Butter Cake

After a break of more than half a year, I finally gotten the chance to start baking again.  To kick start my baking journey in 2012, I started off with a basic butter cake which I learnt from Jia Lei.  This recipe yields a very soft and fluffy butter cake.  I added in raisins for added flavour.

Top View of the cake

See how fluffy it is

Here is the recipe:

Egg - 6 nos.

Sugar - 140 g

Self Raising Flour - 260 g (or 260g plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder)

Butter (Cold) - 350 g

Icing Sugar - 120 g

Butter essence - optional

Method:

1. Sift flour. Separate egg white and egg yolk.

2. Beat butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy.

3. beat egg white & sugar till fluffy. Add in egg yolk and beat for 2 mins.

4. Combine (2) and (3) together and mix well. Slowly add in flour and mix well.

Pour into cake tin. Bake for 25 mins at 180 degree celcius.



Mini Chocolate Muffins

Yet another attempt from Dailydelicious blog.  Her bakes just look so tempting that you would never want to skip giving a try. However, I pick those easy ones as I am still a greenhorn in baking. Here is what I derived at:

 These are the mini muffin. Just pop right into the mouth :)

Slightly bigger version.

Here is her recipe:

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90 g	Cake flour
1 tsp	Baking powder
20 g	Cocoa powder
1	Egg
60 g	Sugar
60 cc	Whole milk (just fresh milk from the fridge)
50 g	Butter
25 g	Semisweet chocolate chip
25 g	White chocolate chip (I didn't use this)
	Extra chip for sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Sift together cake flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.

Line tins with cupcake papers or use paper baking cup.

In a bowl, cream the butter on the medium speed of an electric mixer, until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well. Combine the flours and add in 3 parts, alternating with the milk, on the last portions of flour add both chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into the cups about three-quarters full. Sprinkle with chocolate chip.

Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 17-20 minutes. (Be careful not to over bake, the muffin will be too dry). If using mini muffin the baking time will be about 15 minutes.



Chocolate Rice Swiss Roll

It had been a while since I attempted to bake a swiss roll.  I saw the swiss roll made by Happy Flour and decided to give it a go.  Instead of using buttercream (was just too lazy to whip up some), I just whip up some whipped cream and spread on the sponge.  Taste wise was still acceptable although I will have to improve on the rolling skill. 

Here is the recipe from Happy Flour:

Ingredients
3 eggs
55g fine sugar
2tsp cocoa powder
1tbsp milk
1/2tsp chocolate paste
65g cake flour
1/4tsp baking powder
35g veg. oil

butter cream (I used a small pack of President's whip cream instead)
chocolate rice

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Warm up the oil, remove from stove and stir in cocoa powder, chocolate paste and milk and leave it aside to cool.
3. Sift the cake flour and baking powder together and set it aside.
4. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Gently fold in the flour until well blended.
6. Pour some batter into the cocoa mixture and mix well.
7. Pour the cocoa batter into the the plain batter and fold until well combined.
8. Spread batter in a lined and greased 10" x 13" tray.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 10mins.
10.Remove cake from tray immediately and cool on a rack with the skin facing up.

Assemble the cake:
1. Carefully transfer the cake onto a greaseproof paper.
2. Spread the butter cream on the cake.
3. Gently roll the cake by using the paper to lift the cake and guide roll.
4. Wrap up the swiss roll in a greaseproof paper.
5. Rest the roll in the fridge to stabilize it shape.
6. Pour chocolate rice on a tray.
7. Spread some butter cream on the surface of the roll and roll it in the chocolate rice.
8. Slice and serve.



Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

It had been a while since I add a post although I had been baking.  Here is something from DailyDelicious.  She is a very amazing baker despite holding a full time job.   See my bottle of cut-out cookies:

Before I have the time to prepare icing for decorating, cookies were all gone :)  Original recipe from DailyDelicious:

Basic Sugar Cookies

Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

 
a pinch of salt

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour

200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar

1 Large Egg, lightly beaten

5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

 

Directions

• Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming

creamy in texture.

• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during

baking, losing their shape.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

 

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.

• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.

 

• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)

• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.

• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.

• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.

• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.

• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done.

• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.

• Leave to cool on cooling racks.

• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Raisin Bread Loaf

I chanced upon Do What I Like blog by Florence. She has very nice bakes and her video on the Wholewheat Bread Loaf showing how soft the bread turns out the next day tempted me to try the recipe.  Indeed, this is my first homemade bread that taste very close to commercial bread and it remains very soft even on the next day.  As I do not have wheat flour, I made some changes to the recipe (highlighted in red) and made it into raisin loaf.  Excellent recipe to try if you have been looking for something super soft.

Ingredients:

Sponge Dough:
150g bread flour
100ml water
1 tsp instant yeast

Main Dough:
50g cake flour
70g wholewheat flour / 70g bread flour
25g brown sugar / 25g castor sugar
50ml whole milk
30ml - 50ml water / 40ml
pinch of salt
15g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients for sponge dough together till it formed a dough. Prove for 2.5 hours.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients from Main Dough except butter. (I put everything into a breadmachine, selected white loaf, light crust.  After 10 mins of kneading, add in the butter. Add in raisins after the machine prompts.  Leave the rest of the work to the breadmaker)

Once the mixture is well-mixed add in the butter and knead till a soft dough is formed. I used the bread machine to do this part of the job.
3. Shape the dough into one round piece and rest it for 15 minutes.
4. Punch the air out of the dough and roll it into a flat rectangular shape. Roll it up swiss-roll style. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 but without resting put the dough into a greased loaf pan. Prove the dough for 45 minutes or till it is 80% full. Once fully proved gently brush the top of the bread with some water and sprinkle some wholewheat flour on it.
6. Bake at 200C for 30 - 35 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan immediately to avoid bread becoming soggy.

Three types of Buns

I was surfing the net for a recipe on open ham bun and found the one posted by Happy Homebaking.  She is simply a talented baker who uses simple tools to create great bakes. Another one that inspires me!  I decided to give her recipe a try and was amazed at how soft and fluffy the bread tastes. 

Always an excitment to see the bread baking in the oven.  

Hot from the oven.  The three types of buns - sausage, pork floss and kaya.. 

Close up shot of each type:

and a close up to show how soft it is

Very much worth trying recipe.  Here is the recipe from HHB:

Ingredients: (make around nine 60g portions)

150g bread flour
150g cake flour
5g active dry yeast
3g salt
125g milk
1 egg
60g caster sugar
50g butter
(1 egg, beaten, for glazing)

Method:

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in milk, egg and butter. Mix into a dough.
2. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough until the gluten is fully developed (see tip below) and the dough is elastic, smooth and non-sticky. It will take about 25 mins to knead the dough by hand. Initially the dough will stick on to the work surface. Do not be tempted to add more flour or even give up kneading! After continuous kneading, the dough will no longer stick to the work surface.

I just put everything into a bread machine (accordance to the sequence of liquid, flour, yeast). Select "Dough" function.  Add butter after 10 mins.  Let the Dough cycle completes and restart the cycle and beat for another 10 mins.

1. Place the dough in the mixing bowl and cover with a damp towel or cling wrap to seal in the moisture. Allow the dough to ferment(or proof) until double in bulk. This will take about 1 hr. To test whether the dough has been fully proofed, press a finger into the dough and withdraw quickly. It should leave a deep impression and spring back very slowly. For an insufficiently proofed dough, the impression will spring back instantly.
2. Take out the dough and punch out the gas produced. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes. Cover with a damp towel or cling wrap.
3. Divide the dough into 60g portions. Shape and add fillings as desired. Arrange dough in a greased or lined pan. Let the dough proof for the second time for about 30-45mins. Cover with a damp towel or cling wrap.
4. Brush the top with egg wash.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 190 degC. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

If I can do it, so can you :)

White Loaf

I haven't been successful in using my Breville bread machine to bake a decent white loaf.  Plouging through the usual blogs I frequent, I chanced upon this entry by Small Small Baker and her journey to find a "perfect" bread to use with her machine.  It didn't take me long to get my gears going to derive at the following:

Bread turns out soft and fluffy.  Thought the taste differs from commercial bread, this is still worth a try.  Here is the recipe from SSB:

Ingredients (500g loaf)
300g bread flour
1 tbsp butter (about 14g)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
175ml water


Method
1. Lift the tin out of the bread machine, fit the kneader blade then add the measured cold water and butter. Spoon in the flour then add the sugar and salt (make sure the flour covers the liquid completely and add sugar and salt in different corners of the tin). Make a slight dip in the centre of the flour and sprinkle in the yeast.
2. Insert the tin into the bread machine. Shut the lid and set to basic white bread, select size of loaf, and medium crust (I choose light crust). Press start.
3. At the end of the programme, lift the tin out of the machine. Loosen the bread with a plastic spatula then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.