Sunday, August 26, 2007

Zebra Cake I



This is my first attempt in making Zebra Cake. The reason why this cake is called so, I think it's because of its pattern. A bit tricky to make as you need to pour cake mixture. Recipe will be upload later hehehehe

Japanese Cheese Cake


I've been fiddling on this recipe for several times and finally got the rite combination without wasting any ingredients like in the original recipe stated. I wrote down the original in usual characters and italic the modification that I've made. The recipe is from Yasaboga Cheesecake's Recipes Book.

This cheesecake is one of the favourite cake in my family as well as other Rea's Cake friends. It has cottony textures enriched with a hint of lemon and the thing that make it more great is the " nyessss" sound when you take a bite of this cake... Like having a piece of cloud or something totally smooth :p (well, I think I'm not good in describing it hehehehe...hmmph, I've tried to REALLY!! :p). In the nutshell, this cake is absolutely CRAVIOUS :D
Finally, here is the recipe
Mix and sift:
50 g cake flour
50 g cornstarch

Ingredients:
60 g unsalted butter
250 g cream cheese, at room temperature
120 ml whipping cream
3 yolks ( I use 5 yolks)
1 egg (whole)
2 t grated lemon rind
5 egg whites
1/8 t salt
125 g castor sugar
1 t lemon juice

Topping:
2 Tbsp apricot glaze or jam warmed with 2 T water
or decorate with fresh fruit and whipped cream

Instructions:
  1. Prepare a round spring form pan (22 cm diameter), line with parchment paper and grease with butter or margarine. Heat the oven at 150C.
  2. Put together in a medium sauce-pan: butter, cream cheese and whipping cream. Cook on low heat, stir until soft and well blended, removed from heat.
  3. Add flour mixture, stir well. Add yolks and whole egg, blend well. Add grated lemon rind, stir. Set aside.
  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy, pour in sugar and lemon juice gradually while continue beating until it forms soft peaks. (Remember: DO NOT reach PEAK form)
  5. Spoon 1/3 of egg-whites batter into cream cheese mixture, gently combine. Fold-in gently cream cheese-batter to remaining egg whites, blend well.
  6. Pour batter into round spring form pan, bake au-bain-marie (water bath) for approximately 75 minutes until the surface is golden yellow. Remove from oven, let cool on a rack. (I usually just turn off the oven and let the door open so the cake won’t confront a drastic temperature which could cause a dramatically cake-sinking-like)
  7. After it is completely cooled, invert the cake, transfer cake onto plate. Mix apricot glaze/jam and water, heat until well blended and easy to brush onto cake. Brush the cake surface with this glaze, let cool.



Sunday, August 12, 2007

P.A.P.A

Do you like APPLES? well, honestly I don't. Eating apples (read: fresh apple) could be a thing with enormous effort to do, really!. Fortunately (or I should write UN-42nately??..no room for pesimistic here..sorry :p), I always happened to get a bunch of apples in my house whenever I held a ceremony or spiritual ritual here in Bali. Apples are the-must-bring-fruit in the offerings that we -Hindu's believers- bring to the shrine.
Anyhow, let's back to the apples... Despite of my less-fondness of eating fresh apples, I love to eat APLLE PIE..yes, I do LOVE it!! what a contradiction huh? As my not-too-bother habit always won in every occasions, I make this kind of apple pie with KISS method (Keep It Simple Stu*&d) hehehe.. Oh yes, before I forgot to write down what P.A.P.A means in order to satisfying some friends' curiousness...Hmmpph..P.A.P.A is stand for Phyllo Apple Pie-Almost hehehe.. Well, it's almost a pie don't u think? This kinda pie never failed in positioning me as the Domestic Goddess in my home of course hehehehe...(doooohhh....exaggerating OMG!! :p)
This P.A.P.A is EXTREMELY easy to make, all you need is 5 apples (any kind of apples is great to work on this pie but I prefer Granny Smiths), peeled, cored, cutted into 1x1x0.5 cm size, put it in a large boiling-pan, add 10 cm cinnamon stick, 1.5 cups of water, 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice from 1/2 slice of lemon, put the skin altogether, 10 cloves, 4 tbsp sugar if u use Granny Smith, add 1 or 2 tbsp more), Bring all the ingredients to boiled and add 1.5 - 2 tbps corn flour mixed with 3 tbsp of water. Cook until the sauce is thick like jam texture. Set aside and cool. Hint: u could make this one day ahead.
Don't stop reading please...it's not over yet...
lightly greased 12-large muffin tin with melted butter or oil, you'll also need about 200 gr phyllo pastry, 2 heapfull butter, melted; 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, 2 tbsp caster sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon powder...(mix these together in a small mixing bowl) , brush 3 layers of phyllo with melted butter, cut into 15x15 cm rectangular size, put in each muffin holes, sprinkle with 1 tsp heapfull of walnut mixture, top with phyllo butter-brushed, fill in with the apple filling (about 1.5 tbsp), enclosed the phyllo until fully covered. Bake in 170C for 15 minutes or the phyllo looks golden brown. Served warm with your favourite ice cream and vla...Yummmbooo....
For pre-heat: brush the pie with melted butter then bake to warm it. Enjoy....



Yoghurt Muffin with MIXED FRUITs

A modification from Sedap Sekejap (local cuisine magazine), a little preface...Yoghurt makes the texture of this muffin smoother and not too heavy like other muffin does....
You could substitute the mixed fruit to other ingredients such as nuts, fresh fruit or choco-chips. For myself, I prefer fruits combination. Well, it's all up to you anyway hehehehe...



MoNoChRoMe Cake



2 layers of Elvis Chocolate Cake iced with Chocolate frosting.


Bagelen...well, almost there :D



Ingredients:
10 small buns or brioche, cut into 2
75 gr butter
75 gr margarine
75 gr icing sugar, sifted.
How to:
Mix butter, margarine and icing sugar until incorporated. Spread generously on 1 side of the bread. Bake in 150C for 15 minutes.
Tips: For whiter colour, substitute margarine to shortening.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Favourite Boiled FruitCake





I always love FruitCake!! I still remember very well when my Dad came back from his meeting or seminar in Jakarta (I was living in Malang, East Java on that time), he always brought a special fruitcake from the cakeshop in Blok-M (too bad, when I finally moved to Jakarta that cakeshop was no longer there and nobody knows where it had been moved :-(( ). I've been looking for this fruitcake recipe since then and the funny thing is I found it in one of my old cake recipes ( I bought the book on '92 or '93). SO, when my parents called me and said that they are coming on Friday (last weekend), I knew that I want to make this fruitcake as their welcome cake hehehehe.



I made the boiled ingredients on Thursday night as I got home from my IELTS course, let it cool overnight. The next very morning, 4.30am, I started to combine the whole ingredients and baked it for 21/2 hours. It's so easy to make and you'll need just to put a LARGE dosage of PATIENCE ;p. Here is the recipe, I copied it from Cake dan Kue Iris by Femina Groups (A Translation from Cakes and Slices from AWP).



Favourite Boiled Fruit Cake



375g sultana, chopped
250g raisins, chopped
250g currant
75g mixed peel
75g glazed cherry, halved
75g dried pineapple, chopped
50g dried apricot, chopped
250g butter
200g dark brown sugar
125ml brandy
100ml water
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
250g cake flour*
50g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking soda



Directions:
Mix fruits, butter, brown sugar, brandy and water altogether in a large pan. Cook without boiling until sugar has dissolved. Stir frequently. Bring to boil in low heat (put the fire only bit above the minimum level) with closed lid for +/- 10 minutes. Remove from stove. Set aside and cool.
Grease and double lined a 20x20cm or Ø24cm cake tin including its all sides. Let about 5cm extra of parchment paper out from the tin level.
Add eggs, honey, lemon zest and orange zest to boiled fruit mixture, combine well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Pour in to the prepared cake tin. If you like, you could make ornaments using nuts and glazed cherry on top. Bake at 150°C for 2 ½ hours. Wrap cake with aluminium foil, let it cool.
Okie dokie, when you read this sentences, it means that you have read the recipe above ;). I just want to tell you that The result was GREAT!! All of us just couldn't stop ourselves for second oops third oh NO...fourth helping for this fruitcake! The taste is nearly the same like the old fruitcake from the Jakarta's "cakeshop-only-GOD-knows where is it now" I ate before. But dad proclaimed that mine is much better hehehehe.... Thanks Dad... This cake is made with L.O.V.E from me to you and MUM....

Thursday, August 2, 2007

KAASTENGELS


My favourite cookies ever!! Cheesy. cheesy. cheesy. This recipe is the ordinary one. I will put the special recipe of Kaastengels that I got from my grandmother later on. But, it doesn't mean that the ordinary Kaastengels is a bad one. No, absolutely NO! What made it different to the special Kaastengels is the amount of cheese used and substitute margarine to butter.
Kaastengels itself is one of traditional cookie of Netherlands. I think, Indonesia got so many Dutch influences when it conquered our country for more than 3 centuries. No wonder, isn't it? hehehehe

K.A.A.S.T.E.N.G.E.L.S

Make about 850g

Ingredients:
550 gram low protein flour, sifted
350 gram margarine
4 yolks
½ tsp salt
300 gram cheddar cheese, shredded
25 gram edam cheese, shredded
25 gram cheddar cheese (extra for sprinkle)

Spread:
2 yolks
1 tbsp milk

Directions:
- Beat margarine and salt until smooth. Add yolks. Beat in low speed until combine.
- Add cheese except extra cheese, mixed together until well combined.
- Add flour gradually. Beat in high speed for +/- 30 second then continue mixing with wood spatula until well combined.
- Roll over about 0.5 cm thick. Cut into 1x3 cm2 size. Put it in the baking pan. Grease with spread mixture. Sprinkle with shredded extra cheese.
- Bake for +/- 20 minutes in 150 C temperature.

Tutty Fruity

I used to make this cake every time I have a lot of egg whites stocks in my fridge. The left over egg whites usually comes after I made chocolate cakes for Rea's Cake Order. Too pity to be wasted.This recipe is the solution hehehe.

Tutty Fruity
By. Ny Liem

Part I:
600ml egg whites
275g caster sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp cake emulsifier
½ tsp vanilla powder

Part II:
300g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder (if you do not use emulsifier, add 1 tsp more of baking powder)

Part III:
75g margarine, melted
extra oil for greasing

Part IV:
Orange essence
Strawberry essence
Pandan Essence or Melon Essence
Mocca Essence of Chocolate Essence

Directions:

1. Preheat steamer.
2. Lightly greased mould with oil and lined with parchment paper. If you are using plastic mould, simply grease the mould with oil only. ( I usually use two 2-litres pudding plastic-moulds).
3. Part I: Beat egg whites until soft peak formed. Add sugar gradually, keep on beating. Add salt, emulsifier and vanilla powder. Beat until double-sized and thick.
4. Fold in Part II in 4 batches. Mix till well combine. Stir in melted margarine (Part III). Fold in slowly with large spoon or spatula so the "air" won't collapse too much until well combined.
5. Divided mixture into 4 parts, drops each essence into it. Mix well.
6. Pour 1 part of the mixture to the prepared mould. Steam for 15 minutes. Pour in again 1 part of the other mixture. Steam for 15 minutes. Repeat this process to the rest of the mixture.
7. Remove from steamer and cake mould. Cooled.