Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

This got to be the easiest dessert to bake! 10 minutes of preparing, 20 minutes of baking and some minor decorating, voila! good looking cupcakes and not to mention yummy and soft too.

I baked these for a street party for LHNC (Lucky Heights Neighbourhood Committee). It's a potluck party so instead of the usual fried beehoon, nuggets etc, I contributed cupcakes. Everyone commented how pretty and yummy it was. Feeling very flattered.

Then, boss' secretary sent out invite saying there is a surprise birthday party the next day in office, I baked another batch of cupcakes, this time round I used some chocolate powder to make it into Chocolate Hokkaido Chiffon. Not sure if it is the paper cup that I used, some of the cupcakes were hard at the bottom. Since Korean strawberries are in season now, time to bake some strawberry shortcake. Was thinking of baking something for Zach's school teachers and friends. It is after all his final year in preschool. He will be embarking to primary education come 02 January 2015. Time flies...okay. I digress.

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes (makes 9 cupcakes)

3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
35g corn oil, or any other oil i.e. grapeseed oil, canola oil
60g milk
70g cake flour

3 egg whites
25g castor sugar

Custard cream
60g whipping cream (dairy)
10g castor sugar
1 tsp custard powder

How?
- Line your muffin pan with cupcake liners and preheat oven to 170C.
- Using a hand whisk, beat egg yolks with sugar until pale in color.
- Add in corn oil and milk, mix well.
- Lastly, add in cake flour. Stir to combine.
- In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy.
- Add in 25g sugar gradually and beat until soft peak forms.
- Taking 1/3 of the meringue, mix well using the hand whisk to the egg yolk batter.
- Fold the remaining meringue in and fold gently using a spatula.
- Scoop batter into prepared liners.
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean. Mine took 20 minutes to bake.
- To prepare custard filling, beat whipping cream and sugar until firm and stiff. I beat them over a bowl of ice to speed things up. Placing the beater in freezer helps too.
- Add in custard powder and mix well.
- Pipe custard cream into cooled cupcakes and place your favorite fruits on top.
- Dust with icing sugar.

This cupcake is best consumed when cold.

Before piping in custard cream

Soft and moist cupcakes

This post is linked to Best Recipes for Everyone #5 December 2014 Event Theme: My Little Cupcakes by Fion of XuanHom's Mom.

Japanese Cheesecake - only 3 ingredients!

I bought a block of Philadelphia cheese and some white chocolate from Paris quite some time ago and the expiry date is nearing. What better to use them up than the 3 ingredients Souffle Cheesecake by Ochikeron. View the YouTube video here.
It is really simple to prepare but I think the baking is a tad too tricky. Wrong temperature or timing will make the cake sink..So I am going to watch it like a hawk (it's baking as I am typing this entry).






Souffle Cheesecake (by Ochikeron)

3 cold eggs (70g each), separated
120g white chocolate
125g cream cheese



How?
- Line a 6" or 7" round pan, grease the side with butter. Line the side higher than the pan's height.
- Preheat oven to 170 degree Celcius.
- While you are preparing the pan and chocolate cheese mixture, put egg white into fridge.
- Using bain marie, melt white chocolate, becareful not to over do it. You do not want the chocolates to be separated.
- Remove pot from heat and add in cream cheese. Mix well until all combined.
- Remove the bowl from pot and add in egg yolks. Mix until well combined. Set aside.
- Whisk egg white until firm peak forms.
- Take 1/3 of meringue and mix with chocolate cheese mixture.
- Pour in remaining meringue and using the whisk, combine gently, careful not to deflate the egg white.
- Pour batter into lined pan.
- Steam bake at 170 degree for 15 minutes, followed by 160 degree for 15 minutes and then turn off the heat and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Leave the cake to cool completely before removing from pan.
- Cake is best served chilled

Bon appetit!

Pandan Cake

This cake is the latest craze in the baking world.. pair this cake with gula melaka swiss meringue buttercream, heavenly! Lazy me do not want to go through the trouble of preparing the cream and piping and worrying about ants. The ants in my house are commando-trained..even sealed in ziploc bag or tupperware they can sneak in. Tsk tsk tsk

I prepared the pandan extract over the weekend and bake this cake on Tuesday for the boys breakkie. The fragrance of the pandan extract with coconut juice lingering in the kitchen and living room makes the hub took 2 cuppies the moment they are out of the oven.

I would strongly urge everyone using this recipe to reduce the sugar further because it is too sweet in my opinion even after I reduced the sugar by 50g. Cringing if it was to be paired with gula melaka SMB how sweet this cake will turn out.



Pandan Cupcakes (yield 12 cupcakes) (adapted from Bitter Sweet Spicy)

200g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g castor sugar (I reduced this to 150g and it is still sweet)
2 large eggs, room temperature
75g coconut milk mix with 25g water (I used 25g pandan water)
2 tbsp pandan extract*




How?
- Line your cupcake pan with cupcake cups. Preheat oven to 180C.
- Combine and sift cake flour with baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In your mixing bowl, beat butter with vanilla extract until it is creamy.
- Add in sugar gradually and beat until light and fluffy, it will take approximately 3 - 4 minutes.
- Beat in 1 egg at a time, ensuring it is combined well after each.
- Alternating between flour and pandan coconut mixture (flour-pandan coconut mixture-flour), add in to the butter mixture, mixing well each time.
- At the final flour addition, I use a hand whisk to combine the mixture so as not to overmix my batter.
- Fill cupcake liner to 3/4 full and bake for 25 minutes or until inserted skewers come out clean.

* To make your own pandan extract, use about 20 leaves of pandan, snip into small pieces. Add in 1/4 cup of water and using a food processor, blend until fine. Squeeze out the juice and let it sit in the fridge overnight. 2 layers will form, the light clear green is what I refer as pandan water and the darker green that sink at the bottom is pandan extract that gives you the nice green color to your bakes.

See how fine the crumbs of this cake is. Gone within a day..nothing left! Yay...