Day 11.2: Lemony Sponge with Zespri® Kiwifruits

Did you know that citrusy lemon pairs fabulously with Zespri® Kiwifruits? We have made a version of deep fried chicken chop laced with a lemony kiwifruit sauce at work and it went down so well with many people. We have also done a cupcake with kiwifruit jam centre topped with kiwifruit slices which is a crowd favourite too!

So based on that, I've made a lemon sponge cake which is sooo simple to make, then slater on some whipped cream and lay out kiwifruit slices. I've interlay two types of kiwifruits ie. Zespri® Green and SunGold. Made the cake looked super nice and so apt as Hari Raya celebratory cake!

Hahaha I'm a late bloomer when it comes to sponge cake. I have this fear that it will turn out rock hard or deflate when it comes out of the oven. I've done a couple of times of late and now I can say it's so simple tsk tsk!

Lemony Sponge with Zespri® Kiwifruits
(Serves 8 - 12)

100 g plain/all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
110 g caster sugar
50 g butter, melted or vegetable oil such as corn/sunflower/canola

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease 2 x 20 cm (8") diameter round tin and line base with non-stick baking paper.

Sift flour and baking powder two times and set aside.

Place eggs and sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until thick and pale for about 8 - 10 minutes. It should have tripled the volume. Fold in flour mixture gently with a metal spoon. (Since I'm using Kitchen Aid, I've used the balloon whisk after beating the eggs to fold in the flour :D) Then fold through the melted butter. (If using the balloon whisk like what I did, remember to use a spatula to dig right down to fold up the last few folds as the bottom bit might not get mixed through.)

Pour batter evenly into the 2 prepare tin. If you're not good in judging, just place the tin on an electric weighing scale to measure out equal amount of batter.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched and another good indicator is the cake has come away from the sides of the tin. Remove and using a flat metal spatula, gently go round the edge and tumble upside down on a wire rack. Cake will come off, remove baking paper and let them cool down.

To assemble:

Juice from 2 passionfruits, sieve out the seeds (you can use orange juice)
250 ml cold whipping cream, beat mixture with a couple drops of vanilla essence until light and fluffy*
3 - 4 Zespri® Green and SunGold Kiwifruits, sliced into rounds

* you may add in 1 - 2 Tbsp sugar if you like sweetened cream

Spoon or brush juice on both the cakes to moisten them.

Place one cake on a flat serving platter, spread half of the whipped cream evenly all over. Place one even layer of kiwifruits on top of the cream. Next, careful lay the next cake on top. Spread whipped cream over evenly and top with more kiwifruit slices. Voila!

Serve immediately or if you feel the whipped cream has soften, keep in the fridge for 15 - 20 minutes before serving. 

More fabulous recipes can be found at www.zespri.com.my.

Day 1: Zespri® 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge

Day 2: Sunshine Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Smoothie

Day 2.1: Zespri® SunGold Rockstar Breakfast Smoothie

Day 3: Win A Trip To Auckland & Rotorua, New Zealand

Day 4: Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Parfait

Day 5: Zesty Zespri® Sungold

Day 6: Sunrise Zespri® SunGold Ice Lolly

Day 7: Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Chutney With Grill Chicken

Day 8: Lovin' Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Steamed Prawns

Day 9: Frangipane Zespri® Golden Drops

Day 10: Zespri® Kiwifruit Sambal Lada with Prawn Lemongrass Skewers

Day 11: Pandan Zespri® Kiwifruits Cooler

Day 11.1: Zespri® Kiwifruits Platter

Review: Cakes at Swich Cafe, Publika

We dropped by Publika Shopping Gallery for dinner and was walking around just to exercise a bit when Capt'n Hook declared that he would love some cake and coffee. Boi Boi and him likes to have dessert after their mains. We stopped by at the information counter and browsed the shops around and looked at the leaflets and chanced upon one that mentioned Swich Cafe's opening just a few days before.

Swich Cafe is no stranger to me, not when I have Lyrical Lemongrass plus a couple of other non-blogger friends who kept posting the utmost delicious offerings especially the out of the norm cakes by Swich Cafe on their Facebook timelines. Made me sounds as if I've known the proprietress, Lim Cheng Cheng, for ages haha. We have tried their offerings during Bangsar Shopping Complex's Epicurious Brunch and was looking for more but the first location at HP Tower doesn't seems to have a very ideal opening hours hence I guess a lot of us out there would think the Publika outlet is really Heaven sent!

When we dropped by, Cheng Cheng was there and oh boy we really does seems like we have known forever! Lol it was especially so when Capt'n Hook, Cheng Cheng and myself were in the same line of business. As the industry was quite small, there were many names exchanged in the conversation. We did that over a slice of Hummingbird Cake (RM10.00) and a Latte (RM8.00).



Capt'n Hook likes moist cakes with lots of nuts and this Hummingbird Cake fitted the bill when the crunch came from the toasted coconut flakes. The cake was packed with banana and pineapple with a nice hint of spices. The coconut cream frosting is a nice compliment without being very sweet.



Boi Boi as expected chose his ever favourite chocolate cake but this is no ordinary chocolate cake but one made with Valrhona Chocolate (RM12.90). The cake is moist with the right amount of sugar and you'll know good quality chocolate is used when the taste can be exquisite and luscious to the mouth plus it was so well made that the ganache shined like a mirror under the bright lightings.



So far business has been picking up and Cheng Cheng hopes to sell more if their savoury dishes but then again she's not helping it when she keeps coming up with so many ingenious desserts using out of the ordinary ingredients like jackfruit, mangosteen or even avocado. I can also vouch that the savoury dishes are not your typical stuff but do expect a married of East and West such as butter prawn or even sweet and sour chilli crab pastas! Can't wait to dig in more of these and we're going to pop by at Publika soon.

Note: There's a 10% service charged on the total bill.

Swich Cafe
Level G3 Publika Shopping Gallery
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm (Mon - Sun)


Mezzanine Floor, HP Towers,
12 Jalan Gelenggang, Bukit Damansara,
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 3.00pm (Mon - Fri)
Tel: +6018 599 5152
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swichfinefood/

Walnut & Date Loaf

Oppsie daisie... it has been slightly more than a month since my last update. Well it's year end and it's school holidays... have been busy with the young lad oh yeah excuses, excuses! Reviews are limited as we don't eat out as much as we did before. Somehow Capt'n Hook and my senses seems to be able to sniff out msg and we're getting a little intolerant of it as we tend to get thirsty rather quickly after a meal lashed with it these days. As for recipes... hmmmm there were just too many easy peasy repeats but perhaps I will post up some really good new ones.

Anyway, here's something I've baked some time back but I guess it's a good one for this coming festive season. Cakes laden with fruits and nuts are always popular. I've used Donna Hay's Date Loaf recipe from the Modern Classics Book 2 but gave it some tweaks to suit our taste buds.

We love this loaf a lot as it stayed moist and disappeared quickly. I've reduced the sugar as the dates are already pretty sweet. Utmost delish when eaten warm slathered with thick layer of butter!

Walnut & Date Loaf
(modified recipe of Donna Hay's Date Loaf from Modern Classics Book 2

1 1/2 (190 g) cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
130 g sugar (original 2/3 cup)
1 cup rough chopped dates
1/2 cup rough chopped walnuts (originally called for pecans)
125 g butter
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 160C and grease 10cm x 20cm loaf tin.

Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, dates and walnuts into the flour mixture. Ensure the chopped dates get separated as they tend to stick together in clumps.

Melt butter and milk in a saucepan over low heat until butter is just melted. Cool a little and pour into flour mixture together with the eggs. Stir until combined. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for about 1 hour 15 mins or until cook when tested with skewer. Cool in tin for 5 mins before turning out. Serve warm, either plain or best with some butter.

Date Loaf

I was itching to bake after slowing down for ages, well... if you notice of my poor blog being in a neglected state. After going through the fridge and larder, I've found packets of dried fruits and various nuts other than the usual flour, sugar, butter etc. Browse some recipe books and finally chanced upon 2 recipes using dates and nuts. With further scrutinising of the methods for the recipes, I finally decided to use the recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2. Hehe all because it's simple and easy!

I got on to weigh and measure my ingredients, and it was a quick 30 minutes (includes washing up, excluding baking time heh).

The Date Loaf turned out perfectly... moist with a light hint of butter. The loaf itself is not sweet at all even though I did not reduce the amount like usual. The sweetness from the dates pieces is good enough since I do not like achingly sweet stuff. A repeat to churn out more of such loaf is on the way since the recipe seems a little healthy...

Date Loaf
Recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup roughly chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecan nuts (I've roasted them before chopping)
125 g butter
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 160C. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add sugar, dates and pecans; mix to combine and set aside.

Place butter and milk in a saucepan over low heat and cook till butter is melted. Add to flour mixture with eggs. Stir until combined. Spoon into a greased 10cm x 20cm loaf tin and bake for 1 hour 15 mins or until cooked when tested with skewer.

Cool in tin for 5 mins before slicing. Serve plain or with butter.

Arthur's Dream

Apologies for the long silence... have been traveling for a short while for work then the lazy bones strike! hehehe... I know I'm sooo late to post this up in tribute to Arthur Guinness Day on 27 September 2012 but what the heck!

I have always wanted to make this combination of an adult chocolate cake aka my christened Chocolate Velvet Cake which is essentially a Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake layered with peanut butter, banana slices, more chocolate and to finish off with some crunch by way of almond pralines. Managed to achieved this and it tasted so good that it got thumbs of approval from Capt'n Hook who doesn't fancy chocolate cakes.

The cake recipe can be found in my old post of Chocolate Guinness Cake. And here are the recipes for the other 3 elements:

Peanut Butter Frosting

160 g icing sugar
280 g smooth peanut butter
80 g butter
80 ml whipping cream

Beat icing sugar, peanut butter and butter until light and fluffy. Add in whipping cream and beat further for another 3 minutes or so until it's light.


Chocolate Ganache

150 g dark chocolate couverture, roughly chopped
180 g whipping cream

Melt chocolate and cream over low heat until glossy. Refrigerate to cool.


Almond Praline

80 g (1/3 cup) whole almonds
115 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
60 ml (1/4 cup) water

Place almonds on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. Cool down.

Place sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat until dissolved. Increase heat and cook until golden. Turn off the heat and add in almonds. Quickly pour onto lined tray. Once cooled, break praline into pieces.

To assemble, I've sliced my cake into two discs. Placed the bottom part back inside the loose based cake tin. Slater on Peanut Butter Frosting followed by sliced bananas. Drizzle over Chocolate Ganache thickly before placing the top part of cake. Carefully spread Peanut Butter Frosting all over on top before spreading out the Chocolate Ganache. Sprinkle on Almond Praline. Chill for a couple of hours. Remove from fridge for about 10 minutes before slicing to serve. Yummy!

Enjoy and "yam seng" (cheers)!

Ricotta Cheese Making Class @ Just Heavenly's The Baking Barn

It has always been fun to be in the company of Nigel Skelchy. His laughter is rather infectious teehee. If you don't already know, Nigel is the other partner apart from the talented Allan Yap of Just Heavenly, nehhh the cake shop that sells sinfully delicious cakes and desserts! A quick note here - they have recently started taking orders online and yes you can even make the payment online via their website. Start browsing the website and put in your order. (Disclaimer: I do not wish to be blamed if you wet your keyboard with your drool nor behaving indecently by licking your screen :p whilst you browse the website.)



At about the same time, Just Heavenly started their baking school - The Baking Barn, helmed by Nigel himself. Be sure of a good 3 - 4 hours of fun with him. Classes are held on Thursdays (9.30am - 11.30am) and Saturdays (2.00pm - 4.00pm) but do add in another hour to savour your creations together with coffee and tea. Classes are held in the HQ at Bangsar, just up the road from Bangsar Village.

The classes are semi-hands on with everyone getting a turn at things. No doubt one can search for recipes online but nothing beat having to attend a class as there are a lot of "unwritten" knowledge that will be imparted by the gurus.



I've attended Make Your Own Cheese - Ricotta which is actually Part 2 of the cheese making classes. How to make mascarpone was taught in Part 1. At The Baking Barn, one mother recipe will be taught and from there 2 - 3 cakes or desserts will be created. So at this class we were taught how to make ricotta cheese and from there it spins off to a Berry Ricotta Cheesecake, Ricotta Kisses, Ricotta Pancakes and a Cinnamon Honey Ricotta Spread.



We were first shown how to make the ricotta and we were spilled with the economics and sciences of making your own ricotta. Did you know you can make your own ricotta with just half the price of a tub of ricotta??? I like it when I'm supplied with lots of tips and substitutes if so happen you do not have the equipments in use ie. candy thermometer, food processor, cheesecloth etc.



Next Nigel showed us how to make the cheesecake. Looks easy peasy hehe cos we're not making it on our own but with the help of a few lovely ladies. This cheesecake is baked in a hot water bath. We were also taught how to dress up the cake by making strawberry coulis and balsamic drizzle. Due to time constraint, whilst the cake is baking in the oven, Nigel has a cooled down cake to continue the class. He plonked a bunch of hulled strawberries in the middle of the cake before pouring the coulis on top. He even showed us the trick to make the coulis flow down sexily on the side of the cake. Next up, the cake was sliced before drizzling some reduced balsamic over.



As we dig in, Nigel explained to us that this is not the creamy style cheesecake but more like Italian. I can say it's not smooth and creamy but I really like the slight crumbly texture and it doesn't taste heavy at all! Kind of a light cheesecake I would say, nice :D



Ricotta Pancakes were next. As Nigel was explaining to us how to fry up pancakes that are crispy on the outside using lots of oil and butter, we urged him to do just that since I guess most of us would never do that at home hahaha. The pancake batter is somehow like being shallowed fried and I got to finish up frying the pancakes.



Some honey is drizzled over after a dust of icing sugar. Nigel shared with us some marmalade that Allan had made up. The marmalade is so yummy, not the thick bitter rind kind that we made him to turn that into a jam making class.



Next up was the Ricotta Kisses, like Mangolisa had commented on my pics she was explaining to me this dish being deepfried like cekodok and so we have a cheesy Ricotta Kisses/cekodok haha. All ingredients were mixed in together to form a thick batter which is dropped into hot oil by the teaspoonfuls. We noticed that the kisses actually turned itself over when done frying on one side. How brilliant!





Later that night, I caught up with an episode of Axian's Food Adventure on telly. A man was showing Jason Yeoh on how to make taufu pok (tofu puffs). After slicing tofu into cubes, he dropped them into a huge wok of hot oil. The tofu behaved the same was as the kisses. It actually turn itself over when done frying. The man explained that as the bottom part of the tofu is cooked through, it became lighter hence the heavier uncooked top will roll downwards. Ooooo so that is the reason! Very educational for me indeed.



Anyhow, the kisses were served with a dusting of icing sugar. Crispy on the outside, cheesy and fluffy inside... very yummy. Not sure about you but I noticed that deep fried stuff tend to be extraordinary delicious even though I'm not a big fan of deep fried goods :p



Lastly, we were shown how to assemble the Cinnamon Honey Ricotta Spread. It was a very easy 5 minutes job to impress the family or guests which can be served as a bread or French toast spread or as part of a cheese/dessert course. Loved the slight creamy ricotta texture with the sweet honey and a hint of cinnamon taste.



The class ended with all of us sitting down to enjoy all the yummy goodies that we have made up with a cup of tea or coffee. Nigel also took this hour as the opportunity to address any more questions from the bunch of eager beaver ladies.

You can find the class schedule plus book your baking class(es) here. Do note that you can buy a single (RM180) class or even 2 (RM320) or 4 (RM610) classes package. The schedule for July is not up yet but I can type them out.

Thursdays

5 July - A Passel of Triffles (Part 1)
Hot Milk Vanilla Cake, Traditional Triffle, Victoria Sandwich, Creme Chantilly, enriched custard & Lemon Thyme Drizzle Cake.

12 July - A Passel of Triffles (Part 2)
Devil's Food Cake, Chocolate Trifle, Chocolate Custard, Salted Toffee Chocolate Topping.

19 July - Clouds of White (Part 1)
French Meringue, Berry Pavlova, Iles Flottane, Creme Angliase, Elton Mess, Creme Chantilly and Creme Fraiche.

26 July - Clouds of White (Part 2)
Individual Bombe Alaskas, Real Lemon Curd, Lemon Meringue Cake.

Saturdays

7 July - Cookies
Rolled Cookies, Dropped Cookies, Sandwich Cookies.

14 July - Cheesecakes (Chilled) (Part 1)
White Choc Wasabi Cheese Tart, Chilled Strawberry Cheesecake and the perfect biscuit base.

21 July - Cheesecakes (Baked - No Cracks) (Part 2)
Baked NY Cheesecake, fruit variations, how to make it denser, lighter and various toppings and swirls.

28 July - Local Chiffon Flavours
Basic stable chiffon in a ring mold and in a 9" round mold, Buttercream, Cempedak Buttercream Chiffon and Durian Pandan Chiffon.


I would like to thank Nigel for the invitation to join in the class. I've learnt a lot that Saturday afternoon and enjoyed the banters with the rest of the ladies I've met in the class. There will be a repeat of this class on 9 August (Thu) is you're interested to learn the same items ;-)


The Baking Barn
By Just Heavenly
47 Jalan Terasek
Bangsar
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2287 9866 or +603 2284 9866

Yoghurt Fruit Cake

I came across this Yoghurt Fruit Cake recipe in a magazine some time back which I've wrote down in my notebook as I've never seen a fruit cake recipe that uses yoghurt and nary a spice was added. Capt'n Hook had always like his fruit cake to be super moist. Knowing that yoghurt in cakes will produce a moist cake, hence I set out to try out this recipe recently. The original recipe called for just golden raisins and cranberries but since I have a lot more of stuff in my fridge, I set out adding more fruits and some nuts as well.

We're quite pleased with the outcome and would be great for this festive Chinese new year. Here's my version of the recipe. Kindly excuse the weird numbers of the weights as I've gotten them converted to metric.

Yoghurt Fruit Cake

(A)

90g golden raisins, roughly chopped
30g cranberries, roughly chopped
30g dried apricots, roughly chopped
30g mixed peel
Zest from 1 orange or lemon
3 tbsp brandy or rum or cointreau

150g butter
70g sugar
170g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
6 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Handful of toasted walnuts, break into halves or quarters (sorry I forgot to measure :p)


1. Mix (A) thoroughly, place in an air tight container and leave overnight in the fridge.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Leave aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Then add in eggs one at a time, mix well before adding vanilla essence.

4. Fold in flour, alternating with yoghurt. Mix in dried fruits mixture and walnuts.

5. Pour batter in 9x4x3 inch loaf pan. Level surface and make a slight depression in the middle.

6. Bake in pre-heated oven 160ºC for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown. Test with skewer which should come out clean. Remove from oven and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before turning out to cooling rack.

7. Once cake has cool down, turn over and prick holes all over cake with skewer. Brush or pour small amount of brandy or rum or cointreau. Wrap with one layer of cling wrap followed by foil. Keep in the fridge for a few days for the cake to mature before eating.


Tip: It would be easier to slice a fruit cake while it's cold with a serrated knife rather than room temperature.

Just Heavenly's Raya Centrepieces & New Offerings

We are into half month mark of Ramadhan and in no time we'll be celebrating Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. For this year's Raya, the fabulous baker boys, Allan & Nigel, of Just Heavenly have came out with some beautifully decorated cakes as centrepieces. These lovely cakes of either your choice of Chocolate Fudge or Sugee Fruit looked absolutely great amongst your Raya laden goodies and would make fantastic gifts.



Stars light the night sky of Ramadhan with your blessings as your loved ones receive this beautiful cake. Available as our famous CHOCOLATE and traditional SUGEE FRUIT in 9” round (approx 1.8kg), 11”x11”(approx 4.2kg), and 11”x 22”(approx 8.5kg) and from RM188 onwards.

A flickering flame lights your path with God's blessings which are passed on to the recipient when you give them this gorgeous centerpiece. Available as our famous CHOCOLATE and traditional SUGEE FRUIT in 9” round (approx 1.8kg), 11”x11”(approx 4.2kg), and 11”x 22”(approx 8.5kg) and from RM198 onwards.

This centrepiece was created with the iconic Wau. Flying high in the wind and from your heart to your loved ones for their Raya table. Available as our famous CHOCOLATE and traditional SUGEE FRUIT in 9” round (approx 1.8kg), 11”x11”(approx 4.2kg), and 11”x 22”(approx 8.5kg) and from RM208 onwards. 

Just look at the intricate design of the wau!

There are more designs and special gift boxes in offer for Raya, just check out their brochures here.

To order, email raya.justheavenly@gmail.com or call

Slice of Heaven @ Jaya One 03-7955 5212

A Slice of Heaven @ Pavilion KL 03-2141 5150

Corporate orders 03-2287 9866


Other than Raya goodies, there are some newly launched Peanut Butter Cupcakes and cupcake designs that includes the ever popular Angry Bird series and also Plant Vs Zombies!

Plants Vs Zombies at RM18 each.

Angry Birds RM120 for all of them including the slingshot and presentation tray.

Look at the details!

If your wedding is round the corner, do think of these "Hei" (Double Happiness) cupcakes (RM8.50 each) for your wedding favours or even as your wedding cake!

And my favourite.. Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a rich chocolate fudge cake topped with creamy peanut butter frosting! The best part is the cake is not sweet at all which compliments the sweet peanut butter frostings, yums!

Actually Nigel did a master class with a small bunch of us last weekend and I had the pleasure to learn how to make a deliciously moist Spiced Date cake and Torrone, an Italian version of soft nougat. I've caught them all on video and will post it up together with the recipes that he had shared with us ;-)

Yeah I know I do owe you guys lots of recipes!! Ok ok will try to make them happen next week :D

French Apple Cake

It has been a while since I posted something that I've baked. These days I only bake when it's necessary like trying to finish up something in the fridge. This case is apples. I have quite a number and some of them especially fuji apples' skin are turning wrinkly. The rest were granny smith. So I've used a mixture of both with granny smith dominating the combination.

I had always wanted to make this cake where the recipe is by Dorie Greenspan but was published by David Lebovitz. I played around with the ratio of the apples according to what I have, which is way more than needed and luckily they still turned out great, totally filled with chunky apples pieces!

I've checked with Capt'n Hook, it seems like he prefered this apple cake rather than my other favourite Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake. He loves super moist cake and I think this almost pudding like cake totally fit into that category. Usually cinnamon is used for anything apple but not this, hence I can taste the pure vanilla fragrance in this cake together with the slight tangy granny smith apple pieces.

I've gotten BoiBoi to help me out with the sifting and whisking cos making this cake is really super easy. He was aghast when I poured in the liqour and complained that he would not be able to eat any until I reassured him the alchohol will evaporate during baking. He loved this cake too, well another way to make your kid have fruits, not that I have any problems with him.

French Apple Cake
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake
Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar (I've reduced to 130g)
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven. Heavily butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch (3cm) pieces.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter
Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter. Fold in the apple cubes until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.

I Went Banana!!!

The weather in Kuala Lumpur has certainly gone bonkers. It's so freaking HOT and then some days its super windy coupled with thunderous storms especially in the evenings. Not only trees were uprooted but some innocent children were killed in one of these fierce storms.

Capt'n Hook had bought a couple of bunch of Dole bananas where the skin are still green. They were left there to be ripen but after 2 days, the skin is still greenish but my goodness when I touch them, they're all limp aiks!!! I peeled one omigosh it has over ripen *sobs*

I was so upset that I ranted on with my friends and some started to give suggestions on how to make use of them. And that really got me on a roll! Within the hour, I've got myself some banana jam, ice cream and a banana cake! So glad I managed to salvage the expensive bananas into something thanks to my friends otherwise I would have dumped them all away.



For the banana jam, just slice the banana into large chunks and add in some lemon juice. Cook on medium low heat and keep stirring. Since the Dole bananas were quite sweet, I tasted them and just needed a little sugar. Just cooked the bananas into a thickish paste and if you prefer chunks in your jam, try not to stir too hard. Cool down and store in containers. Serve immediately or store in fridge covered. Try to eat them up within the next couple of days but seriously the jam is so good that you'll finish them rather quickly!



Next, I sliced up some bananas and squeeze some lemon juice all over to prevent them from turning dark. Then I use my handheld blender and blitz the bananas up until they're creamy. Placed the covered container in the freezer and after about 2 hours I've got myself some really yummy and creamy "ice cream"! It's all natural without any cream nor sugar yay!



Since there were so much bananas, I've baked 2 loaves of Banana Cakes using Low-Fat Carrot and Nut Cupcakes recipe with some tweakings. What a lovely banana cake this recipes make. My cake looked very dark all cos I've used a very dark brown organic sugar which lend the cake a rather fragrant caramelly taste.

Low-Fat Banana Cake
Adapted from 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing), page 310

225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground mixed spice
150 g dark brown organic sugar
100 g roughly chopped walnuts
300 g mashed bananas
2 lightly beaten eggs
175 ml vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 175C. In a large bowl, combine all cupcake ingredients. Beat on a low speed with electric whisk until ingredients are combined. I've just use normal whisk, worked as well.

I've poured my batter into 2 lined loaf tins but they turned out quite low, I guess if you prefer one tall loaf, just pour all into one instead. Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes depending on your oven and the size of loaves. Remove tin and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cakes and cool on a rack.

I'm so happy with the results that I don't wait for such incidents to happen again but instead but extra bananas to let them ripe and turn them into such beautiful creations ;-)

Upside Down Pear & Pistachio Cake

I've gotten a couple of Australian Women Weekly's cookbook recently at a sale and tried this Upside Down Pear & Pistachio Cake recipe from Easy Baking. We loved this cake a lot as it's super moist and the nuts made the cake so fragrant. I think this would be great to serve on Christmas ;-)

Upside Down Pear & Pistachio Cake

1/4 cup chopped pistachio
1 cup firmly packed sugar (but I've reduced this to about 3/4 cup)
1 large pear, unpeeled, cored and sliced thinly
185g butter, softened
3 eggs
1/4 cup plain flour
11/4 cups almond meal

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease shallow 22cm round cake pan, line base with baking paper.

2. Combine pistachio with 2 tbsp sugar and sprinkle on the base of the pan and top with pear slices.

3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in sifted flour and meal.

4. Pour mixture into pan and bake about 35 mins. Stand cake in pan for 10 mins before turning top side down, onto wire rack. Serve cake warm or cold.

(Ref: Easy Baking, Australian Women Weekly's)

Review: Whisk Espresso Bar & Bake Shop

It was our first visit to Empire Shopping Gallery after a fab lunch in Klang lead by PureGlutton (will delve on that on a later post). Capt'n Hook decided to clock in to have an hour long massage which later on stretched to 2 hours! Well, if you have been to Empire Shopping, it's not a big mall and there's only so much of bookstore and Toys R Us to keep BoiBoi and myself occupied.

Once BoiBoi is satisfied playing with all the toys he could lay his hands on, we went down to LG level to check things out. We observed the tallest spiral slide in the country is taking shape which I understood it would have been opened by now. One slide will cost RM12!

I chanced upon Whisk Espresso Bar & Bake Shop (which has certainly been blogged to death by now) and decided to try the cakes out to see if it really lived up to all the hypes plus of course to kill some time. I'm very surprised to find the shop is rather narrow and have very few seats inside. It's small but cosy and I really loved the retro black and white floor tiles.





We picked a slice of Hummingbird Cake (RM11.90), a cup of hot jasmine tea for myself (RM5) and BoiBoi naturally zoomed in to a Hot Chocolate (RM9.50).



Essentially a Hummingbird Cake would have mashed bananas, crushed pineapples and chopped pecan in it. Since it's made using oil, it's a very moist cake frosted with cream cheese icing. The one we tasted at Whisk is moist and pretty good except that I find the frosting is meanly scant. I'm not big on frosting myself, hence you would have noticed the cupcakes or cakes I baked are usually void of frosting. I believe if one is to frost their cakes, there must be a 'just nice' proportion, not necessary thick. If you look at the pic, you could see the cake in between the patches of extremely thin layer of frosting.



There isn't any Red Velvet Cake that everyone raves about on that afternoon, perhaps another time then. Not big on macarons, I skipped that one.

 

Whisk Espresso Bar & Bake Shop

LG03A, Empire Shopping Gallery, 

Jalan SS16/1, 

47500 Subang Jaya

Selangor, Malaysia

Tel: +603 5022 2060