Happy Father's Day ~ Edible Tree on Green Tea Chiffon Cake

This year's Father's Day is very special as it is the first time my hubby is celebrating in the role of a father. I had wanted to make a simple chocolate banana cake as both ingredients are his favourite. But considering that we are having steamboat at home and usually we will be very full after that, chocolate and banana seems too heavy for after dinner desserts. Moreover, it doesn't sound too healthy for my Dad too.

And so I decided to do a green tea chiffon cake. For fillings, initially I wanted to use red beans as they are known to complement green tea very well. There's no red beans in my pantry but I found a very ripe mango in my fridge so I thought mango and green tea, perhaps that could be a good marriage.

For the decor, I had wanted to do a flower garden look using mango to do flowers. But I already did a mango roses for Mother's Day, plus flowers and Dads do not sound quite right together. Then an idea struck me, how about having a tree in a garden look instead?

Why a tree? Well, I always feel that Dads are like a big tree, strong, resilient, always silently supporting the family. 

With this idea in mind, I went on search for ways to create a edible tree without fondant as I have not work with fondant before. I found this wonderful website with a beautiful edible tree using ingredients that I thought it looked amazing! And keeping my finger crossed, I started on my project of a tree cake!

Green Tea Chiffon Cake Recipe adapted from cookpad.japan

This cake is baked in 6 inch removable base cake pan in my Morris tabletop oven.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake Ingredients:



3 large egg yolks

10g sugar

53g milk
30g oil
1 drop of vanilla extract
57g all-purpose flour
1 tbsp bakeable green tea powder

3 large egg whites

30g sugar

*I have reduced sugar in the recipe as my family tolerance of sweetness is quite low and because I will be frosting the cake, the whipped cream will be sweeten.

How to do:



1. Sift the flour and green tea powder together, set aside for later use

2. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, milk, oil and vanilla extract together.

3. Add in the flour and green tea powder and stir till well-combined.

4. In another clean and greaseless bowl, beat the whites till foamy and add the sugar in.

5. Continue to beat till the meringue mixture becomes white, shiny and attain firm peak.

6. Mix in 1/3 of the meringue to the yolk mixture to thin the mixture.

7. Fold in the remaining 2/3 meringue gently in 2 installments.

8. Pour into the cake pan at one position slowly and shake the pan gently when done to level the cake batter.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 150 degree (on oven thermometer, oven dial shows 130 degree) for 35 min or till the skewer comes out clean.

10. Invert the cake pan and let it completely cool before remove from pan.

I have yet to achieve crackless chiffon cake so here is my smiley chiffon cake!

:: My chiffon cake cracked into a smiley face ::

Once you flip it over, can't see the cracks any more!

:: Green Tea Chiffon as the Cake Base ::

*******

Edible Tree Recipe from Hungry Happenings

I think I didn’t do a great job with the tree as the branches did not hold out very well and the leaves keep dropping as I was molding. So I ended up with a small tree instead of a big one as I imagined it to be.

I have divided the ingredients listed on their website by 6. Change the leaves from popcorn to cornflakes. I have molded the tree trunk around 3 satay sticks so that I can stick into my cake later.

I can’t find candy melts so I used only use chocolate & white chocolate as the ‘glue’. Maybe that is the reason it didn’t stick very well.  

So do visit the Hungry Happenings for detailed instructions and ingredients as the author’s tree is really amazing!

*******

Filling & Frosting Ingredients:

1 mango, cut in cubes

100ml non-diary whipping cream (I use Whip Topping from Redman)

80g of shredded coconut 

Green tea powder

Cocoa powder

Green tea wafer sticks

How to do:

1.  Whip the cream to stiff peak and set aside for later use

      2. Add 2 tbspoon of water to the shredded coconut and mix with some green tea powder until you get the desired green, steam for about 5-10min.

To assemble the cake:



1. Slice the cake into 2 or 3 layer, depending on your preference. I did just 2 layers.

2. Spread the whipped onto the surface of the bottom layer.

3. Place the cubed mango on it and cover with more whipped cream, then the top layer of cake.

4. Cover the side with a thin layer of whipped cream.

5. Arrange the wafer sticks around the cake and tie with a ribbon or twine (I used twine for a more rustic look)

6. Mix the remaining whip cream with some color powder to get a brown color cream to resemble soil color and spread the brown cream on top of the cake.

7. Place the ‘Tree’ onto the cake and sprinkle the ‘grass’ (aka shredded coconut on the ‘soil’

And tadah! My Father’s Day cake is ready!

:: A Special Father's Day Cake ::

Some afterthoughts:

The wafer sticks turn a bit soft after I placed in the fridge for few hours so perhaps replace with sponge fingers next time.

The mango fillings give a very refreshing taste to the green tea chiffon but might be a bit acquired taste for some.

The shredded coconut goes very well with the cake, giving it a very nice fragrance.

The tree is rather heavy, I was worried it might topple on the cake, but luckily it held out very well till cake cutting. Perhaps next time I shall do a denser cake to hold the tree.

My family was rather amazed by my creative and everyone took out their phones to take photo of the cake. And everyone had fun plucking off the leaves and ate them.

I spent a lot of time molding the tree and though it didn’t turn out what I imagine it to be, I am glad I push through and get a decent looking tree. This little effort is nothing compared to the love, care and sacrifices that my Dad and hubby gave for the family.

Thank you, Dad & Dear! Happy Daddy’s Day! You both are simply amazing!

******

I'm joining Best Recipes for Everyone June 2015 Event Theme: Secret of Chiffon & Roll Cakes. Organized and hosted by Fion of XuanHom's Mom Kitchen Diary

Purple Ondeh Ondeh ~ Using Purple Sweet Potatoes

I love Nonya kuehs and ondeh ondeh is one of my favourite! My requirements for good ondeh ondeh are very simple:

1) The skin must be chewy

2) The inside must be of oozing goodness of gula melaka

3) It must not be too sweet

This is my first time attempting ondeh ondeh and I decided to use the recipe from My Mind Patch.

Ingredients:
(made approx 20 mini ondeh ondeh)

100g purple sweet potatoes (steamed & mashed)
90g glutinous rice flour
10g tapioca starch
60g hot water (may require more if dough is too dry)
50g gula melaka

80g grated coconut (I bought chilled packet ones from NTUC)
1 pandan leaf (cut into several pieces)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp water

Just writing down the ingredients for my own record. I am not rewriting the recipe steps as I followed almost everything on the easy to follow recipe in link above. Do visit the website for steps by steps guide.

The slight difference is that I have used purple sweet potatoes so my ondeh ondeh are of a beautiful purple hue.

And for the gula melaka, instead of chopping it, I found it easier to just use a fruit peeler to shave them out.

Also, I picked up the pandan leaf from the grated coconut after steam and throw into the water for boiling the ondeh ondeh. Not sure if that helps to add a tinge of pandan fragrance to it.

The ondeh ondeh turned out fabulous, ticking off all my requirements for a good ondeh ondeh. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

:: Beautiful Purple Ondeh Ondeh ::

:: Oozing Goodness of Gula Melaka ::

Non Bake Mango Cheesecake with Baked Tart Base

Non bake mango cheese cake is really one of the easiest dessert to do. No baking or cooking required. It is also very flexible. For me, I prefer a less pronounce cheeee taste so I add more fruit puree. The end result is a very fruity with tinge of cheese savoury. The texture is creamy, a cross between mousse and ice cream.

:: Non Bake Mango Cheesecake with Tart Base ::

Normally most nonbake cheescake recipe will use crushed digestive biscuits with butter for the base. This time round I use a tart base which requires baking. I personally prefer it as the butter taste is not so strong, but my family prefers the nonbake version. In any case, the ratio for the nonbake base that I used previously digestive biscuit : butter is  2 : 1, means for example, 100g digestive biscuits, use 50g butter. Just crush the biscuits, melt the butter and mix together.

For the baked tart base, please refer to my previous post here, the amount is for 8 tart shells.
I use about 15g of dough for each mini cheesecake and made 12 mini base and left with about 50g of dough. Bake for 12 min in my morris tabletop oven @ 140 degree on knob (160 degree on thermometer).

The recipe for this mango cheese cake is modified from Lirongs.

Ingredients for cheesecake fillings:

100g cream cheese (soften at room temp)
120g mango puree
1tsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp gelatin powder
1 & 1/2 tbsp water
100ml non dairy whipping cream

Optional:
Small mango cubes

How to do:

1. Beat the non dairy whipping cream till firm peak and set aside in the fridge for later use.
2. Place 1 & 1/2 tbsp water in a bowl and sprinkle 1/2 tbsp gelatin powder on top, let it stand for about 10min.
3. Place the bowl in pot of simmering water and stir till fully dissolve and set aside.
4. Cream the cream cheese till smooth (I use a manual hand whisk)
5. Mix the mango puree, lemon juice and gelatin mixture till well-combined.
6. Add the mixture to the cream cheese and mixture till smooth.
7. Finally, combine the whipping cream with the mixture till well mix.
8. Pour into the moulds with the tart base at the bottom and chill in the fridge till the cheese fillings set.

It takes about 3 hours to set in my fridge, but I only remove from moulds the next day (12hrs later) as I want to give them more time to set and firm up.

I did not use any sugar here as my non dairy whipping cream is already slightly sweeten and the mango puree is already quite sweet. If you prefer it to be sweeter, you can add powder sugar to the cream cheese and cream together till it fully dissolves.

If adding the mango cubes, fill the moulds with cheesecake mixture till half full, add in the cubes then fill up the moulds fully. I didn't add in mango cubes but I cut the mango into strips and dress it up like a rose.

:: Pretty Mango Rose on Mini Mango Cheesecake ::

Honey Wholemeal Milk Loaf

I am continuing to experiment with wholemeal bread in hope to make it as healthy as possible.

This is a variation to my 90% wholemeal bread. This time round, I replaced sugar with honey. Honey, I presumed, should be healthier than sugar. I also reduced the amount of salt.

This bread is baked in my Song-Cho Breadmaker.

Ingredients:

270g organic wholemeal flour

30g cake flour

2 + 1/2 tbsp milk powder

2 + 1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

1 large egg

95g milk

75g plain yogurt

How to do:

1. Pour the wet ingredients into the bread barrel 1st, followed by the flour(s) & lastly the yeast.

2. Select menu '5. Sweet' on the breadmaker & press start.

I didn't let the bread proof on the full cycle on my BM as I was checking the state of the bread and when I felt it was ready for baking, I stopped the sweet mode and started the bake cycle.

I am very pleased with this recipe as it yielded what I feel is a perfect loaf of bread - no dented top!

:: Perfect Loaf of Honey Wholemeal Bread ::

:: Slice it up and it is perfect for breakfast ::

:: The wholemeal bread is soft and stays soft till the next day ::

Not only is this bread healthy, it is very yummy too! It is soft with a tinge of honey fragrance.

Very Soft Hokkaido Wholemeal Milk Loaf - using 90% Wholemeal Flour

I am very excited as I am writing this post... My 4th attempt at the Hokkaido Wholemeal Milk Loaf seems to be on its way to success.. It is currently rising high and baking in my Song-Cho Breadmaker.

I thought I have absolutely no luck with this recipe, which Miss B from Everybody Eats Well in Flanders described as the wholemeal bread that can do yoga, as 3 unsuccessful attempts were really disheartening. Let me bring you through my heart-aching journey...

1st attempt
When I first saw this recipe, I was really keen on trying out as I was looking for a wholemeal bread uses almost 100% wholemeal flour. This is all because my parents had switched to eating wholemeal bread to watch their sugar level. But I see the wholemeal bread selling in the market, I am really quite skeptical about the percentage of wholemeal flour that they used in the bread. Whenever I do any recipe for the first time, I always test out recipe by doing half portion so that if it fails, I don't waste too much of the ingredients.  Anyway, it didn't end up well... The bread did not raise at all and was as hard as rock...

2nd attempt
A few days later... I decided to attempt the recipe again.. I thought my first failure was due to my halving of ingredients and this recipe to meant to follow 100%. And so I followed everything in the recipe, BUT history repeated itself... same results...

3rd attempt
A few weeks later... I am still dreaming about this recipe.. so I decided to give it another go... This time I tried the 'Wholemeal' mode on my breadmaker instead of the 'Sweet Bread' mode using 100% recipe. And nope.. the issue is not about the mode used either... I gave up...

A few months passed... during a conversation with a baker friend who used to live in UK, she told me that the wholemeal flour in Singapore is very different from those in UK. Those in UK are very fine.. whereas the ones sold in Singapore are very coarse. We are of course referring the most common wholemeal flour available in supermarket starting with P.

Hm... perhaps it's the wholemeal flour... but I can't seem to get any other brand of wholemeal flour... Finally, just a few days ago, I spotted organic wholemeal flour hiding among the organic items of my neighbourhood supermarket. The flour seems to be as fine as our normal bread flour. Excitedly, I bought it for my 4th attempt!

:: Organic Wholemeal Flour ::

4th attempt
After adding all the ingredients into the breadmaker and starting it, I can see that this time is different. The ingredients quickly formed into a soft, sticky but together dough. During my previous attempt, even after 10 minutes of kneading, it was still a very fluid, shapeless mess.

Recipe adapted from  Everybody Eats Well in Flanders 

This bread is baked in my Song-Cho Breadmaker.

Ingredients:

270g organic wholemeal flour

30g cake flour

2 + 1/2 tbsp milk powder
40g sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 + 2/3 tsp instant yeast

1 large egg (mine was 65g)
110g milk (I used low fat milk)

75g plain yoghurt (original recipe calls for heavy whipping cream)

How to do:

1. Pour the wet ingredients into the bread barrel 1st, followed by the flour(s) & lastly the yeast.

2. Select menu '5. Sweet' on the breadmaker & press start.

And about 2 hours 50 min later...

:: The loaf is ready!! ::

I personally disliked thick bread crust so I wrap my bread barrel with aluminum foil (shiny faced inwards). Thank you this wonderful piece of tip, Miss B!

:: The loaf is ready for cutting :

I could never imagine that a 90% wholemeal flour bread could be this soft.. I am glad I preserve and finally succeed in making this bread. Eating wholemeal bread would never be the same again!

:: Yoga Wholemeal Bread ::

**Update on 19 Jun 2015
Have been using this recipe for quite a few times and my family absolutely loves it!
But then one day, the recipe just stopped working for me. The bread collapsed in the breadmaker when it started to bake.

I suspected that the bread has been overproofed. Not sure why because I use the same ingredients and same baking mode. After a few failures, I decided to manually stop my BM proofing time when I feel that the bread is proof enough and start baking mode. But this will defeat the purpose of using a BM as the whole idea of having a BM is just put everything in and a nice bread comes out at the end of the cycle.

Somehow, the dough feels much warmer in the BM recently. Could it be that the temperature of my BM has somewhat increased?

In any case, I experimented for a few times and now I only use 1 tsp of yeast and this allows me to use the 'sweet' mode on my Song-Cho BM without overproofing the bread.

Apple Crumble Rose Tarts ~ Rose Rose I love you!

After the pretty pretty mango rose, I am addicted to create beautiful rose using fruits. This time round I am creating apple rose to go with one of my favourite dessert ~ apple crumble.

:: My version of apple crumble ~ with apple rose ::

Apple Fillings Ingredients:
(fills 8 tarts shells)

2 red apples

1 green apple 

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 and 1/2 tsp white sugar

2 cup and 2 tbsp water

How to do:

1. Dice the apples and set aside a portion of the diced red apple (approx. 1/2 apple)

2. In my Toshiba rice cooker, add 2 cups of water, lemon juice, and the diced red & green apple and hit the 'cook' button as if cooking rice.

3. By the end of the 'cook' cycle, the apples will be mushy like applesauce.

4. Transfer the applesauce into a saucepan, add the remaining portion of diced red apple and 2 tbsp water.

5. Using medium low heat, further cook the apples till the water has been reduced and the diced red apple slightly soft. Add more water if required to soften the diced apple, be careful not to burn the applesauce.

6. Set aside for later use.

:: Apple sauce with soften diced apple ::

* I used rice cooker to make the apple sauce because I was lazy to watch fire on stove. Rice cooker is very efficient in turning apple into applesauce without burning it.

** I use green apple because I prefer some sourness in my apple crumble

*** Amount of sugar is subjective, depending on individual taste-buds and whether the apples are sweet. Taste and adjust the sweetness accordingly.

 Apple Rose Ingredients:
(makes 8 roses)

2 red apples (*Use the very red apples for a nicer color hue.)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp light brown sugar

1 and 1/2 cup water

How to do:

Check out this video that I had created on how to make the apple rose:

Crumbles Ingredients:

25g salted cold butter, cut into small pieces
45g all-purpose flour

How to do:

1. Press the cold butter into the flour using fingertips till resemble breadcrumbs

*Most recipe I found require 1:1 ratio for butter and flour but I could not get breadcrumbs texture using that ratio so I added more flour.

:: Crumbles should resemble breadcrumbs ::

For the tart shells, I am re-using the recipe for my mango pudding tarts as it is foolproof for me!

Instead of fully bake them, I half baked them before adding the apple fillings & crumbles.

Tart Shell Ingredients:

(makes 8 tart shells)

60g salted butter, softened & cut into small pieces
30g icing sugar
1 large egg yolk 
120g all purpose flour

How to do:

1. Cream the soften butter till it is smooth and pale yellow. I used hand whisk.

2. Add icing sugar and continue to cream till light and fluffy.

3. Add in the egg yolk nd continue to mix till well combined.

4. Sift in the flour in 3 installments, using a spatula, mix well for each addition till the mixture becomes a soft dough.

5. Shape the dough into a cylinder shape, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for about 15 - 20min.

6. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut the dough into 8 equal portion.

7. Shape them into a ball and placed in the tart mould.

8. Press the dough ball in the center against the mould and push it up against the wall till its full height. After baking, the crust will expand slight above the mould and it is easier to remove from the mould.

9. Use a fork to poke holes at the base of the tart shells. This is to prevent the base from rising during baking.

10. Place them in a preheated oven and bake at 150 degree (on my Morris oven dial, real temperature should be about 170 degree) for 5 min.

11. Take out from the oven and set aside.

*DO NOT grease the tart mould, the tart shell can be easily removed with a gentle knock. Greasing the tart mould will cause it to stick to the mould instead.

:: Tart Mould ~ Size 3.5cm base 7cm top::

To assemble:

1. Egg wash the tart shells.

2. Scoop a bit of the apple fillings into the tart shells.

3. Place the apple rose into the center of the tart shell top of the applesauce.

4. Fill the side with more apple fillings.

5. Carefully sprinkle the crumbles onto the apple fillings area.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degree (on my Morris oven dial, real temperature should be about 170 degree) for another 15-20 min or till the tart shell & crumbles are browned.

:: Just can't get enough of my pretty tarts ::