Sachertorte

I came to know about Sachertorte from one of my baking books. But the photos and the description in the books were not convincing enough to make me want to bake this special cake. When I was in Hanoi, an architect friend treated us to this desert bought from Metropole (can't seem to find anything on this bakery online)...the cake tasted delicious, it was light and tasty, not too sweet even though with the generous amount of jam in the cake. The cake was so yummy that it made me want to bake one on my own.

I tried following the recipe from the books...but, it turned out nothing like the one I tasted. The cake was dense (I think it was supposed to be dense, as described in Wikipedia...funny that the one I tasted in Hanoi was so light!) and the jam made the cake too sweet.

I didn't want to waste the effort I put into making the cake, hence, decorated the cake with some X'mas figurines for the festive season...

Blackforest Cake

This was a super long overdue post, I actually had great photos taken by *hubs* for this cake....was too busy to transfer the photos from the desktop at home. It took me two days to bake and decorate the cake. Oh ok...not two whole days, but two whole evenings.

The recipe below, was taken from one of those baking magazine...err, can't remember exactly which celebrity chef it was..yeah, I did not want to buy the magazine just for the sake of this recipe. Already had a number of baking books, but this recipe was simple enough for me to want to make this cake. Credits to the chef....I love your recipe!



I omitted the blueberry filling though, added some cherry syrup to compensate for it. The cake turned out to be moist and tasted just like the store bought ones...hehe...sis said that it's the best tasting and best looking cake of all the ones I've been making. Actually, a number of them turned out to be a disaster...one was too sweet, others were too dense, too oily, too blend and too crumbly.

Also opted to use fresh cherries instead of glazed ones for a more natural flavour. But, the fresh cherries were sour and so expensive...will have to use glazed ones next time.....

A slice of blackforest cake anyone?

No Bake Granny Apple Cheesecake

Had 3 small Granny Apples left in my fridge and did not know else what to do with them. Been drinking apple juice for the past 2 weeks...yeah, they were too sour to eat, had to mix with some carrot juice.

Mum's birthday was around the corner and I've always wanted to make her a non-bake cheesecake. Just didn't know what flavour to do, already made blueberry, strawberry and Oreos....wanted to try something new. Found a recipe online but it was with eggs and ground cinnamon....didn't want any of these in the cake so I omitted them and modified the recipe a little...Granny Apple Cheesecake

Crust:
6 pieces Digestive biscuits
1/4 cup peanut butter, melted

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well. Press firmly into a 8-inch springform pan( I used loose bottom type). Chill for 1 hour.

Apple-Cheese Filling:
1 tbsp gelatine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
500 gms Philly cream cheese
100 gms non diary whipped cream
2 large Granny Smith apples, pared, cored
and chopped into cubes (2 cups)

In a medium saucepan, combine gelatine with 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in milk and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until gelatine dissolves. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually beat in gelatine mixture. Stir in apple cubes. Chill, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon.

In a small bowl, whip non diary cream with icing sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into apple-cheese mixture. Pour into prepared pan. Chill overnight or 8 to 12 hours until firm.

The cake turned out to be a bit wobbly, tasted weird at first (first time tasting chilled apple cheesecake, not sure what to compare to) but the recipe's definitely a keeper.

More Rice Cooker Cake - Lemon Poppy Seed

Felt like eating cake the whole week and since I had a lemon in the fridge, decided to make a lemon poppy seed one. The recipe was from Panasonic's Orange Butter Cake (list of recipes from Happyhomemaker88's). I substituted the orange juice with lemon. Added 1 tbsp poppy seeds just before transferring into the cooker to bake.


It tasted rather sour the first bite but after that it was pretty appetizing. As seen, the cake is a little flat...didn't exactly rise properly but tasted just fine and moist.

Fa Gao and others...

Fa Gao made with Milo....recipe adopted and improvised from Lily's, but they tasted a little hard and weird...no wonder I don't see any recipe using Milo for cakes...


Double chocolate chip cake with chocolate sauce, recipe from Panasonic's rice cooker cake...


Funky fondant deco for sis's birthday cake....sis helped make her own piggy and roses...hehe...

Banana Yogurt Cake with Fondant Icing

The cake was baked using a rice cooker....not just any normal rice cooker but one with cake baking function from Panasonic, comes with some cake recipes too!


Decided to try out the banana yogurt one because it sounded delicious....turns out quite yummy alright : )


Been wanting to make fondant icing for a long time but did not have the chance to. Since I was already spending time making the cake, might as well do the icing too...found this simple fondant recipe online (can't remember which site tho...copied it last year)

*Simple Fondant*

Ingredients :

15g powdered gelatine

60ml water

10ml liquid glucose

500g cup icing sugar

Method :

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a bowl and soak for 2 minutes.
2. Place the bowl in a pan of hot water and dissolve over very gentle heat.
3. Remove and add the glucose.
4. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the gelatin mixture.
5. Combine and then knead to a smooth paste.

This icing can be used for modeling decorations as well as covering a cake.

Makes enough to cover a 20cm round cake

And here's the end result...had to throw away most of the fondant tho. Too much sugar's no good but it tasted really good with the cake *all smiles*

For The Love of Deserts

Ipanema from Starbucks for RM 8.50++....very chocolaty indeed but a little too tiny for it's price...goes well with a cup of freshly brewed coffee...


Some of my favourite flavours from Big Apple...*yumx2* I want more!


Raspberry cheesecake from Secret Recipe @ RM 70.00++....yep, birthday gift from Honey...

In The Mood For...Chinese New Year!

Saw this lion dance while doing last minute grocery shopping...


Spent an entire week in Malacca...New Year's mood in Jonker's Street as seen below...every street was filled with cars and people...so joyous unlike in KL....


Also learned something new this year...picture of ' fa gao' on 'nian gao' (prosperity cake on sticky cake) with a cute meaning...'nian-nian fa' (Prosperity every year!)

Just Fruits...

Attempted to make a cake out of fruits for my dad's birthday....actually, there's no cake...just fruits!



But the wordings in m&m's chocolate failed miserably. Melted blue liquid...*sigh* Shall not use coloured sugar coated chocolates again....