Dome Cake

Do you have any leftover sponge cake? Or, unsuccessful baked sponge cake? Give it a twist to a little treat for your guests. I don't have any leftover sponge cake so I purposely bake a plain and chocolate sponge cake to experiment the recipe. I didn't follow exactly from the recipe book but using my little baking knowledge to complete this dessert.

The texture turn out quite nice with the combination of sponge cake, custard, toasted almond, chopped dark chocolate and covered with melted chocolate for the coating. Then, let it stand nicely on top of a piece of cinnamon cookies. I didn't manage to make it as pretty as the picture from the book. I think I need more practice and patient for coating the cakes. Anyway, this is something special and definitely will make it for a party. Recipe makes 10 pieces: 180g plain sponge cake 180g chocolate sponge cake 115g homemade custard 115g chopped dark chocolate 40g toasted almond nibbed 50g raisin soaked with brandy or rum 150g melted dark chocolate for coating For the cinnamon cookies: 40g butter 36g caster sugar 12g eggs 76g plain flour 4g cinnamon powder Methods:

1. For the cinnamon cookies, beat the caster sugar with butter then add in eggs. Fold in flour and cinnamon powder until a soft dough. Cling wrap the dough and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough about 5mm and use a 6cm round cutter to cut out 10 pieces.
3. Place on a baking tray with baking paper attached and bake in the 180C preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
4. Let is sit on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool down.
5. For the cake dome, use hand to break the sponge till a bread crumbs consistency.
6. Combine the custard, chopped chocolate, almond nibbed and raisin with the remaining brandy or rum.
7. Lightly press the mixture together to make the shape. Pour some melted dark chocolate to coat the cake.
8. Place it on a piece of cinnamon cookie and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Durian Cake

I've got few boxes of durian in the freezer. Other than thinking to make some cream puff or ice cream. I would like to try out some new stuffs which I've not tried before. I ate a durian cake weeks ago bought from my neighbour, it's very delicious!

So, thinking to make it myself. I made a simple swiss roll sponge cake and cut them into very thin round shape to layer the cake. For the cream, I mixed 270g of durian flesh with 135g custard and folded in 200ml whipped cream. This is truly a rich and creamy durian cake. I didn't add gelatin for the mixture so it's a bit runny, however it set after sitting in the fridge for few hours.

I would like to try out a next batch with gelatin one to find out the difference. Perhaps adding some gelatin would be easier to do the decoration. For the simple one, this batch is very yummy indeed! Must do it again for some celebration party. How I made it: Ingredients for a thin sponge 28 x 35cm: 4 eggs / 80g sugar / 67g plain flour:

Place the eggs and vanilla extract into a bowl. Gradually add in sugar and whisk until pale and thickened. Sift the flour into the bowl and fold together. Pour the sponge mixture into a baking tray with baking paper and bake for 10 minutes at 200'C preheated oven. Place the cooked sponge on a wire rack and place the sponge together with the wire rack into a plastic bag for cooling down.

Ingredients for custard: 2 egg yolks / 133ml milk / 40g sugar / 13g flour / 1 tsp vanilla extract / 6g butter / 2 tsp Rum (optional):

Mix the egg yolks with two teaspoon of milk in a bowl until well combined. Then, mix in the flour and make sure there is no lumps. Place the milk in a saucepan with vanilla extract and sugar, bring to the boil. Once the sugar dissolve in the milk, gradually pour onto the eggs mixture and stir then pour back into the pan. Return to the heat and using a whisk, lightly stir the mixture to thicken, do not boil. As the egg yolks warm, it will thicken to create custard. Keep stirring until it coats the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat and keep stirring and add in the butter. When the custard slightly warm add in rum. Pour the custard into a shallow bowl and cover with cling wrap. Place it into the fridge when it completely cool down and ready to use.

To assemble, blend 270g durian flesh (you could add more if you like) and 135 custard just combine. Don't over blend the mixture. Whip 200ml of fresh cream and fold it into the durian mixture. Put the durian cream into a piping bag and refrigerate for 1 hour. Use a 6cm cake rings or round mould to cut out 21 pieces of round sponge. Place a piece of transparent cake paper around each cake rings and fit in a sponge cake then generously pipe in the durian cream. Place another layer of sponge and pipe in the cream again. Finally add the remaining durian cream on the top and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours.

Remove the cake rings and transparent paper. Ya, look around the see anyone around and now you could lick the transparent paper. Enjoy!

Chocolate Almond Cookies

Turn it into a little gift, simple and nice!

Ingredients A

250g butter 120g icing sugar (I used 90g) 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1/2 tsp vanilla Ingredients B 300g plain flour, sifted 200g ground almond 200g toasted wholed almond, halved ** Use wholed blanch almond instead of skinned almond. I tried skin almond and it's not as good as wholed blanch almond. Decoration: 100pcs small paper cups 500g cooking chocolate, melted / semi sweet chocolate 150g toasted nibbed almond Method:

1. Cream A till well-combined. Mix in B to form soft dough. Shape into small balls and wrap up half almond. Bake at 180C till golden brown. Remove and leave to cool
2. Decoration: Place cookies into small paper cups, cover cookie with melted semi sweet chocolate and spinkle some nibbed amond on top. Chill in the fridge to set the chocolate before storing in a container.

VIP Visit

It's a wonderful afternoon! How I wish the clock could stop at that moment as the gathering was full of joy. Just wanna thank you for my VIP as she willing to visit me and brought me lots of sweet stuffs and shares some baking techniques and her quality experiences with me. Here are those lovely things she brought for me. There are all homemade by Jane especially from her heart.I find myself really lucky to have a friend like Jane. I've got nothing to return for whatever I've received but she will be in my prayer list everyday and may God bless her in His special way! Thanks for everything Jane!

Snow Skin Mooncake

My first attempt on making mooncake. Everyone recommend to me to start with snow skin as it's quite simple to make. So, just give it a try.

I cooked the lotus paste, it's hard work but at the end it's nice to know that all made by myself although it's not as tasty as the one I bought and the appearance could tell it's definately a homemade one.

I like to play with the mould more than eating the mooncake. It's fun wrapping the lotus paste with the snow skin and stuff it into the mold and pushing it out. Playing the mooncake mold is really FUN! It's a good try. I'll not share the recipe here as I feel that this batch of mooncake still not the good one. I'll try again next year or may be I shall try out the bake version next year :)