2 Marble Cakes on 2nd Day of Christmas

It was 2nd day of Christmas. I'm at home and awake with an energise body for some baking! And this was despite that I left a message to all that I would be taking a break from baking after all those Christmas cookies.
But since the baking mood was there, how could I let it slip away? I took the opportunity and baked marble cakes!

The 1st recipe was picked from my new recipe book, Gorgeous Cakes - a gift from my colleagues.

Creaming of the butter and sugar, followed by eggs and milk and lastly the addition of flours. On the right was the melted choc.

The batter was split equally and one of which was mixed with the cooled melted choc.

I poured them alternatively into 2 loaf tins to create the marble effect. One of the tins was part of the gift too.

Baked them at preheated oven of 190 Deg C for 30-35mins.

I suceeded! The cakes were pretty high, even though the batter was not alot.

The second recipe was taken from blogger, My Kitchen My Laboratory. The difference here was the addition of ground hazelnut which replaced with ground almond as that was I had on hand. Also, coffee and butter were added to the choc.

The marble cake from recipe 2 didn't rise as high, but the moisture won over the former!

Marble cake from 1st recipe. The crumble left after I cut away half of the loaf.

It was a tad dry for my taste. But I was still glad that I baked these on the 2nd day of Christmas

Marbled Bundt Cake (http://mykitchenmylaboratory.blogspot.com/2007/05/marbles-or-marbling.html)

125g all-purpose flour
25g ground hazelnut(or walnuts
tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
110g butter
135g sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
120ml buttermilk*
15g butter
85g bittersweet chocolate (Blogger used 70% chocolate while I used dark choc)
25ml coffee
10ml Irish Cream** (Blogger's own addition but I omittted)
½ tsp instant coffee granules

1. Generously grease a 7-inch bundt pan. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda. Add in ground hazelnuts and salt. Whisk to combine.
3. Melt butter and chocolate over a double-boiler until completely melted. Cool slightly. Whisk in coffee Irish Cream and coffee granules. Stir to combine.
4. Cream the butter for about 1 min to soften. Gradually sugar and beat until light and creamy. Dribble in eggs slowly, about 1 tbsp at a time, beating constantly for about 2 mins. Beat in vanilla.
5. On LOW speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Beat in ½ of the buttermilk. Then beat in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining buttermilk. Finally beat in the remaining flour mixture.
6. Transfer slightly less than half the batter into the bowl with the chocolate mixture. Fold to combine completely.
7. Drop alternately spoonfuls of the two batters into the prepared tin. Swirl a thin knife/spatula through the batter once.
8. Bake for about 35- 40 mins till skewer inserted comes out clean.
9. Cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and cool completely.

* Blogger made her own buttermilk by using ½ tbsp lemon juice and topping up with fresh milk to 120ml. Stir mixture, and set aside for 15 mins before using.
** Blogger added in Irish Cream. The taste was not pronounced at all after baking. It can be omitted and replaced with 10ml coffee.

X'mas Cookies On The Go!

"And it's Christmas time..." this christmas song was playing in my head as my favourite festive season started drawing nearer. I had been racking my head over the types of cookies to bake this year. The many recipes available just for 1 shortbread gave me a headache as each blogger claimed hers is the best.

After crossing out a few and adding new recipes, I decided to bake these:

1. Famous Amos Choc Chip Cookies
2. Tangy Lime Cookies
3. Slice-and-Bake Cookies by Smitten Kitchen
4. Spritz by How To Eat A Cupcake
5. Mexican Wedding Cakes

18th Dec 08

For choc chip cookie, I added white choc chip and went w/o any nuts as I didn't have any.

Hmmm... I realised that the cookie dough that were baked on grease proof paper didn't spread as much as those on wax paper. They looked more chubby!

As proven here; cookie baked on wax paper on the left vs grease proof paper right.

If you put alittle dough on the wax paper, the cookies will turned out flat, thin and crisp.

This recipe helped me yield >70 altogether!

19th Dec 08

I was preparing for work and saw him laying on my bed. I had to snap this pic!

20th Dec 08

Pig and I were not meeting this day. I had the whole day of baking to myself, while he's travelling with his friends off S'pore. Sometimes, I do like these kinda days, doing stuff I like by myself on an entire free day.

It's Lime Cookie's turn. I was greedy, very greedy in fact to combine 3 X ingredients to bake for a larger batch.

Unlike my previous lime cookie, these were more crispy and hard. Still, not too bad as I could instantly taste the lime because I added quite a bit of lime juice!

The shortbread dough was as usual soft, thus I added more flour for easy kneading, rolling and following by cutting out the shapes.

Wooo... the spritz cookie looked pretty bouncy!

I know... the cookie cutters aren't really for the X'mas season. Well, what the heck!

By late afternoon, I started on slice-and-bake cookies by Smitten Kitchen. I did a variation of cocoa powder with raisins. I had to force the chilled dough into the heart-shape cutter instead of slicing it.

These turned out pretty soft and slight chewy due to the raisins.

And finally, mexican wedding cakes. They weren't easy to make as they were pretty dry.
In the end, I kept rubbing and instead of forming into a crescent shape, I split it into 2. Looked like a few fat thumbs baking on a tray.
Unfortunately, no pic was taken as I was very very tired and couldn't concentrate any more.

While the mexican wedding cakes were baking, I prepared icing for the cute spritz cookies. The icing had seemed to liven up them.

21st Dec 08

Individual cookies were selected and packed into the plastic bags. I got a total of 90 bags!

Some contained 4 cookies; Mexican, Lime, Slice-and Bake and Choc Chip.

Some w/o Mexican.

Some with Spritz, Mexican and Lime...

And some were Choc Chip instead of Mexican.

For Tangy Lime Cookie's and Famous Amos Choc Chip Cookie's recipe, just click on the links.

Russian Teacakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes (http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/search/label/Cookies)

1 cup (2 stick) of butter - room temperature
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
1 cup of walnuts or other nuts - toasted and finely ground (I toasted almond ground nuts that I bought from Phoon Huat)

For Tossing :1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and creamy. Stir in vanilla.

2. Add in toasted nuts and flour until well combined.

3. Roll dough into a small balls and arrange the cookies into a baking tray about 1/2" apart.

4. Bake cookies in a pre-heated 325 F until golden brown on the bottom and just lightly brown on top. It might take about 20 min (depend on your oven).

5. Cool cookies completely and then roll it in powdered sugar.

Note : If the dough is too soft, chill it in the fridge for an hour before forming it into balls. You can form the cookies into crescent shape.

SPRITZ (http://howtoeatacupcake.net/)

Makes: about 84 cookies Oven: 375 F

1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1.

1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, vanilla, and, if desired, almond extract until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour.

2. Force unchilled dough through a cookie press onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake in a 375 oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm but not browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. If desired, dip tops into icing.

Slice-and-Bake Cookies (http://www.smittenkitchen.com/2007/12/a-slice-and-bake-cookie-palette )

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan, makes about 50 cookies

2 sticks (8 ounces; 230 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour (I swapped ¼ cup of flour for unsweetened cocoa)

Options:
Mix in grated zest of 2 oranges and 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Mix in grated zest of 2 lemons; coat with or mix in 1/4 cup poppy seeds
Mix in grated zest of 2 limes; coat with 1/4 cup cornmeal
Mix in 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots; coat with or mix in 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
Mix in 1/2 cup mini chocolate or peanut-butter chips
Mix in 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger; coat with or mix in 1/4 cup sesame seeds
Swap ¼ cup of flour for unsweetened cocoa
Swap ½ to 1 cup of flour for ground almonds, pecans, hazelnuts or walnuts

1. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until it is smooth. Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and beat again until the mixture is smooth and silky.
Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the salt and any dried fruits, zest, nuts or seeds. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, beating just until it disappears. It is better to underbeat than overbeat at this point; if the flour isn’t fully incorporated, that’s okay just blend in whatever remaining flour needs blending with a rubber spatula.
Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and divide it in half. Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

2. Working on a smooth surface, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 1 to 1 1/4 inches (2.5 to 3.2 cm) thick. (Get the thickness right, and the length you end up with will be fine.)
Wrap the logs in plastic and chill for 2 hours. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days or stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.)

3. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. While the oven is preheating, roll cookie logs in any coatings of your choice.
Then, using a sharp slender knife, slice each log into cookies about 1/3 inch (10 mm) thick. (Blogger: You can make the cookies thicker if you’d like; just bake them longer. Me: I squeezed the dough into a heart shape cutter onto the baking sheet directly.) Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) space between them.

5. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned. Transfer the cookies to cooling racks to cool to room temperature.
Keeping: Packed airtight, the cookies will keep for about 5 days at room temperature, or in the freezer for a month. Unbaked logs can be frozen for longer.

Banana Cupcakes in 2 Loaf Tins

Happy Birthday Pig Head! And 2 loaves full of bananaz for her!

Lucky for me, she prefers banana and cheese to choc. What a relief as I'd run out of ideas for choc cupcakes or cakes alike.

But I was also clueless about the type of banana cakes to bake for her untill I read through one of the many blogs (which I'd forgotten whose) of a banana cupcake recipe.

The blogger was full of praise for the banana cupcakes. And I happened to have that recipe book as well. It was from Crazy About Cupcakes.

Mixing of the mashed bananaz into the creamed butter, sugar and eggs.

The batter after addition of the flours.

To enhance the banana cakes, I added streusel as well.

Half-way thru, I topped the cakes with the streusel.

Tadaaa... the aroma of the bananaz was fantastic!

And the cakes were really soft... too soft to be baked in a loaf tin indeed!

When I was lifting the cake out of the loaf tin to cool on the rack, in my haste, the a small piece tore apart from its bottom. I took it to my mouth and it tasted reeeeaaaallll good!

In order to decorate the cakes, I melted some butter and choc together to coat them 1st.

Banana 1

Banana 1 and 2.

I'd wanted to decorate them with whipping cream, which I bought off the shelf at a supermart. Unfortunately, they melted in less than 5mins. I was so disappointed as I wiped the melted cream off.

My plan didn't pull through so I could only wait till the evening itself just before Pig Head cut the cakes.

Orange's American Choc Cake and X'mas Shortbread

I had a pot luck session cum pre-X'mas gathering with Uni group mates. Well, it also ended up being an early birthday celebration for Orange as well, as it happened that his was 16 Dec. Knowing me, I'll definitely prepare a dish and some bakes for the occasion.
And I'd asked Pig along too.

After much 'flipping' among the choc cake recipes in my hard drive, I chose this American Choc Cake by Cuisine Paradise blogger for its simplicity.

Creaming of the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy, before the addition of the eggs and vanilla essence.

Then the addition of flours and cocoa mixture.

Instead of stirring, I con't to beat at the slowest speed till all flours and cocoa had been incorporated.

Finally, baked in pre-heated oven at 180 Deg C for 15-20mins.

Wala! My first cake that rose, though still not high enough.

Yes! More room for improvement is needed!

Coming to the shortbread now, which I started baking only in the evening.

The shortbread recipe was from Joy of Baking, and I added 1/2 cup of choc chips to the shortbread to enhance the taste.

It took me a pretty long time to cut out the shapes as the dough was too soft. I added more plain flour along with corn flour as I kneaded the dough.

The shortbread cookie turned out crisp yet melted in the mouth once a bite was taken. I made a batch of 56 cookies, mainly because the cookie cutter I used was small. By the time I finished with the last tray, it was 5+am!

With the crockeries waiting in the wash basin, I washed all up till the sun rose. And since I still had that much energy left, I made choc frosting for Orange's choc cake, and crushed and sprinkled the remaining digestive biscuits around the side.

I was so tired when the cake was done, and couldn't go on anymore. Needless say, no writings were on the cake.

American Choc Cake (http://ellenaguan2.blogspot.com/2005/06/american-chocolate-cake.html)

Ingredients for Cake
125g Butter
175g Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
2 Eggs
35g Cocoa Powder
130ml Warm Water
140g Self-Raising Flour

1. Mix in cocoa powder and water. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla essence, beating well after each addition until well combine.
3. Then add in a bit of cocoa mixture and flour slowly until finish.
4. Spoon batter into a 10”X14”X1” cake tin. Bake in preheated oven at 180degree for 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache
100ml Dairy Whipping Cream
125g Dark Chocolate

1. Heat dairy whipping cream until it comes to just under the boil, off the fire and adds in dark chocolate, mix well.
2. Slit cake into 3 layers. Spread ganache over first layer, cover with another layer. Repeat twice. Cover the top with ganache.

Shortbread Cookies (http://www.joyofbaking.com/shortbreads/shortbreadcookies.html)

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

1. In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute).
3. Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. latten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4 inch (.5 cm) thick.
Cut into rounds or whatever shapes you wish using lightly floured cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly brown.
6. Cool on rack.
Shortbread will keep well in an airtight container for about a week or frozen for several months.
Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.(Well maybe for larger cookie cutter)

Author's suggestion to make them more flavorful by adding:
1/2 cup (90 grams) of chocolate chips or cut up semisweet chocolate,
1 tablespoon of instant espresso powder for a coffee taste,
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon,
or 1 tablespoon of finely chopped orange or lemon zest.

The texture of shortbread can also be changed by replacing 1/4 cup (35 grams) of the flour with rice flour to give them a slightly crunchy texture. Or, for a more delicate tasting shortbread with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, replace 1/2 cup (70 grams) of the flour with cornstarch (corn flour).