Baking Weekend Again

This is blood orange and it's in season now. So pretty with the red tinge and so sedap too. It is slightly different in taste than the normal ones. Yang ini rasa dia sweet with a subtle hint of raspberry. Since I'm trying out the traditional German cheese cake with quark (a soft fresh unripened cheese only mainly available in Germany and Austria with the texture and flavour of sour cream, milder flavour but richer texture than low fat yoghurt) instead of cream cheese wherein the crust is very lemony, so blood orange slices and coulis were used to complement the cake. The verdict....Syirah didn't quite like the cheese cake as much as she likes the normal American version. Hakeem loves it eating 2 slices in one sitting. As for me....it's ok, it's definitely lighter as low fat quark was used.

The recipe is from dianasdessert.com and the link is here :-

http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2244/Recipe.cfm

GERMAN CHEESE CAKE Ingredients: Crust: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder A pinch of salt 2 teaspoons vanilla-sugar 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind 1 egg, beaten 1/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 stick (7 tbsp/3 1/2 oz/100g) butter Filling: 3 egg yolks 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla-sugar 3/4 stick (7 tbsp/3 1/2 oz/100g) butter, very soft and at room temperature 6 oz. heavy cream (I used normal whipping cream) 17 oz. (500g) Quark - A light yogurt type cream cheese* (see note below for Quark substitutions, if needed) 1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch 3 egg whites Pinch of salt

Instructions: For the Crust: Sift the flour, stir in the baking powder, salt, vanilla-sugar, lemon peel and sugar, then rub in the butter and knead to a smooth consistency with the egg. Place dough in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 C). You will need a 9 or 9 1/2-inch springform pan. Roll out the dough on a well-floured work surface, then form it into a ball again and roll it out a second time. Place dough in bottom of a 9 or 9 1/2-inch springform pan, pressing it up the sides almost to the top. Set aside. For the Filling: Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla-sugar until pale and foamy. Add the softened butter and beat well, then add the heavy cream and beat again. Add the quark and stir until the mixture is smooth and throughly combined. Whisk the egg whites with the salt until very stiff, then very gently fold in the quark mixture, also adding the sifted cornstarch a little at a time. Pour the filling into the crust shell and gently wobble the pan back and forth until the surface is smooth. Trim the dough, leaving about 1 inch (2 1/2 cm). Bake in preheated 300 degrees F (150 C) oven for 50 to 60 minutes (longer if necessary) until well risen and golden - it resembles a souffle at this point (It will sink in the middle quite dramatically - don't worry, it's supposed to do this). Turn the oven off, and let the cheesecake rest in the oven for 15 minutes; then remove it from the oven, cool for an hour or so at room temperature, and refrigerate for several hours before releasing sides of pan and serving. This cheesecake is very nice served with sliced strawberries, or a raspberry sauce. (I used blood orange slices and sauce) Keep cheesecake stored in the refrigerator, covered. *Note: There are 3 substitutions that can be used for the Quark in this recipe if Quark is not available. One is to use farmer’s cheese, another is to purée cottage cheese in a blender or food processor, and the third is to purée eight parts of ricotta cheese with 1 part of sour cream in a food processor.

Also tried Wiz Eggless, Butterless, Healthy, Your Heart Would Love You For It Strawberry Pie. As what she described the chocolate custard is unbelievable....smooth dark and sexy sliding down your throat. I like it best with mixed berries as the sweetness of the custard combines well with the sourness of the berries. I had a slight problem with the crust though. I measured 2 full metric cups of flour and when I've added the wet ingredients, it was kinda dry still and couldn't be clumped into a ball of dough. I've probably put too much flour. So what I did was increased the milk and oil mixture but I don't know if this alters the taste. Next time must try with smaller cups of flour. For a diet pie this recipe is a keeper. Thanks for sharing Ija!

Eggless, Butterless, Healthy, Your Heart Would Love You for It Strawberry Pie

Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt of rock salt

2 tablespoons of cold milk mixed with 1/2 cup of canola oil.

1.Whisk together dry ingredients in a small bowl.

2.In another bowl, mix the oil and milk and beat till frothy.

3.Add the wet ingredients slowly to the dry ingredients and knead until a ball of dough is formed. . You may need extra flour or maybe less for this. Dough should be soft

4.Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

5.After the dough is rested, take it out and press it onto your pie plate evenly. (I rolled it out first)

The dough is perfect for an 8 inch pie plate.

6.Bake till it is golden brown for 20 to 25 minutes. (I baked at 175 degrees, some people bakes with dry beans or rice as pie weights but I didn't )

Filling

1/2 cup of sugar

3 level Tablespoon of cocoa powder

4 level Tablespoon of cornflour

1 1/2 cup of Low Fat Milk

1 Tablespoon of golden syrup(if you don't have you can omit this.)

1/2 cup of yogurt

1/2 teaspoon of rock salt (I used normal salt)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.Put sugar, cocoa powder, cornflour and salt into a pot and mix well.

2.On a slow fire, pour the milk, the golden syrup, yogurt and vanilla and whisk until all is incorporated and thick. Do not leave the custard unattended as lumps would be formed. If this happens you may want to beat it using an electric mixer to smooth out the mixture. Once it has thickened, remove it from the heat and straight away spread it onto the pie crust and leave it to set in the fridge.

3.You can top the pie with fruits of your choice , with crushed toasted pecans or have it plain. (I used mixed berries - blueberries, raspberries and strawberries)

I had leftover chocolate custard so had it in a glass layered with strawberry yoghurt and berries...Yumms!

At the end of the rainbow is....

In this case it's not a pot of gold but €50. The school football team will be participating in a tournament in Milan in June and the boys nak collect duit so that the total cost that parents have to pay will be less. Hence they decided to hold a bake sale in school on the Parents Teachers Conference Day when many parents will be in school meeting the teachers to talk about the kids progress...macam hari ambil report card la lebih kurang. Esok nak jual, tengahari baru cakap "Mama...tolong buatkan Rainbow Cake malam ni boleh tak?". Of course mama said ok sebab Mama always have the baking bug malam-malam. Kelenting kelentong in the kitchen until the late hours of the night. Abah dah jeling2x coz he hates it having to go up alone. Imran said he will help but the only thing he did was perah 2 biji lemon...itu ajer tapi dia tolong teman Mama sampai kek siap dekat pukul 1 pagi. So ok la tu.

When the cake dah siap Imran cakap..."Alamak...mcm cake budak kecik ler Mama" coz there was a rainbow of candies sitting on beds of marshmallows. Mama cakap alaaahhhh....ni yang akan buat orang notice the cake, acting like a teaser to the surprise inside. Dia pun bawak la esok pagi nyer pergi sekolah. Kedai depa bukak pukul 12 and they started to sell a piece of cake for €2.50. Then when piece by piece were sold in the blink of an eye the boys got their entrepreneural hat on and upped the price. Dari €2.50 sepotong dah jadi €5.00 sepotong...and.....akibat kreative terlampau, they charged €3 for half a slice. The whole cake was sold out in less than an hour. And they managed to raise €50 just from the sale of one smallish sized Rainbow Cake.

So now, they want to have more Rainbow Cakes at their next bake sale. Macam ni Mama will charge her cost plus some profit la macam ni for penat lelah and kelecehan nak bake the cake layer by layer. Maybe boleh include some Whoppie Pies, popiah and karipap in the next bake sale too. Buat yang gigantic ones with boiled eggs added with the meat filling boleh jual at €2 kut. Kalau bawa Asian finger food like these two memang akan habis coz they love Asian food. Sushi tu tok sah cakap la, they will berkerumun beli from the Japanese mothers and sekejap jer dah habis.

This perfect party cake recipe from Dorie Greenspan is suitable for a rainbow cake. I saw it being adapted to a rainbow cake on Elissa's blog http://17andbaking.com/2009/07/16/rainbow-pride-party-cake/. It's tangy and doesn't have the jelak taste later. The frosting too is fresh with a lemony zing without the use of icing sugar.

RAINBOW CAKE

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cup sugar (I reduced to 1 cup only)

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Food coloring

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and put a rack in the middle or upper third of the oven. Butter two 9″x13″ glass pans and line with buttered parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg whites and buttermilk.

Cream the butter, zest, and sugar in a mixer on medium speed for a full 3 minutes until very light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon extract, then add 1/3 of the flour mixture, still on medium speed.

Beat in half of the egg-buttermilk mixture, then half of the remaining flour mixture, then the last of the egg-buttermilk mixture, and finally the last of the flour, beating until the batter is smooth. Beat the entire batter on medium high for two minutes until completely smooth and mixed.

Divide the batter in two (it’s about 6 cups total batter.) Dye each batter a different color of the rainbow and scrape into the two pans.

Bake 20 minutes, rotating halfway through, or until a thin knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the pans five minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. To ensure moistness, once the cakes are cooled, wrap immediately and chill.

BUTTERCREAM
• 1 CUP SUGAR
• 4 LARGE EGG WHITES
• 3 STICKS (12 OUNCES) UNSALTED BUTTER, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 1/4 CUP FRESH LEMON JUICE (FROM 2 LARGE LEMONS)
• 1 TEASPOON PURE VANILLA EXTRACT

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.

Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

Assembling the cake

Cut baking papers into strips and place under the cake. Set the purple layer in the bottom. Spread with a small amount of melted jam, then a small amount of cream.

Top with the blue layer. Spread again with jelly, then a small amount of buttercream. You want very thin layers of buttercream, just enough to cover the cake. Repeat with the remaining layers, spreading each with jelly and alternating between and buttercream.

Wipe excess filling off the sides. Cover the entire cake with buttercream. Some people make a first layer of frosting (a crumb coat) and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Then they frost the entire cake and decorate accordingly to one's taste.

Hakeem's First Cake

Hakeem has for a long time been interested in cooking but we never layan coz he's too young yet to be meddling in the kitchen cooking. We don't mind if this is his chosen career nanti but it's still early days so we shall see where this leads to. At first we just let him help out with the preparation which he said ...borrringggg. His first attempt was making mushroom omellete which he did brilliantly. Then since last week he has been pujuking Mama nak buat cake pulak. So when he found a Puffle cake recipe in his favourite Disney Club Penguin website, dia pun merengek nak buat jugak2x.

Natives to the wild Club Penguin, puffles are small, round furry creature. Several different species have been discovered and each colour has its own unique personality. The Blue Puffle that Hakeem chose is mild tempered, content and loyal...just like him! The other colours are red (adventureous), pink (active and cheery) , black (strong and silent) ,green (energetic and playful). yellow (artistic),purple (happy), white (gentle), orange (curious) and brown (super smart but errrr....dia ni takut belon!).

The recipe looks dodgy but we just let him try it just for the fun of it. Surprisingly the cake turned out very nice and moist although a bit on the heavy side. he sure was one happy boy the day he made the cake.

PUFFLE CAKE

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

2 cups self-raising flour

1 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup cake icing in your favourite puffle colour

1/4 cup white icing

Food colouring

Directions:

Mix the sugar, eggs and flour in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in a microwave then slowly stir in the milk. Add this to the mixture.

Grease a 9-in pan. Pour the mixture into the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake looks done. Let it cool.

Cover the cake and leave in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, cut small pieces out of the cake to make it look like the puffle's hair.

Frost the cake with your favourite puffle colour. Don't forget to use white icing for the eyes.

Done! Enjoy with friends and family!