3 of the meringue to egg yolk mixture, fold till just incorporated. Repeat the same for the remaining meringue.


Fold egg white meringue into pandan mix

7. Divide the batter into half and mix in cocoa powder with one half.


the chocolate part =p

8. Add 1 tablespoon of each batter on the same spot in chiffon pan, piling them up on top of one another, until they are both used up. Bang it on tabletop twice to release air bubbles.


Green and brown mix~

9. Bake in preheated oven at 175oC for about 40 mins.
10. Invert the cake immediately once taken out from the oven. Cool completely before removing from mould.

I think the pandan flavour was stronger the next day! But really love this cake :)