Black and white cake

This is a left over story from the Easter day. We didn't do much on Easter day so we let our son and his friend decorated the easter eggs. They seemed to have fun together; playing and giggling. That day was a beautiful day as well. In Erie, where we live, spring starts very late. Even when the calender has officially announced spring season, somehow we still get some snow or even just cold weather

I made black and white pound cake the other day. This cake is sort of a marble cake and the way we make is just like baking a marble cake.
I made this marble cake a while ago and I thought I want to try something new. The recipe requires 10 eggs and those are lots of eggs, therefore only one slice of cake a day should be enough for me.

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Black and white pound cake
Recipe from the ultimate book of baking.

4 1-ounce squares semisweet chocolate
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
31/3 cups sugar ( I used 3 cups sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 eggs, at room temperature
confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the bottom of a 10-inch tube pan with wax paper and grease. Dust with flour and spread evenly with a brush.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or in heatproof bowl set over a pan of hot water. Stir occasionally. Set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 2 at a time, then gradually in corporate the flour mixture on low speed.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan.

Stir the chocolate into the remaining butter, then spoon into the pan. With a metal spatula, swirl the two batters to create a marble effect.

Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-45 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes, then unmold and transfer to a cooling rack. To serve, dust with confectioners sugar.

Hope you enjoy this great spring as much as I do!

Marble Cake

It wasn't a pleasant week for Erie as the weather channel kept telling us about approaching snow storms. This weekend it seemed like everyone was out cleaning the snow from their walkways and driveways, this of course included myself!. Bummer!! my snow blower was broken. I had to shovel by hand. It took me almost 3 hours to finish all my drive way. Of course I didn't shovel for 3 hours straight though. If I did, I would probably be in the hospital with a bad back. Wondering where was my hubby? Poor thing he had to work. OH, probably he was lucky then as he didn't have to shovel snow.

My lovely son was being so helpful. While I was shoveling the snow he helped brushing snow of my car. Tried to build a snowman too but didn't work as the snow was way to wet.

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As we came inside the house, the marble chiffon cake was waiting for us. I made myself a tea and a hot coco for Nathaniel. Then spend the rest of the day being lazy by watching tv, playing game. Just want to be inside keep us warm. Then my son felt sleep, yippy...! being outside it was totally wiped him out! THEN, finally mommy has time for her self alone.

I have been making this marble chiffon cake for many times but I lost interest to post it with many different reasons. One of them as I took food photo it doesn't come up well enough, you know very hard to find good natural light in this time of year.

Marble Chiffon Cake
recipe is adopted from Rumah Manis by Fitri.

1/3 coco powder
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups + 3 tbs granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbs vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
7 eggs (separate between white and yellow)
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp grated zest of a lemon

Direction
In the bowl mix together coco powder, hot water, 3 tbs granulated sugar, 2 tbs vegetable oil. And put a side.

In the other bowl mix together flour, salt, baking powder, granulated sugar. Put a side.
Whisk well egg yolks, water and vegetable oil. Pour into flour mixture and mix them together with electronic mixer. And put it aside.

Using electronic mixture blend together white egg and cream of tartar until white fluffy (soft peak). Then pour this batter into egg yolk mixture. Stir them well with hand whisk.
Take 2 cups of batter and pour it into coco powder mixture. Whisk them well.

Add 2 tsp grated zest of a lemon into remaining white egg batter. Mix them well.

I use regular cake baking pan by brushing margarine then sprinkle flour after. First, pour about 1 cup of white egg batter into a cake pan. Then add about 1 cup of chocolate batter on the top. Do repeatedly.

Then with a fork, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it. Don't over mix or you will not have that wonderful marble effect.
I did over mix little bit so you know how the result comes up. Quite disappointed.

Bake to 325F for about 70 -75 minute of until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Also thank you for wishing me happy birthday dear friends.

and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Chocolate Bananas Bread

Looking out the window it looks gloomy and soon the day will turn to dark as I blink my eyes. So much things to do outside though, perhaps cleaning the yard from falling leaves or making scarecrow for Halloween decoration. But none of them I am willing to do so today, mmm let me blame the weather as an excuse.

During fall session like this often bring me to bake more than usual. I just love the smell in kitchen after baking. You know, when you are baking cake or cookies then you open the oven door that smell oh .. I can't describe it into the words. I can smell the holiday feeling is coming soon.

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This time I am posting about Chocolate Bananas Bread. I loose count how many time I have been making this bread. You can tell that I love this recipe so much. Why? It simply because it is so easy to make ( you know I am fond of easy step recipe) and so delicious! The recipe is adopted from Fitri “RUMAH MANIS”.

Chocolate Bananas Bread

50 grams walnut ( I don't use)
250 grams flour
30 grams coco powder
200 grams granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
salt
80 grams chocolate chip
2 eggs
115 grams margarine (unsalted) melted
3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
vanilla extract

Direction

Preheat the oven 350F

In a big bowl mix together flour, coco powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Put it a side.

In a separated bowl, use the whisk to stir together the mashed bananas, eggs, margarine and vanila extract. Then slowly add mixture flour. Lastly add walnut and chocolate chips.

Bake for 45 – 1 hours or insert the skewer into the center of the bread. It should come out clean.

Have a pleasant Sunday!

Chiffon Pandan Cake

I have to admit that I have been trying a few recipes of chiffon pandan. This is the third time I bake pandan cake and I am so happy with the result. The cake comes out clean and soft. The other two prior trials, I followed the recipe but when the cake cooked I can not flip it out from the pan. It stick to the pan and didn’t want to come out at all.

I am not sure if the mistake is the recipe or the process of making the batter? But then I bought a new angel cake pan and did some browsing of chiffon pandan cake recipe. The lucky winner this time is Vania’s blog. Reading her recipe, I find that baking this cake will be so easy and it convinces me if I make again it will turn out beautifully. And THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED!

For this recipe I do little a bit of modification due to the market situation in Erie. Instead of using Suji and Pandan leaf, I used pandan extract and green food coloring.

Ingredients:

1 tsp of Pandan extract
2 drops of green food coloring
50 ml of water
125 ml of coconut milk
50 gram of margarine (melted)
6 eggs
225 gram of granulated sugar
250 gram of all-purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
50 gram of chops of walnut (optional)



Direction:

Combine water with margarine, coconut milk, pandan extract and food coloring. Set a side

Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set a side.

Mix eggs and granulated sugar until white fluffy (soft peak). In a medium beat gradually add flour mixture and liquid mixture.

Pour the mixture to the angel baking pan. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted come out clean.













It has been gloomy and raining the whole day. No outdoor activities for today, Nathaniel just stays inside and tries to occupy himself with toys, plays with mommy and of course EAT CAKE. Plenty of woods outside need to be chopped for the next winter have to be neglected for today. That is my hubby exercise and he loves doing it.

“Lapis Surabaya”, Our wedding anniversary cake!

It is called “LAYER CAKE” in English. I have wanted to make this cake for so long but something always comes up therefore I am not able to spare time to bake this cake.

In order to celebrate our 7^th anniversary, I decided to make this layer cake, a small and a simple cake just for three of us. I decorated it with melted chocolate and chocolate wafers along the side. I put three flowers made from fondant on top and touch it up with sprinkles.

This recipe is taken from FITRI, her blog name is RUMAH MANIS. Many great Indonesian and Iran recipes are available there.

For this recipe, you need:

Ingredients:

15 large eggs (you only need 3 white eggs)
125 gram of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp of chocolate powder
185 gram of granulated sugar
150 gram of melted butter
1 tsp of vanilla essence
½ tsp of salt
Strawberry jam for gluing between the cakes

Directions:

Wisk eggs, sugar and salt until white and fluffy. Pour in flour, stir with wooden spoon to mix the flour to the eggs mixture. Add in melted butter, keep mixing. Divide the mixture into 3 parts (2 parts stay as white part and 1 part; you mix it with chocolate powder). Pour the mixture to the Lapis Surabaya pan that has been grease with butter and flour.

Bake in the oven at 350 F or 180 C for 30 minutes.

There will be 3 parts of cakes (2 white parts and 1 chocolate part). You can bake the cakes separately, beginning with the white parts, then chocolate part.

Wait until the three cakes have cooled, pile the cakes together, start with the white, then glue it with the jam then pile it again with the chocolate and do the same with the rest of the cake. Serve !

KILLER CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

If someone ask who doesn’t like cheesecake? I will raise my hand! Yes, I know cheesecake is very popular in America. Most people like it. Somehow I question myself why I don’t like cheesecake “I don’t know” I am just not a cheesecake person I guess. BUT I love to make it!

This time I make chocolate cheesecake. Never make this cheesecake before. Reading a recipe from “Better and Garden Magazine”, this recipe really catches my eyes. I have to make it….. Let’s go! Then I never feel sorry about making this cake as most of people I served with this delicious cheesecake said “THIS IS A KILLER” just like its name!

Ingredients:
1 9-ounce package chocolate wafers, broken into large pieces, or 2 cups purchased chocolate cookie crumbs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
Dash salt
11/2 cups dairy sour cream, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)

Direction:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan and tightly wrap the outside with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Have a roasting pan ready and put a kettle of water on to boil.

For crust: Pulse the chocolate wafers in a good processor until finely ground. With the motor running, slowly add the 6 tablespoons melted butter and process just until blended. (Or combine cookie crumbs and melted butter). Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes or until it is set. Let cool on a wire rack.

For filling: Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of about 11/2 inches of nearly simmering water. Add the chocolate and the ¼ cup butter, and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons cocoa powder. Remove the bowl from the heat, and let the mixture cool for 20 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium-high speed, in a large deep bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the salt and chocolate mixture just until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Add the sour cream and vanilla; beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl again.

Transfer the filling to the springform pan. Set the springform pan in the roasting pan, place it in the oven, and carefully pour in enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the center is almost set but still slightly jiggly. Do not overbake-the cheesecake will firm as it cools. Remove the roasting pan from the oven and let the cheesecake cool in the water bath for 15 minutes.

Remove the springform pan from the water bath and let cheesecake cool completely on a wire rack, then remove the foil and refrigerate the cheesecake, loosely covered, until thoroughly chilled (at least 12 hours or overnight).

To serve, let the cheesecake stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove pan sides, smooth sides of cheesecake with able knife, and cut into wedges. If desired, sift additional cocoa powder over wedges.

Make 12 to 16 servings.

Black Forest Cake from the BOX

HIYA... finally I get my time writing today without have to worry be bothered by my beloved son as he is busy playing with his daddy. I made this cake awhile ago but didn't have chance yet to post it.

Anyway what I like to share today is, most the time I make cake from the scratch but this time I wonder how if I make cake from the box and turn it into BLACK FOREST CAKE. How about that?

To make cake it self is very easy, I only need 2 boxes of PILLSBURY DEVIL CHOCOLATE CAKE. As cooking direction on the back of the box is only needed 1 1/4 cups water, 1/3 cup vegetables oil and 3 eggs. I bake into 2 separate baking pans to make 2 layers cake.

Brushing cherry filling in between layers cake then cover the cake with melting chocolate. Wait until the melting chocolate gets harder then I decorate again with broken chocolate. For finishing touch whip cream and whole cherry is very nice to make the cake looks more prettier.

I found this is an easy way to make black forest chocolate cake without have to spend much time in the kitchen . Especially during summer time like now??? wow.... I am not attempted to do it.

ENJOY!

WEDDING Cake for Sinar

WHAT! I had never expected that my friend, Sinar, would ask me to make a wedding cake for her. I tried to refuse and the excuse I gave to her eventually didn’t work because she still insisted that I make her the cake. I thought, ”she was insane if she wanted me, an unprofessional baker to make her a wedding cake, the most important cake of her life!”
Anyway, I said “YES”. Hiya, that answer almost shocked me. I couldn’t believe I said YES! But it was happening… I was going to make her “THE WEDDING CAKE”.

I have done some simple cakes just for simple occasions before but not for a real wedding. I am not sure, I am so NERVOUS!
I thought very hard on how to make an elegant and an easy wedding cake. I planned to prevent making too many mistakes, so I simply chose white color for the iced surface, pink color for the roses and green color for the leaves. The roses and the leaves were made from fondant. They were made from “ready to use fondant” by Wilton product.

AND, of course, mistakes happened even though I did plan everything a head of time. A special thank you to Sinar and Shawn for your faith on me. I couldn’t imagine what people in your wedding said about that cake – I guess the hottest topic of that day was “how marvelous and delicious the wedding cake was” LOL

BABY SHOWER Cake for Roossy

Another person was expecting, Roossy is my close friend who lives not far from me. And she is from Indonesia too. Some of Indonesians were throwing a baby shower for her and I was in charge of making cake. In the beginning I didn’t have any ideas of what kind of design I need. Well as always, WILTON was my rescue. I looked through my entire Wilton book and got some of ideas here and there.

Finally, I decided what design I use for my cake decoration. Yippee! A lot of pink color of course, as she was expecting a baby girl. A CLOWN! Aha I have been dying to practice making a clown and this was a good time for it.

I have learned some techniques to make a CLOWN:

1.Squeeze out icing with steady even pressure to cover an area about the size of 50 piece.
2. Begin raising the tip, allowing icing to build up, but keeping the end of the tip buried in the icing.
3. Stop at desired height, pull tip away
4. Insert tip at base of body for leg, squeeze to draw leg out. Relax pressure, pull to a point for foot. Repeat for other leg and foot.
5. Insert tip into body at shoulder, squeeze as you draw arm out.
6.Relax pressure, pull to a point for hand. Repeat for other arm and hand

MY First Wedding Cake

The class that day was about making a very basic and simple wedding cake. In the last class students were required to bring 2 different sizes of cake, flowers made from royal icing, and a heart shape for a cake topping made from fondant.

It was quite a challenge to make 3D flowers from the lily nail. We used royal icing and it was made couple days before the class started. So it allowed the flowers to dry up and get hard.

When the class started we learned the technique of assembling tiers, and glue flowers on the cake. Also, in this class we learned how to cover the cake not only by useing regular butter-cream icing but also use a fondant.
I myself don’t’ really like the taste of fondant, But it looks neat and beautiful for wedding cake.

Here I am humbly present my FIST wedding cake, not quite enchanting in my opinion but it’s not bad for a beginner like ME.

MOTHER’S DAY Cake

I baked a chocolate cake for my mother in law, Julie. I baked it in a 9 inch pan using regular white butter-cream icing. WILTON is always my best choice for making icing and Wilton also has many decorating tips and recipes.

On this cake, I am learning to make Sotas. A sota is made by simply holding the bag of icing just above the surface of the cake, squeeze to allow icing to drop in a random pattern. I love making sotas, I think this is very easy and the result it looks very good and it is also a good way to cover up any imperfections in the cake. My favorite and probably the easiest thing to do in cake decorating are making the trim along the top edge and bottom edge. I have many options for making the trim including using a shell design with sweet pea flowers by placing 1 flower every 3 inches. I used a Forget- Me-Not flower for the top decoration. It comes with different sizes from small to bigger. I was also practicing how to make leaves.

So this simple cake for mothers day is not bad after all for a new beginner cake decorator.

BABY SHOWER Cake for Myrna

I would say this is my first attempt of making cake decoration for my beloved friend Myrna. She was having a baby boy! As I am a very beginner cake maker I tried to do decoration base on my skill. I have chosen 4 different kinds of colors. Used white color as a basic then followed by dark blue, light blue and yellow. I did not want to do experiment too much by doing all kinds of different flowers. So I chose star flower and swirled flower by using decorating tip size 106 and 225. The basic shell was decorated along the cake trim – the color was white. Now let me explain about the writing, ups I was not very happy about that. You can easily tell that I was a cake decorating beginner. Trying so hard to follow what the book told me but oh well I guess I need more practice in this matter.

I used regular butter-cream icing with medium consistency. WILTON is where I got the recipe.