Delicious mango cake

I have emailed the owner for her/his permission to put a link
in my blog but has gotten no reply yet. I guess it should be
alright since it can be googled anyway.

Why make this mango cake. Its sunday and I need to find
something to do with the kids to pass time. No biscuits because
I don't want to clean up the mess, so i search for simple recipes.

I have to decide between banana and mango (my good friend
gave me 3 big sweet juicy ones). After some googling, I came
out with 2, but did not have the complete ingredients for
banana cake so I did the mango cake.

Its low fat and has easy steps.

Its a little too sweet for my liking, and I did not even fill up
the 3/4 cup of sugar. But guess what, the cake is all gone by
monday. I bring two pieces for my friends to try when I meet
them that afternoon. One of them like it very much and asked
me for the recipe. Funny thing is, I cant detect any mango
frangrant smell. Did I dice the mango too small? Must I use an
unripe mango?

Here's the cake.

找了两个很容易做的蛋糕食谱， 打算和两个孩子消磨星期日
的早上。因其中一个的材料不齐全， 所以就只能做芒果蛋糕。
它虽然没有芒果的香味，但蛋糕在星期一就被吃光了。我还在
想为什么会没有香味。

A birthday cake for my boy

Got a good excuse to bake a cake, for my boy turning 5.


He did the deco himself cos I cannot manage to have it done
up before he is back from school.

Initially I thought the cake I have in mind is a non bake
chocolate mousse (ya wanted to bake this cake in mind for
some time liao) but after looking at the recipe, realise it isn't
 and was having difficulty finding one last night, so stick with
this recipe.

The recipe looks simple enough, melt ingredients, mix dry into
wet, no need mixer, I am happy. However, it took me the
whole afternoon from 1 plus to 6 to have it completed.
I can only say it might be faster if I have a bigger oven to
bake the two layers together and probably have more mixing
bowls so that I do not need to do wash up in the middle of the 
session.

Every step smooth going, no hiccups till the melting of white
chocolate (first time using) and blending it into the melted
butter for the white layer. Took quite sometime for the white
chocolate to be dissolved (ya the chocolate harden) into the
butter mixture.

The cake batter is not watery. I baked it one layer at a
time instead of 1 and 1/4 hour for two layers together as
stated in recipe, so I am lost at how long should my cake be
baked. Anyway the skewer came out clean after ard 35
minutes for both the layers.

This recipe (see below) uses little self raising flour and 1 egg
(per layer) so the cake did not rise too much, and maybe I
bake a little too long? cos the chocolate cake cracked. It even
break into several pieces when i transfer the layer to another 
base. Anyway I piece the pieces back like jigsaw puzzle and
luckily there is a frosting to be done so all can be covered up.

The most tricky part is the frosting. I whipped up the cream
to stiff stage then blend in the melted white chocolate. The
frosting changed into watery state, so I had a hard time
"applying" the frosting. The frosting did not harden even
after 2 hours in fridge. What has gone wrong? How should I do
this part? Maybe I should add the melted chocolate into the
cream then whipped it up? Any advices?

Anyway, the frosting should also apply in between layers but
I am worried that it is not enough to cover the whole cake
(must hide flaws mah) so you can only notice the little white
trickles of cream down the chocolate layer.


This cake is too sweet to my liking, and I did not even measure
my cup of sugar to the brim! Maybe it is also "sweeten" by the
frosting. My dh says the frosting taste like condensed milk. I 
suppose you can call this a very rich cake cos chocolates are
used in the layers.

有了个很好的理由让我尝试新食谱。今天做了个生日蛋糕给
儿子。食谱看似不难，但我还是第一次用白巧克力，所以还是
花了我大半天。这蛋糕有点太甜了，而且两层都有用巧克力，
所以不能多吃，会腻。我看，还是物以稀为贵。

Celebration Cake
Preparation time : 45 minutes
Cooking time : 1 1/4 hours
Makes one double 20cm round cake

Dark layer
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
125g butter, cubed
125g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (I forgot abt this)
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White layer
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
125g butter, cubed
125g white chocolate, chopped
3/4  cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White chocolate cream
125g white chocolate, chopped
1 cup cream (I used 200 ml pack for convenience)
chocolate curls, for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 160Dc. Brush two deep 20 cm round cake
tins with melted butter or oil, line base and sides with paper;
grease paper.

2. To make dark layer :
Sift flours and cocoa into large mixing bowl. Make a well in the
centre. Place butter, chocolate, sugar, hot water and coffee in
basin or top of double saucepan. Stir over barely smmering
water until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth; remove
from heat. Cool and stir in brandy.

3. Add chocolate mixture and egg to dry ingerdients. Stir wth
a wooden spoon until just combined; do not overbeat. Pour
the mixture into one of the prepared tins.

4. To make white layer : Sift flours into large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the centre. Place chocolate in basin or top of
double saucepan. Stir over barely simmering water until
melted; remove from heat. Combine butter, sugar and water
in a small pan. Stir over a low heat until butter has melted
and sugar dissolved. Gradually blend into chocolate. Cool.
Stir in brandy. Continue as for step 3.

5. Bake both cakes for 1 1/4 hour or until skewer comes out
clean when inserted in centre of cakes. Stand cakes in tins 10
minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

6. To make white chocolate cream : Melt chocolate as for step
4. Cool. Add cream, beating constantly with an electric mixer.

7. Sandwich cakes together with half of the white chocolate
cream. Cover top of cake with remainder; decorate with
chocolate curls.

Pearl sandwiches

How did it looked on me? ;-)

Has been looking for these pearl beads for a long time and
chanced upon them on the last trip to chinatown.

This design is also not my idea, but a design i seen on a huge
advertisement in a shopping centre. However, it is
definitely not the same material used, maybe not even same
on how it is made.

Here's another look.


找了好久终于让我碰上这些半椭圆形的珠。这个设计来自一个
商场的大型广告， 但材料和做法肯定不一样。还可以吧？

biscuits

After the mickey biscuit failure .. I tried again. This time with
cutters from Daiso. I use the recipe from Happy Homebaking .
(thanks HHB, what would I do without you.)

I had no time to finish the dough, so i did it in two batches (not
sure if the dough can keep or not, but I don't smell anything
funny today).

Now I got these.

Todays attempt

Yesterday's 

Cookies not cut cleanly. Cookies not evenly coloured ( I shall
blame the oven). Not perfect, but better then the previous
attempt. At least I do not see sugar crystal. Luckily I heed the 
advice from HHB of rolling them out on baking paper
( however I did not sandwiched the dough).
Yup, the dough did not stick to baking paper.

One sad thing though, the cookies are not going out fast like
HHB's (infact they are only eaten by me so far!).
My kids still prefer oreo cookies! But my boy said
he'll bring some as snacks to school tomorrow and will not
share with his classmates. hehehe.

Anyway, baking is my hobby so I shall not complain. Its fun
making these biscuits. Anybody out there want to have a bite?

我又尝试做饼了。不简单但好玩。用了两个下午，就得了以上
结果 （见图）. 不完美，颜色不一， 但至少不象上次那样看到糖粒。
听取了HHB 的建议，饼团才没粘桌，盖模后又易拿出来。这
里要谢谢她与我分享食谱。

Mango Mousse Cake

Had wanted to bake a mango mousse cake for hubby for his
birthday, but he fractured his wrist just a week before his big
day so wasn't quite in the mood to do anything major.

Now that his problem is more or less settled, so i went ahead.

Took the sponge cake recipe from a chinese recipe book
家庭小西点 that my mother bought at least a decade ago.
The sponge cake turn out pretty soft, but it is very sweet.
Did not note the ratio of sugar to the flour! But I wondered
why is it so soft and fluffy, is it the baking powder, or the
corn flour (ya it has corn flour as an ingredient).

Then I proceed to make the mousse using a recipe (strawberry
cake) from the book "Joy of making desserts" I borrowed from
the library.

The sponge cake is quite straight forward. However, the
mousse recipe said I should stir the milk and egg mixture
till it thickens, but after stiring for quite some time, I do not
see it thickens, so I just pour my gelatin in (instead of leaving
it to the  last as advise by recipe).

Called in my cousin to help with eating the cake since my dh
wanted to avoid eggs. She keep saying its nice its nice, but she
likes mango lah. My kids like it too (since it is chilled) and I
think it is pretty good too.

I think the next time I will increase the mousse and thin the
sponge cake. Its suppose to be mousse cake mah.

Here's how my mango mousse slice look like.


Here's the portion of ingredients for the amount of mousse I
made, so must remember to increase it next time.

whipped cream 200g
milk 150ml
sugar 100g
yolk 2 nos
mango bits 250g
gelatine 20g

Here's the original recipe (I replace strawberries with mango)

1 egg yolk
40 g sugar
60 ml milk
100g strawberies(mashed)
1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice
80 nl whipping cream( whisked till soft peaks)
8 g gelatine sheets
8 strawberies (with stems removed)

1. Soak gelatine sheets in iced water for 2 minutes until soft.
    Drain. Put into a bowl and place the bowl in hot water until the
    gelatine melts.
2. Mix egg yolks with sugar in a bowl. Bring milk to the boil and 
    pour into the egg mixture. Place the bowl over hot water and
    stir the egg mixture until it thickens.
3. Add mashed strawberries and lemon juice. Mix well.
4. Mix in whipping cream and the melted gelatine. This will set to
    become the mousse.

 

Custard cream puffs

Oh finally after so long, I have got something to share on
baking.

I made custard puffs today. Custard puff is one of my
favourite and I used to buy them often from Sin Lee Bakery (has
been closed for a few years).

I follow the recipe from e's joie website as recommended by
my friend. Mum helpped me out with measuring and preparing
the ingredients while i "cook".

I prepared the custard first. Put all ingredients in, keep
stiring, not difficult at all. Am very please with the custard.
However, after it cooled down (i did not put in fridge as
suggested in recipe), it kind of harden, like into a pudding. Not
sure if it is suppose to be that way. Am expecting a smooth
semi solid custard filling.

Then i prepare the shells. Not too difficult but i cant beat
vigorously as mention in the recipe since i used a small pot.
After that, i did not pipe the batter, i just spoon it onto foil.
I still remember my last attempt last year ... those puff sticks
to the baking paper. This time , its still the same. It sticks to
the foil. Look at the hole after i manage to peel the puff off.



Overall, the results is quite satisfactory to me. Looks a lovely
brownish crust, lovely yellow custard. Here are the rest.

a close up


However, i m not sure if I had the inside of the puff fully baked,
but i figure it is, since it is not sticky like the uncooked dough. I
am suppose to prick the puff, then dry it with the oven door
open for 10 - 15 minutes, but i m not sure if I shd turn off the
oven power first, so I prick and dry it with door ajar for 5
minutes. Anyone can tell me what shd I do after the crust is
nicely browned?

did u see the moist inside?

update : the puff did not stick if you grease the foil.

这是 custard puff （对不起， 不会翻译）， 我其中一种最爱的
糕点。不是很难做， 但始终不知我做对了吗， 不知里面烘熟
了吗。不过样子还过的去，味道也不错。烘焙时，锡纸要抹油，
不然 puff 就会粘着纸，puff 拔出来时，puff 底就一个洞了。

More beading projects

Wasn't baking anything new, and couldn't bake in the nights,
so went to do some beading projects.

My sister in law in msia wanted a crystal bracelet she seen
in a shop near my in law's house. So I made this one for her.

The one she seen is something similar but has no space in
between. I feel that it will be too much of crystals if so, thus i 
did the bracelet this way . Not sure if she
like it. Her daughter has taken the previous chain I made.




Saw the above necklace on a TCS star in the shipyard drama
shown quite sometime back. Like what I seen, so try
duplicating the style, but like previous, after it is completed,
it doesnt look that lovely.



Saw this on my boy's classmate's mother few weeks ago.
After taking a closer look (she lend me), and a few tips from
her, i manage to create another. She told me she also like it
after she seen it on someone else thus she duplicates.
Its silver balls on a tiny silver ball chain. I guess this can be
 wore to a wedding dinner with normal office attire. Not 
an easy job because got to squeeze the balls into the chain. 

夜晚的时间我比较空闲，孩子睡了嘛。夜了又不能太吵，
不能用搅拌机做蛋糕，所以就找些首饰来做。紫色手环是给
大嫂的，看她喜欢吗。蓝色珠蝴蝶链是跟着一套戏主角所戴
而仿制的。银珠链是跟儿子同学的妈借来跟着仿制, 可惜戴在我
身上不比在她身上好看。哎呀， 怎么都是仿制品。都怪我艺术细胞
不够。不过美的东西谁都会想要得嘛。