Tiramisu Cake

Late March was my youngest sister's birthday. I volunteered to make a Tiramisu Cake for her since I've never attempted one before. I've always like to eat tiramisu. However, I couldn't find the courage to make one... until recently. I didn't want to buy the sponge fingers, though it will be simpler, nor did I want to make a sponge cake base. So I ended up making the sponge  fingers instead. Then I realised that I have piped my sponge fingers too small. I was afraid that my tiramisu will turned out to be very short since the sponge fingers were mini.


Fortunately, my tiramisu turned out to be of reasonable height. Overall, the comment was that the taste of the coffee and the coffee liquor was not strong enough! Fortunately, the texture of the cake was good. For the recipe below, I've adjusted the coffee syrup.

I'm submitting this to  Aspiring Bakers #18: Layers of Love (April 2012) hosted by  Sam of Sweet Samsations.

Recipe for Tiramisu, adapted from Yochana.


Ingredients:
Sponge Fingers:

4 Egg yolks
40g Castor sugar
3 Egg white
80g Castor sugar
120g Plain flour

Tiramisu:

2 Egg yolks
1 Egg
60g Castor sugar
5 pcs Gelatine leaves (or 10g gelatine powder) (soak in tap water)
2tbsp Water
250g Mascarpone cheese
250g Whipped Cream 
2tbsp Kahlua

Coffee syrup:

25g Ground coffee (should use Nescafe instant coffee powder)
250g Hot water
2tbsp Kahlua

Method:

1. For sponge finger: Whisk egg yolks with sugar till fluffy.
2. Whisk egg white with 80g sugar till stiff. Then fold in egg yolk mixture and flour.
3. Fill the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe fingers onto tray and bake at 175C for about 10 mins. or till golden brown.
4. For tiramisu: Beat egg yolk, egg and sugar over a pot of simmering water. Make sure that pot is not sitting directly onto the water.
5. Use a small pot, the mixing bowl slightly bigger and then sit on the rim of the pot. Whisk till egg yolk is yellowish. Cool to room temperature.
6. Add in mascarpone cheese and mix lightly. Don't overmix otherwise the cheese will turn coarse.
7. Soak gelatine with water and then microwave for about 20- 25 secs.
8. Fold in whipped cream, kahlua and gelatine mixture.
9. To assemble: Use a 8" sq. tray (or a 7" sq. tray to be higher.)
10. Soak sponge fingers into the coffee syrup, lay a layer into the tray and then top up with some tiramisu filling. 
11. Continue the same process till all the sponge fingers and tiramisu fillings are used up.
12. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours for the gelatine to set.
13. Sieve cocoa powder on top of the cake and decorate as desired. (I decorated mine with the remaining sponge fingers, and some cake sponge).

Cakes...cakes...cakes!!

About a month ago, my colleague told me she will order a cake for his boy's birthday from me. She had told me initially that her boy likes Thomas The Tank Engine Train. Then I immediately thought of baking a cake covered with fondant and moulding Thomas. As I've not done this kind of moulding before, I asked You Fei of Loving Baking about her experience in her fondant birthday cake. She was really very kind and helpful. Not only did she shared with me her experience, she pointed me to a site which has a step-by-step guide on how to mould Thomas the Tank Engine Train. I was quite diligent...I went through the steps, studied it carefully.

Then three weeks ago, my colleague told me, his son wants a Little Einstein birthday cake. I almost fainted. Gosh! Now I'll have to search for Little Einstein images. From our conversation, I reckoned she wanted a simple cake with frostings and not those fondant kind. I remembered that Rei had posted up quite a number of cakes on whipped cream frostings. So I dropped her an email to check with her about the details etc. She was really very nice too! She was really patient to explain to me the details, how and what. And her responses were very fast too. I was really appreciative of her kind advice even though she sells her cakes, she was so willing to share what she does! So I've gotten an idea how I should decorate the cake.

One of my workshop buddy gave me a recipe for good chiffon sponge cake which I tried too. I was gearing up, preparing for my first big cake order. However, beginning of this week, my colleague told me that her in-laws wanted a simple cake for their small celebration on Thursday. I (so daringly) propose to bake one for her. We settled on a simple Orange Cinnamon cake with buttercream frosting on the 8" cake. I suggested the Orange Cinnamon cake because my blogger friend, Adel, sent me a recipe for it as she & I were just great fans of this combination. She knew that I had previously attended a workshop which provided this recipe and that I cannot sent her this recipe, she formulated one herself. She was really kind enough to share this recipe with me! Heehee... So my cakes were made with so many help from so many blogger friends!! This blogging has really brought me more benefits than disadvantages!

So on Thursday, I delivered a smaller cake to my colleague. And I started preparation for the bigger cake to be collected on Saturday.


Finally, the cake was done. I was really satisfied with the final cake design. My colleague came to collect the cake on Saturday morning.




Then I proceed to bake another cake!! My sister ordered a birthday cake for her friend the following day. I suggested a chocolate fudge cake. As I've tried this cake before, I was confident of the richness of this cake. It's really a keeper. I did some simple frostings to make it more presentable. I hope the group likes it.


For the success of my bakes this week, I must really thank You Fei, Rei, Adel and DH for sharing their experiences and recipes so readily! ;)

Finding Time

Time is always ticking away. It's difficult sometimes to decide what you want to do when time is not on your side. Lately, I was quite busy with work, followed by course assignments (from work), baking and surfing for recipes. Also, school exams are drawing nearer. I still have to spend time coaching my eldest son once a while, even though I've out-sourced his learning out. That was also my excuse for not updating my blogs as often now.

I found that no matter how busy I am, I will set aside sometime to do some baking. It's a "mandatory" activity I just have to do. I think I derived satisfaction when my bakes turn out to be good. If it didn't, I'll be disappointed. Then I try to analyse what went wrong. I try to make it a point to take notes on the bakes, what was reduced, what was added, what was the temperature etc. So that the next time when I use the same recipe again, I'll just follow exactly.

This week was no different. Some bakes, some good, some are not. Here are the consolidated list for this week.

Baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes.


Orange Cream Cheese Pound Cake.


Chiffon Sponge.


Chicken Curry Buns.


Pork Floss Buns.

Battle of the Sexes!

She wants vanilla, he wants chocolate. She wants vanilla, he wants chocolate! In the end, I baked 2 sponge cakes - Vanilla & Chocolate! I'm referring to my twins' request for their birthday cake. I don't want to bake two separate cakes for them, I'd rather prefer them to have the same cake. So in the end, I combine the vanilla and the chocolate sponge cakes to have a "Black & White Birthday Cake"! With Hello Kitty design for her, and a Ben 10 design for him. I also alternate the sponge cakes and halved the cake for each of them! Heehee...;)

In the end, they're satisfied and I'm happy with what I have created specially for them! The twins will be five years old this coming Tuesday! Happy birthday to my wonderful twins-Allyson & Anders!



With some time on my hand, I baked two loaves of Cheese Bread from Alex Goh's "The World of Breads". These cheese loaves included some almond nibs. They looked real nice though!



Just for fun, I drew on the breads! ;) Enjoy!



Disclaimer: Hello Kitty & Ben 10 designs are for my own personal use, not reproduced for sales.

Coffee Sponge Cake

It's been a while since I last baked cakes. I wanted to polish up my skills of baking cakes again. So I tried Alex Goh's traditional sponge cake and added coffee paste to make it coffee sponge cake. I had some caramelised walnuts leftover from last week and some chocolate cream. I wanted to frost the coffee cake.

The coffee sponge cake wasn't well baked. Firstly, I didn't fold in the flours thoroughly. Secondly, the coffee paste wasn't well mixed. The results was a sponge cake with lots of "acnes"! Gee, I spent almost half an hour trying to "take out" the "acnes" from the cake. From a 3" high cake (baked on 7" round cake pan), I cut and removed till 2" high. However, the cake was pretty soft despite all these blunders. This is how my cake looked like after "facial" & "make-over".

Coffee Sponge Cake

My family members have been ill one by one. Last week, my daughter contracted stomach flu. It was very very serious. Anything that goes into her mouth, the next moment, she "merlion"! It was quite tiring taking care of her as she kept complaining her tummy pain, hands pain, feet pain. She not only vomitted but also farted a lot, but cannot pass motion. Her illness lasted for five days. Then Monday evening, my youngest boy vomitted and said his tummy pain.

I didn't think much of it until the following day, Tuesday, where he pass very loose stools, vomitted, had fever and tummy pain. Gosh! It had spread! As warned by my colleague, stomach flu is contagious. But I didn't realised it will be so destructive! On the same night, my hubby said he felt feverish! Gosh! The following day, hubby and youngest boy had to be "quarantined" at home. Hubby was so weak, he went to the doc's and slept the whole day. Youngest boy was quite active despite being ill. I gave him some of my daughter's medicine. As the boy and the girl are twins, and are always together, so quite naturally, they always share everything, good or bad, thick or thin! Hahaha...like a couple! :p

So today, home again. Youngest boy still not well. Daughter didn't go to school as we wanted to bring her to see a doc at the polyclinic, due to her inverted eyelashes. Home whole day. Was thinking what to bake today. Finally, I decided to try to bake the Alex Goh sponge cake again.

Instead of baking round cake, I baked a square cake. Cut it into half and put different fillings in them. One is strawberry jam while the other is white chocolate ganache. The cake was quite nice actually, soft.

Recipe for the Coffee Sponge Cake extracted from Alex Goh's "Creative Making of Cakes".
Ingredients:
(A): 5 Eggs, 150g Sugar
(B): 120g Cake flour
(C): 1 tbsp coffee paste (I use 1 tbsp coffee paste & 1 tsp coffee extract)
(D): 80g Melted butter

Method:
1. Put (A) in the mixing bowl.
2. Whip (A) till light and fluffy.
3. Fold in (B) and mix till well blended.
4. Stir in (C) and mix well before adding in (D) and mix until well incorporated.
5. Pour batter into a 8" round mould. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.
6. Remove it from the mould immediately when baked.

Strawberry Cotton Spongecake

Just realised that this week, I didn't bake as much. I met up with my Professional Baking Coursemate on Tuesday at Caffe Pralet. We chatted on what we have been doing since our course. She has been selling her cakes to friends and relatives, and considering to open her own cafe, while I, have been baking at home quite aimlessly.

I did durian puff again on Thursday evening. This time, I used the receipe from "The Pie & Pastry Bible". It turns out to be lighter than the previous recipe I have.

Today, I decided to try the Cotton Sponge cake from Baking Mum. I separated the batter into two 7" cake pan. The cake turns out to be soft on the perimeter area, but pretty bouncy and wet on the inside. I spread the strawberry jam on the cake, and hopefully, it will taste good with the combination. :)

I bought this tub of Strawberry jam from Creative Culinaire School. It cost me $38/tub, but the quality is very very good. I knew it because I've learn baking from the school, and they use this strawberry jam. It's rich in strawberry taste, not overly sweet and not sour. PERFECT! It's made in Italy.