Another go at the Low Fat Chocolate Marble cake

I got a big tub of no sugar added, natural yogurt and its too
"sour" just to eat it on its own, so I am trying to use it on
baking.

Looked through my blog and found the low fat chocolate
marble cake uses yogurt .. but that wasn't such a successful
bake. Didn't manage to find any recipe that interest me that 
night and so I 've got no choice for the time being.

Had a hard time making this cake cos I got other housework
in between. Similarly, the result is not very satisfactory.
The cake rose but sank when cooling down. Cracks form on
top. However, I tented it this time so the top isn't so hard.

Upon cutting, I still find moist moist part at the bottom of
the cake. Am still unsure if the part results from the sinking
of cake or uncooked ( inital temperature is correct but not
sure if it changes in that one hour cos I can't see the
thermometer .. but I baked it for at least 1hr 15 min
liao). Furthermore, the cake has shrink away from the loaf
pan and the skewer comes out clean.
Anyway cooked or uncooked, they still went down my
family's members' tummy.

Look at that dreadful moist moist patch. (Sorry to my friends
and readers for all my nasty looking bakes)


It so happen that I am browsing other websites prior to
writing this post and guess what, Happy Homebaker has
adapt this recipe and tweak it to make her son's birthday
cake and its such a success. There are also more successful
stories on this cake while I ..........

Well, with the tub of yogurt sitting in my fridge, I can always
try this recipe again. This time I will follow Happy
Homebaker's recipe which has measurements in kg and ml
rather then cups. Perhaps, I will also use this recipe to make
my girl her bday cake in Oct, or my mum's bday cake in sept
(my mum only fancies cake that are filling)

Wish me luck.

又是一个不成功的蛋糕 （有图为证）。第二次了，还是这样。
材料还有，如再次尝试，要跟Happy Homebaker 的食谱了。
 

Banana Cake (2nd try)

I think I am successful in the banana cake the first time round.
This time, I give it a go again and omit the wholemeal flour
since the family don't like it. I also did not use Del monte type
of banana.

I am expecting it to look and taste as good as the previous try
but ...... so dissappointed, the cake looks very wet or rather
moist? ( sure cooked since i bake it for more than an hr).
It is more wet at the bottom of the cake, which looks like
banana all sinked to the bottom.

Anyway, the rest of my family like it. Now I must go and
请教 the experts on why is it kind of wet.

Here's the banana cake from this round.

Egg tarts after a long break

My kids requested for egg tarts. Its has been a long time since
I bake them because my mother usually is the one who makes.
My mother doesn't come over to help me now, so I have to do
the job myself this time.

I have used my mother's amended recipe. Ingredients wise are
the same, except that she adjusted the recipe to be able to
produce 18 egg tarts instead of the usual 10.

I am still too lazy to wash my mixer, so i hand cream my butter
and sugar. So tiring! I stopped to rest many times before I am
satisfied with my batter. My mum came over while I am
baking the first batch of 9 egg tarts, and she carried on with the
2nd batch while I cook dinner.

I can't remember during the first time that I bake, did my
egg custard bloat up. Anyway, all my mum's and this time's
bloated high up and of cos sink back when the tarts are out
from the oven. I also noticed that the crust are very soft
after a day. It should be due to the flour used. Perhaps I
should change to use plain flour instead of cake flour.

The first picture shows the first batch and 2nd showed the 
2nd batch. 2nd batch has sunken centres. Perhaps the first
batch isn't baked for long enough, so the rise of egg custard
is not high, thus doesn't sink as low. Anyway, they are as
tasty and were eaten all up in no time. Infact, the 2nd day
she baked another batch for my cousin who came by to
taste the egg tarts (and of cos take some home).

 
Not sure what is wrong with the bubbled centre.


The sunken centre.

我的孩子叫我做他们其中之一的最爱--蛋塔。我已好久没做
蛋塔了， 因为我做了一次后，我妈就接手了这个任务。她把
食谱的份量改了，从十个到十八个， 因为十个真的不够我们
吃。
我自己（我妈没来帮我了）好久才把糖和牛油打发， 因为用手
力，而且停了很多次来休息双手。没关系啦，努力后的成果总
是甜的嘛。

A disastrous pandan chiffon cake

This is actually the third try on pandan chiffon cake. First time
on a square tray ended with malay kueh. 2nd time is a happy 
"sort of successful" pandan chiffon baked on a tube pan, and
today, its so sad .......

I used the full recipe(and even the pandan paste is not omited),
intending to make the remainders into cupcakes since mine is
not a 9 inch tube pan.

Happy churning out the egg yoke mixture, then follow by
beating the egg whites. This part is known to be very difficult
esp for newbies like me. I stopped the mixer so many times,
chking if its the right state. In the end, I stopped when I see
that the beaten egg whites are somewhat quite stiff.

I fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture
first, then a little again, then I pour the remain of the egg white
mixture and start trying to blend them while folding gently.

I filled the tube pan up to about two third full then pop it into
the oven. Half way through the baking, the top starts to crack.
I prepared the aluminium foil and tent it so that the top will
notget burnt.

It rose beautifully and after ard an hour and 10 minutes, I
finally took it out. The satay stick did not come out clean
after 45 minutes, so I carry on baking even after the stated
baking time.

I admire the cake for a very short while then invert it. Perhaps
its a small batter, so the cake did not rise beyond the centre
tube. After a while, I went to check on the cake and I saw the
ugly centre. The cake has sunk drastically in the centre.
Could it be due to egg whites not beaten enough?
Could it be due to too much folding?
Could it be due to sifting of flour (I only sift into the mixture,
meaning only one sift)?
Could it be the knock on top of the oven (I dropped my whisk
there)?
After reading through the recipe's owner's QnA (comments),
I think any of the above could have contributed to the sunken
centre. Could also be that my cake is not really cook through.

Anyway, will try it again since I love chiffon cake. My kids
enjoy the cake this time, and I think its not difficult to finish
the remaining quarter of the cake tomorrow. 

Now, I have to be contented with the beautiful skin of my 
sunken pandan chiffon cake.




chiffon 蛋糕模买了只用了一次，所以今天又买齐材料动工。
第一次，我用四方模，不成功。第二次用chiffon 蛋糕模，算还
可以。这次又不行了。蛋糕的中间陷了下去。这问题的原因可
有几个。 可能蛋白打不好，或蛋糕没熟透，又或。。。。
不过味道依然很好，现在那蛋糕只剩几片，明天就会没啦。
我会再尝试。。。。。。

Cookies and cream cupcakes (2nd try)

Kids asked for oreo muffins, so I bought a pack of oreo cookies
with chocolate and peanut cream, ready to make another
batch of cookies and cream cupcakes.

As I did it in the night and want to minimise noise, I did
everything manually. Hand cream the butter and sugar, then
add in egg one by one, then fold in the flour. The mixture did
curdled at first after I add in the egg, but after some vigorous
beating, the mixture went back to the batter form.

I did only half the recipe, so doing it manually is still acceptable.
I reduce the sugar further to 90g as I put the peanut and
chocolate cream (the cream between the cookies) into the
cupcake as "fillings" rather then throwing them away.

The outcome : taste same as the previous try, however the
look of them are disastrous (so no picture this time). Think I 
filled the cup a little too much, or perhaps the "fillings" bubbled
inside, so I ended up with little volcanoes during the baking
process.

No matter how they looked, the kids still love to eat. My cousin
get to try a little of it today (I made them 2 days ago) and she
like it too. Will be making them soon again for her.

孩子会要求了。他们叫我做oreo muffin。于是我买了oreo 饼，在
一个比较空闲的晚上动工。

这次我没浪费饼干里的cream。我把它们当馅料放进cupcake里。
大概我把cupcake面糊放得太满了，或是馅料滚起，我的cupcake
就像火山爆发，成品的样子有点儿不雅观 （所以没照片）。还好，
味道还是很好。孩子喜欢就好，不是吗？