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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Recipe: Strawberry Shortcake

I tried to make strawberry shortcake today. It was awesome! Here's the recipe as well.


Ingredients for shortcake
225g plain flour
55g caster sugar and another 30g of caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
250ml whipping cream


Ingredients for filling
450g of strawberries, quartered or halved
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
250ml whipping cream

Instructions


1. Preheat oven at 200 degrees celcius. Lightly grease a tray.

2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add 55g of caster sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir well.

3. Gradually add cream and toss lightly with a fork until the mixture forms clumps. Gather the clumps together. DO NOT KNEAD the dough. Shape into a cylinder and cut into discs of about 1inch each.

4. Place on baking tray and sprinkle the remaining caster sugar over the top of the discs.

5. Bake until light brown for about 15 minutes. Cool on a rack.

6. For the icing, combine 1 quarter of the strawberries with the icing sugar and mash with the fork. Add in the remaining quarter/halves of the strawberries. Stir well and let it stand for about an hour at room temperature.

7. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.

8. Cut your shortcake horizontally using a serrated knife. Do it slowly to prevent it from breaking apart. Place bottom half on a plate, top it with the whipped cream and strawberry filling. Place the top and its ready to be served!



Enjoy!

SimpleMakan

Recipe: The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

Hi all! Been some time! I've been baking these few days because mum is not home to nag at me! Hahaha! Alright, here is the recipe and ingredient list. :)


Ingredients for cake
115g unsalted butter
115g plain flour
55g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
225g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence


Ingredients for icing
225g plain chocolate
85g unsalted butter
3 eggs, separated
250ml whipping cream
3 tablespoons caster sugar

Instructions


1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius and prepare 2 or 3 8inch round tins with grease/oil/butter. (2 or 3 tins depending on number of layers you want.)

2. Melt butter over low heat and skim the surface of any foam. Leave the melted butter aside.

3. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt 3 times and set aside.

4. Place eggs, sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Set this bowl over a pan of hot water. With an electric mixer, beat until the mixture doubles in volume and is thick enough to leave a ribbon trail when beater is lifted. Add in vanilla essence.

5. Sift over the dry ingredients in 3 batches and fold in slowly. Fold in the butter.

6. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake until cake pulls away from the sides of the tin, about 25 minutes. Let it rest on a cooling rack.

7. For the icing, melt the chocolate on top of a double boiler. Off the heat after chocolate is melted then stir in butter and egg yolks. Return to a low heat and stir until thick. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

8. Whip the cream until firm, set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar and beat untill glossy.

9. Fold the cream into the chocolate mixture. Make sure the chocolate mixture is NOT hot. Then carefully fold in the egg whites. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to thicken the icing.

10. Sandwich the cake layers with icing, stacking them carefully. Spread the remaining icing evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

This is honestly one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever tasted. I mean, I know it seems like self-praise, but this was seriously very good! Follow the recipe closely and try it yourself. You will not regret. :)
















Then it is ready!!! I would suggest refrigerating for about 30 minutes before cutting. :)


SimpleMakan

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Recipe: Cream Cheese Swirls

Had some leftover cream cheese, so decided to bake something new. Looked through my recipe book and found this recipe. Seemed easy so I tried it out. Turned out quite well. Tasted good.

Ingredients
225g butter at room temp
225g cream cheese
2 teaspoon caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon water for glazing
caster sugar for sprinkling


For the filling
115g of chopped walnuts
115g of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Instructions1. With a mixer, cream the cheese, butter and sugar.

2. Sift the flour and mix together until combined.

3. Gather into a ball and divide into half.

4. Flatten each half on greaseproof paper and refrigerate for at least 30 mins, longer will be good too.

5. Meanwhile, make the filling by mixing the brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts.

6. Preheat 2 baking trays at 190 degrees celcius.

7. Working with one half of the dough, roll out a circle of about 28cm.

8. Brush the surface with the egg-water glaze and sprinkle filling evenly.

9. Cut the circle into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 sections. Total, you should have 16 sections.

10. Starting from the outer edge of the circle, roll each section to form the swirls.

11. Place on your baking tray, glaze with the remaining glaze and sprinkle caster sugar over it.

12. Bake for 15-20 mins, until golden brown.


The dough can be quite difficult to handle because it might be quite sticky. My tip will be, after dividing it into 2, place them on the greaseproof paper and refrigerate a little longer. Then when handling the dough after removing from the refrigerator, just use the greaseproof paper as your working base and roll out into a 28cm circle. Try not to knead or handle the dough after it is out of the fridge because it will become sticky again.










Hope this helps! E-mail me anytime if you queries!


SimpleMakan