Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Happy Birthday Ping : Chai Cake with Honey & Ginger Creamcheese

Another happy birthday party ! Ping is my housemate who helps me a lot when I first arrived Sydney. So I made this cake with love .. lol


The candle is so cute, made my cake looks much nicer.

This cake was found when I randomly browsed the website.. It is the recipe from Sky high which was made by lots of blog bakers. They all confirmed how good of the cake is..

Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Creamcheese

(From Sky High:Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne) Makes an 8-inch triple layer cake; serves 12-16 ( I used the bundt tin)
Cake

1 and 1/3 cups milk
6 chai tea bags, without added sweetner, such as Tazo ( I used 8 bags of Dilmah Masala Chai)
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups cake flour (I used 260 g of plain flour)
2 cups (360 g) sugar ( I used 300 g, sweet enough)
4 and 1/2 tsps of baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom ( I didn't add)
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces (226 g) unsalted butter at room temp.

Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of the pans and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well.

1. In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea bags, careful not to let the paper tag fall into the milk. Remove from heat and allow the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and squeeze out the milk. Let the chai milk cool completely.

2. In a medium bowl mix the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk. Whisk together.

3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, on med-low speed.

4. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions scraping the between additions. Divide the batter evenly among the pans.

5. Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.Remove cakes from pans and peel off parchment paper. Cool completely.

To assemble the cake place one layer flat side down a serving plate and top with 2/3 cup of icing. Spread to the edge and repeat with second layer. Place third layer on top and spread the remaining ginger cream on top allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake like icicles.

Honey & Ginger Creamcheese

2 and 1/2 cups (325 g) confectioners sugar (I put only 80 g)
6 ounces (170 g) cream cheese at room temp. (I put 250 g)
6 tbps unsalted butter at room temp.
1/2 cup (170 g) honey (any kind as long as liquid)
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 and 1/2 tbsp finely minced crystalized ginger
*(I add about 2 tbps of lemon juice)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to blend together, then scrape the sides of the bowl and pulse until smooth.

** Note : If you follow the recipe will be way too sweet. Even as you can see, I reduced lots of sugar in the frosting.. still very sweet so I add some lemon juice to cut down sweetness.

The masking, I think it can be done nicer.


With Ping...


Smile !


After burn the candle and took lots of pictures, the cake became so colourful and scary..haha


Verdict : I really like the cake.. At first when saw recipe, I was a bit worried about mixing process because they mix the dry ingredients with butter and some milk first. This way I have never done before but it turned out nicely. The cake was very soft and dense. The smell was not so strong, I think it depends on the type of the tea you use. I would prefer to add more tea bags and if put cardamon, it should be nicer. At home, people in the party, some prefer cake, some prefer frosting lol.

I took the leftover cake to school ( I hope there were leftover because that night we were too full not because its not good :P) Kimmy, Nicole and Billy like it. They said the smell was already ok. Kimmy really likes the cake and think that I should put less honey in the frosting cuz when eat together, the honey is too overpowering the flavour and couldn't smell Chai.
It will be another my favourite recipe !

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Seok !

If you have been reading my blog since I've started blogging, you will definitely know Seok, one of my best friends here in Australia. Today is his birthday so I made my all time favourite Dark Chocolate Tart for him. At first I was thinking about making Lemon meringue tart but not sure that every people will like the meringue, so I played safe with chocolate one... It is the 4th time for me making this tart... you see how much I love it lol.


Dark Chocolate Tart

(adabted from LCB)
Sweet short pastry
150 g butter
95 g icing sugar
few drops vanilla essence
250 g bakers flour
pinch salt
30 g almond meal
60 g egg

1. Sift all dry ingredients and rub the butter with the dry ingredients until like bread crumbs.
2. Add eggs, DO NOT OVERWORK.
3. Refrigerate for 30 mins
4. Line in the baked pastry case and bake at 180 degree celcius for 15 - 20 mins.

Filling

80 ml milk
200 ml cream
200 g dark couverture
1 egg, beaten
(I skipped milk and used 300 ml cream because I bought 300 ml package of cream)

1. Boil milk and cream. Pour over chocolate and stir to melt.
2. Add egg.
3. Pour into blind baked pastry case and bake at 150 degree celcius till set.
4. Serve tart at room temperature with whatever garnish you want.

This time, I decorated with honeycomb (of couse I bought from supermarket..haha) at night, it turned out so beautiful as you see above. Before I chopped the honeycomb, I concerned that the honeycomb will absorb the moisture and get soft by the next day but I have no time to do that in the morning cuz I have to quickly take a 6.58 am bus.. so... no choice...

In the morning when I opened the box...haha... the honeycomb is melted as I thought T_T


Happy birthday to you~~~~


Melted Honeycomb.



Seok, Kimmy and Ja


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I am in SMH Good Living !

On last last Friday, when I was working at the SWEETNESS, Gena told me that in the evening there will be a guy from newspaper come to take photo of us.. (of course I mean the shop ^ ^) Then around 6 pm.. he came and took pictures of some products and the kitchen.. At that time, there were only 3 of us left, Chef, me in the kitchen and Camille working at the front. That day we prepared lots of biscuit dough.. When he was taking pictures, I was wishing that there will be my face in the picture lol.. When he left, I asked chef which newspaper he came from.. ''Sydney Morning Herald'' said by Gena

Yesterday when i was walking in to the shop sickly, Camille asked me whether I did see the newspaper.. I was no idea then she shown me... Ta da !


Please feel free to click on the photo ..hehe...

( I am the short fat tiny thing on the right hand side ^ ^'')

You can read the article in the Good Living. Unlucky there are no pictures on internet.. but Gena kindly sent me the pdf file for me to blog :D

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

My twin stomach !

Before I started to blog, I was reading lots of food blogs, one of them is Jenny, Panda & Cake. I found her blog when I was in Thailand searching about LCB for information. At that time she just graduated from Basic patisserie and also her uni around the same time (Am I right, Jenny?) and her blog did help me so much for making decision to come here. After that, before I went to school, I always read her blog to see what we gonna next.. hehe...

Also I think my first comment to her is about asking where the Bourke st bakery are when she posted that she bought some muffins and carrot cake there.. lucky me that the shop is just opposite my house now..haha

Now I do a stage for 1 month at SWEETNESS the patisserie and she came to the shop.. so sad we didn't meet each other..

Lots of interesting thing between us, please read in her blog :D

One more thing that didn't be mentioned in her blog. I am now working near her area and she is working near my house where are Ultimo & Epping lol

Pleasure to know you Jenny :)