Pistachio Marble Pound Cake

This is for all the pound cake lovers out there. I fail to track the number of pound cake recipes I had worked through Tish Boyle's The Cake Book. I think very soon, I would find myself baking through the whole Cake Book - it is just so reliably good.





This recipe is modified from Tish Boyle's Rich Marble Pound Cake With Chocolate Glaze. I have chosen to skip the frosting and keep it simple. I have also chosen to marble it with a pistachio flavoured batter rather than the chocolate one featured in her book.


The effect is quite lovely as I had imagined. In place of the dark brown swirl, the jade green marbling instantly brightens the otherwise plain pound cake and makes it look... brand new. Talk about a cake-makeover!

I am going to keep this post short as I am rushing to tie things up before I leave for my travels again. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the pound cake!

Rich Pistachio Pound Cake

Recipe

342g/3cups Cake Flour
2tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
500g/1.5cups Castor sugar, divided (Please reduce this to 300g- original recipe is too sweet)

20g Natural cocao powder (I replaced this with 50g Pistachio paste)
90ml Water

340g/3sticks Unsalted butter

1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
5 large Eggs
120ml (1/2cup) Whole milk

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 325F/ 190C. Grease the inside of a 10inch bundt pan and dust with flour.
2. Sift Cake flour, baking powder and salt and set it aside.
3. In a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter at medium speed for 2 minutes until creamy.
4. Add sugar and continue to cream for 4 mins at medium to high speed.
5. Add vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time and mix at medium speed until well mixed.
6. Add sifted flour mixture in 3 additions and alternating it with 2 additions of milk.
7. Mix cocoa powder with water in a small bowl. Add 3 cups of the batter to the cocoa mixture and stir until blended. (I added my pistachio paste here instead of the cocoa mixture)
8. Spoon 1/3 of plain batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth it to an even layer. Spoon 1/3 of the chocolate (pistachio) mixture over the plain layer and smooth to even out. Repeat until all batter is used up finishing with the chocolate layer.
9. Bake at 190C for 60-75mins or until the skewer comes out clean.

Mocha Kuih Lapis

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I say, I am becoming quite good at this! This is my third Lapis and all three times, they have turned out deliciously successful.
The first two cakes were baked during Chinese New Year. The strangest compliment I've received was when a friend told me that my Lapis was really good because her dog had liked it.....  Apparently, Snowy her dog, has extremely discerning taste. She would not just eat anything given to her and apparently she loves buttery desserts.... I am not an animal person so I have no idea whether that is normal.



Back to the Lapis. I baked this again because my father's 76 year old Malay doctor friend had been refusing to charge him when he went to see him for a skin condition. My father had been unwilling to go back for a follow up session because he knew the doctor is not going to charge him again. ( For those who are not familiar - this is an Asian thing. We feel indebted when we receive free things from friends.)  To force my father to go back to the clinic again, I volunteered to present the doctor with a Lapis when we go back again.

To be quite honest, at one point, I did wonder if it would be appropriate to present a 76 year old man with a cholesterol laden sweet but I went ahead with it anyway because, the Lapis is generally perceived as an indulgent treat and is extremely popular with the Malays (and non-Malays alike).  In fact, I have not met anyone, who does not enjoy the Lapis.

Coincidentally I saw Rima's gorgeous Mocha Lapis post last week. It was the most perfect lapis I have ever seen in my life. The texture looked exceptionally gorgeous. I was literally brimming with excitement until I saw the recipe.... The 9 inch cake uses 45 egg yolks, almost 1kg of butter and a mind whopping amount of sugar. I baulked and chickened out.

I decided to take a few elements from Rima's recipe and came up with a modified, recipe.
I am still extremely pleased with the texture of this Lapis and I hope with more practice, my lapis would one day look as good as Rima's.

Mocha Kuih Lapis

Recipe : 
(makes a 8″ square)
375g      butter
1            vanilla pod
180g      full cream condensed milk
5            whole eggs
12          egg yolks
200g      fine sugar
3g          baking powder
130g      cake flour
20g        butter milk powder (you can substitute this with milk powder)
2tbsp      mocha emulco
1tbsp      cocao powder
Method
1. Preheat oven to 230 C using the normal top and bottom heat to heat up the entire oven. If your oven has grill function with temperature control, use that.  
2. Line the bottom of a 8″ square pan. 
3.Cream butter, vanilla seed (scraped from vanilla pod) and condensed milk together until light and fluffy. Set this aside.
4. Beat eggs, egg yolks, sugar and baking powder together until ribbon stage.  Add the butter from (3) into the egg mixture and continue to beat at high speed.
6. Sift flour and fold into the batter.
7. Divide batter into 2 portions. Add mocha emulco and cocoa powder into one portion. Mix well to combine.
8. Heat the empty cake pan in the oven for 2 mins. 
9. Remove pan from oven and spread a portion of batter in the pan. (Measure your batter for every layer to ensure that your layers will be even) Level batter with a spatula and grill for 3 mins or until dark brown. 
10. Remove from oven, press cake layer to remove excess air. Spread another portion of batter, level it and grill for 3 mins or until dark brown. 
11. Repeat 9 and 10 (alternating 3 layers of plain batter with 3 layers of mocha layer) until the batter is finished. 

Jam Topping Sponge Cake

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When I was growing up, cakes did not look anything like what we see today - we almost never saw anything with fresh cream and one can totally forget about intricate entremets. What we had then were rustic, simple and predictable. I recall that we would always look forward to marriage celebrations among family friends, waiting for the day when they would personally deliver the red invitation card and the box of engagement cake. Yes, those were strange times when the bride/ groom family would be running around distributing dozens of boxes of cakes and wedding invitation cards. Depending on how close one is to the family, one may get either one or two boxes of wedding cakes.



The contents of those cake boxes were almost always the same- typically an assortment of 10 slices of sponge cakes frosted with delicious butter cream. Some would be crusted with chocolate rice, others would be dotted with colourful jams.  Quite often, the ones with chocolate would get snapped up first after which we would reach for those topped with jams... The tradition has become simplified over the years. Nobody runs around distributing cakes on their engagement day anymore. Instead these have been replaced by cake vouchers which one can redeem from the bakery stores.


When I spotted these in Alex Goh's Creative Making Of Cakes, I knew that I would have to make these just  to revisit childhood nostalgia. My cake is not completely the same as what we used to have.The sponge cake is more refined, the butter cream is fluffier and lighter and the jam tasted less artificial than what I used to have 30 years ago...(even though I tried to buy the cheapest jam I could find off the supermarket shelf) but it still managed to give me flash backs of those pink floral cake boxes tied with raffia ribbon and those lacquered red invitation cards...gosh, I have not seen those in ages!

If you are from the same era as I am, you will love this. Memories are the world's most potent ingredients...


Jam Topping Cake  (Adapted From Alex Goh's Creative Making of Cakes)
Recipe 
(A)
150g                Sugar ( A tad sweet, I would reduce this to 120g next time)
15g                  Cake Emulsifier
(B)
5                      Eggs
130g                Flour
1tsp                  Baking powder
(C)
40ml                 Water
(D)
85g                   Melted butter
Desiccated coconut
Strawberry jam
Butter cream for frosting. I used left over butter cream from here.

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190C. Mix (A) until well blended in a mixing bowl. Add (B) into the same bowl and start to whisk with balloon whisk until thickened.
2. Add (C) and continue to whip until light and fluffy. (ribbon stage - with the help of the cake emulsifier, this can be achieved very quickly and it stays very stable)
3. Fold in (D) and mix till well blended.
4. Pour the batter into a 12 inch square tin lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake at 190C for 20mins.
6. Remove from oven. Lift cake out of baking pan (so you should cut the parchment paper such that it overflows and allow you to grip the edges to lift the cake out of the tin) and leave to cool on a wire rack.
7. Peel off parchment paper when cake is completely cooled. Cut into 2 equal slices.
8. Sandwich  the 2 slices together with butter cream.
9. Using a 3 inch round cutter and cut the cakes into rounds. (alternatively, you can just slice into rectangular slices which will reduce wastage)
10. Coat the outside of the rounds with butter cream and cover with desiccated coconut.
11. Pipe a ring of butter cream at the top of the cakelet. Fill center with your favourite jam.

Coffee Swiss Roll

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The swiss roll, I believe, is one cake that will never cease to intimidate me. At one point, I used to bake this everyday, just so that I could get enough practice to get it right. There are 3 components to the process of baking a Swiss Roll- getting the sponge base to behave; preparing the filling and rolling the cake to achieve a neat pinwheel roll.

I have struggled many times with the sponge base. As basic as it may be, the sponge is possibly the least attempted cake genre in my baking repertoire. Butter cake, pound cake and even chiffon had often claimed preference over the humble sponge. In particular, I am absolutely terrified of the Genoise sponge - often the very first lesson in any baking course. I recall a basic genoise sponge baking class where we were required to hand whisk the eggs (no kitchenaid!) to ribbon stage. My cake turned out dry, coarse and crumbly. Subsquent attempts on the Genoise did not yield any spectacular results... dryness and coarseness are the usual issues. Subsequently, I avoided the Genoise totally and worked only with the souffle sponge (where egg yolks and whites are whisked separately).

So why have I returned to the genoise for this recipe? Laziness, plain old laziness. The genoise sponge uses a simpler process which does not require the eggs to be beaten separately. I felt this time, my eggs were whisked almost just right. The air cells of the cake, as expected is not as fine as the souffle sponge but at least this time, the texture remained soft and tender. It did not dry out on me even without the use of syrup - which is important- for a dried out sponge will be impossible to roll up.
When paired with the coffee flavoured Swiss Meringue buttercream, this cake was not shabby at all.
What I would do to improve this next time? Whisk the eggs at a lower speed to minimise the air cells in the cake.... and then, maybe I can claim victory over the Genoise sponge and move on to Lesson 2 in baking class... :)


Coffee Swiss Roll
Recipe : (Adapted from Kuru kuru Roll Cake)
Sponge
3               Whole eggs
1                Egg yolk
80g            Castor sugar
80g            All purpose flour

20g            Butter melted
30ml          Milk
1tbsp         Instant coffee powder

Butter Cream

75g            Egg white
70g            Castor sugar
Pinch         Salt

225g          Unsalted butter
1tsp            Vanilla Extract
2tsp            Instant Expresso powder

Method :
Sponge:
1. Line a 30cmx30cm cake pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Place eggs and egg yolk in a bowl with sugar and whisk over a water bath until sugar is completely dissolved and eggs become foamy. Remove from heat. (Take care not to rest the bowl on the boiling water)
3. Continue whisking the egg yolks using a stand mixer at medium speed until ribbon stage is reached. (at this point, when a figure 8 is drawn with the egg foam, it should clearly retain its mark and not disappear into the batter)
4. Sieve flour over the egg batter and fold with a spatula to incorporate.
5. Mix butter, milk and coffee powder together and add to (4). (warming the liquid mixture will make it easier to incorporate with the batter)
6. Fold carefully from bottom up to incorporate liquid with batter.
7. Pour batter into lined baking tray. Spread out batter evenly with a scraper.
8. Gently tap the baking tray a few times to release trapped big bubbles.
9. Bake at 200C for 12mins.
10. Remove tray from oven and lift cake from baking tray onto a wire rack. Place the whole cake on the rack into a big plastic bag to cool. (This will help to prevent cake from drying out)

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream
1. Place egg whites, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk egg whites over a water bath until sugar and salt completely dissolves.
2. Remove from heat and continue whisking the egg whites using a stand mixer.
3. Whisk at low speed and gradually increase speed. Whisk the egg whites until glossy and firm peaks are formed. (The meringue should cool down by then)
4. Lower mixing speed and add butter in spoonfuls until smooth and fluffy.
5. Mix coffee powder with vanilla extract and add to (4).
6. Change balloon whisk to paddle and continue mixing for another 10mins at low speed to deaerate the cream.

Assembly :
1. Remove liner paper on sponge cake.
2. Place sponge sheet on a sheet of parchment paper with the baked face facing upwards. Spread/pipe butter cream over sponge sheet and roll the cake up like a sushi roll, tucking in the ends with a ruler.
With the cake still wrapped in parchment paper, chill until cake form is firmed up.
3. Slice and serve. 

Bourke Street Bakery's Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Muffins

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Left with half a quart of Buttermilk from the last buttermilk pound cake, I had to quickly identify another recipe to deplete the not so cheap diary ingredient before it turns rancid. Also with the extended Christmas to Chinese New Year holiday mood over, it is time for me to dive into my full time job - yes, the one that pays for my bread and butter.. literally! Hence I desperately can only afford to spend time on a quick and easy recipe that hopefully still tastes good enough to be shared.

To my rescue is Bourke Street Bakery's Ultimate Baking Companion. Apart from Tish Boyle's Cookbooks, this is another one of the few cookbooks that I trust whole heartedly with my eyes closed.
Touted as the most popular muffins sold at Bourke Street Bakery, this is an easy, no-Kitchenaid-mixer-required kind of recipe. The down to earth simplicity brought me back to those early formative years when I did not own even a handheld mixer. It was really after I had a few easy successes with muffins that I was motivated to get a Kitchenaid mixer... from then onwards, I graduated to frosted cupcakes and had never looked back since.

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of more fancy baked goods, I had turned somewhat snooty at the humble muffins - dismissing them as too easy for 'my developed skill sets'.... yes, we can lose ourselves amidst fluffy clouds of meringue and silky smooth butter cream... The best way to be brought back to the earthiness of being would be to keep companions like Tish Boyle and Bourke Street close to you. Life can be simple and great ...and at most times, simplicity is enough.

Utterly moist and tender, this muffin achieves its lovely texture through the generous incorporation of butter, buttermilk and fresh succulent raspberries. I could literally feel a gush of hot steam rushing out of the oven when I opened the oven door.
The generous amount of dark chocolate used in the recipe would also delight chocolate lovers.

My Australian colleague had told me that their mixed berry muffins were outstanding but I bet he had not yet tasted these Dark Chocolate Raspberry muffins.


Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Muffins (From Bourke Street Bakery)

Ingredients:
400g (2 2/3 cups)           All purpose flour
2 tsp                               Baking powder
300g (10.5oz)                Caster sugar
310g (11oz)                   Unsalted butter
480ml (16 3/4 fl oz)       Butter milk
3                                    Eggs
225g (8oz)                     Dark chocolate (55% cocoa) roughly chopped
225g (8oz)                     Raspberries
55g (1/4 cup)                 Raw Demerara sugar
Icing sugar for dusting

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 190C (375F) . Line 2 large 6-hole muffin tins with liners.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and add sugar. Mix well to combine.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the butter milk.
Add in eggs one at a time to combine.
4. Pour (3) over the flour. Whisk to combine. Fold in chocolates and raspberries.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin liners.
6. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar. Reduce the oven to 180C (350F) and bake for 25-30mins.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10mins before eating. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Tish Boyle's Cinnamon Swirl ButterMilk Pound Cake

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I can hear you YAWN..... yes, yet another one of Tish Boyle's pound cake. Pound cakes are hopelessly boring to bake (translated to mean EASY!) achingly uninspiring to photograph... but always satisfying to eat.... After trying out her Luxe Pound Cake and Plainly Perfect Pound Cake, Tish Boyle beckons once more with her claim that this is a 'sure fire bake sale hit' . Are you going to ignore that claim?? Not me!

Thanks to the ButterMilk, this is more moist than the Plainly Perfect Pound Cake. The little citrus hint from the orange zest took backstage to the crumbly cinnamon flavoured streusel that is swirled throughout the cake - great flavour and texture to the otherwise, plain pound cake.


I gave out 4 thick slices of these to my neighbour. They came back within 10mins, all wide eyed to tell me that the cake was VERY NICE! So, I guess, Tish Boyle wasn't exaggerating when she said that these are 'sure fire bake sale hit'.

If I were to bake this again, I would most likely use a bundt pan and give the streusal a more energetic swirl to create a more distinct pattern. Otherwise, there is very little else I could ask from this recipe. It is honestly, plainly outstanding. Book mark this for your next bake-sale event!


Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake 
Recipe : (From Tish Boyle's The Cake Book)

Cinnamon Streusel Swirl
1/2 cup (60g)             All purpose flour
1/3 cup (72g)             Firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp                        Ground Cinnamon
Pinch of sale
3 tbsp(42g)                Unsalted butter melted

Buttermilk Pound Cake
2 cups (242g)            All purpose flour
1/2 cup (57g)            Cake flour
1 tsp                          Baking powder
1/4tsp                        Baking soda
1/4 tsp                       Salt
1/8 tsp                       Ground cardamom
1cup (227g)              Unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400g)            Castor sugar (I used 340g)
3 large                       Eggs
2 tsp                          Vanilla Extract
1 tsp                          Finely grated orange zest
1cup (240ml)            Butter Milk

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 170C / 325F. If using a bundt pan, grease the inside of a 10inch bundt pan with butter  and dust it with flour. I used a loaf pan and lined it with baking paper.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients of the Cinnamon swirl. Add the melted butter and stir until blended and crumbly.

3. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.

4. Using a paddle attachment, cream butter for 2 mins at medium speed in a mixer until very creamy. (2mins) Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating at medium high speed until pale and light. (4mins)

5. At medium speed, add in eggs one at a time and mix to incorporate eggs well.

6. Add vanilla extract and orange zest. Add in the flour in 3 portions, alternating it with milk (2 additions). Mix until just combined.

7. Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the batter. Scrape the remaining batter on top and smooth it into an even layer.

8. Bake the cake for 65 to 75mins, until the cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

9. Cool the cake for 15 mins before turing out the cake to cool completely.

Prune Kueh Lapis - Spekkoek

I do not remember eating this during Chinese New Year when I was young. In fact, I do not remember ever eating this during my early schooling days.... Then one day, it found its way into our household, and we've never been without it during Chinese New Year ever since... Initially, this (as with many other rare treats like,Bakwa, barbecued minced meat) was regarded as a special once a year Chinese New Year only treat. We would normally purchase this from the neighbourhood bakery which would only offer this during the CNY festival. Then, bakeries like Bengawan Solo which specialises in local kuehs and tarts started to expand aggressively and the kueh lapis became more accessible.

The cake which evolved from the Dutch Butter cake in Indonesia during the Dutch colonisation days,was given a well-spiced twist. Better known as Spekkoek in Indonesia, it literally means 'bacon cake', so named for its semblance to streaky bacon. This is possibly the most expensive cake that is served during Chinese New Year. Rich,buttery and moist, this is also the most decadent unfrosted cake I have ever come across. An 8x8 inch cake uses 17 eggs and almost 2 blocks of butter. If not for the way this cake is meticulously built by grilling layer upon impossibly thin layers of batter, I cannot imagine how something so rich and dense can even be palatable.

Indisputably the King of all spice cakes, this is best enjoyed in thin slivers (as shown in the photos above) with a cup of aromatic coffee. Heaven forbid that anyone should hoard a wedge of it like the way butter or pound cakes are usually served!

This is the first time I am baking this cholesterol choked treat. Thanks again, to Valerie Kong's class, the process became less intimidating and I have to admit, is less tedious than making pineapple tarts! Baking the Kueh Lapis is not tedious, it just needs a lot of patience to build layer by layer.

Valerie spiked her recipe with dark rum while others, I know like to add cognac for depth and flavour.

The traditional plain Spekkoek is modernised here with the addition of pitted prunes, the honeyed acidity of which pairs really well with the richness of the cake.

Last but not least, I would like to wish everyone celebrating CNY, A Very Happy And Prosperous Chinese New Year!

I am not publishing Valerie's Recipe here but I have found a very similar recipe at Swee San's Blog. This is the recipe from her blog...






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Prune Kueh Lapis
Recipe :

(makes a 9″ square)

450g butter
120g sugar
1 vanilla pod
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 whole eggs
12 yolks
1 can of 510g condensed milk
240g cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
prunes, snipped half, flattened

Method

1. Preheat oven to 230 C using the normal top and bottom heat to heat up the entire oven. If your oven has grill function with temperature control, use that. If yours’ is like mine, I heat the oven, then before I put the batter in, I turn on the grill function (which only need less than 2 minutes to warm up)

2. Line the bottom of a 9″ square pan. Prepare a water bath and put the empty pan into the oven to warm it up for more even batter distribution later.

3.Cream butter, sugar till light and fluffy. Scrape seeds off vanilla pod and add into butter. DO NOT discard vanilla pod. Put them into your sugar jar or rum. It makes everything smell nicer.

4. Crack eggs, add in vanilla extract. Mix in eggs one at a time, making sure the batter is well mixed before adding the next egg.

5. Mix in condensed milk (this stage, you can have 1 eye closed and forget about the fact that IT IS a whole can of condensed milk lol)

6. Sift flour and salt. Fold into the batter.

7. You can use a scoop / ladle to pour the batter in, making sure each time, it’s the same amount. Or separate them into 10 bowls. I used the 1st method, and ended up with 9 layers. But you can adjust it up to your liking or the size of the ladle.

8. Remove pan and water bath from oven. Turn on grill function. I transfered the water into a smaller cake tin and left it in the oven, this way my oven stays at a nice temperature without being too dry or hot.

9. Spread a portion of batter into the pan. Level batter with a spatula or tilt left and right to level the batter. Grill for 5-7 minutes or till golden.

10. Remove from oven, press cake layer to remove excess air. Spread another portion of batter, level it and arrange prunes onto the batter. Grill for 5-7 minutes or till golden.

11. Repeat step 9 and 10 till batter is finished. After that, I turned off the grill function, turn down the temperature to 180, and let the cake bake for 10-15 minutes to let it dry a little.

Tish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake

As you can see, I am continuing my celebration of simplicity. The inspiration to go back to Tish Boyle came about when one of the readers here tried out the Luxe Pound Cake recently and was raving about how good it was. I had baked it once and eaten it once. I remember I did a little dance when I took my first test bite.... the rest was a distant memory among the many recipes I had played with last year....  Going back to Tish Boyle's The Cake Book, I contemplated among a few different pound cake recipe. In the end, I decided to go with the most basic and the aptly named, Plainly Perfect Pound Cake. No one can have one too many basic pound cake recipe. A good pound cake is like the Vanilla ice cream of the butter cake world. Rich and buttery, this can become the basis of more lavish and tasty embellishments that take the partaking of it to new levels of savouring joy.



I love the fine crumb texture of this cake and the fact that I can smell it from a mile away when I was baking it. Instead of the traditional pound cake mould, I had deliberately chosen to bake it in a slim rectangular baking tin so that I can cut them up in tiny slices to be nibbled on like a snack - a perfect presentation for the upcoming Chinese New Year where treats are best served in small finger food sizes. If you find the Kueh Lapis too challenging and time consuming to make for the coming festival, I suggest you consider this recipe as it is easy to whip up and is ... as the name claims, Plainly Perfect!
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Plainly Perfect Pound Cake (From Tish Boyle's The Cake Book)Receipe :
200g/2 cups           Plain flour
1/4 tsp                    Baking powder
1/4 tsp                    Salt
227g/2 sticks          Unsalted butter (softened)
250g/ 1 1/4cup       Castor sugar (I reduced this to 200g)
4                             Large eggs
1 tsp                       finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp                       grated orange zest
1 tsp                       vanilla extract
80ml                      Heavy cream

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. Cream butter in a mixer at medium high speed until creamy (about 2 mins). Add sugar gradually and continue beating for 4 mins until light and fluffy.
4. Reduce the mixing speed of the mixer to low and add eggs one at a time mixing until well mixed.
5. Add the citrus zest and vanilla extract.
6. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating it with cream (added in 2 additions).
7. Pour into 2 lined 3"x 7" pound cake mold and bake for 60-70 mins or until the cake turns brown and a testing skewer comes out clean. (Trish Boyle had baked this at 162C but I had to use a slightly higher oven temperature to ensure that the cake is cooked through without dense uncooked spots)

Pecan Cake & Best Wishes!

2011 would not have been the same for me without Køkken69 and all the lovely acquaintances and friends I have met here.

Despite my crazy travel work schedule, I am suprised that I have pressed on and this space has sustained.
Looking back, I want to believe that I have continued to improve in what I am doing here and am thankful for all the silent and not-so silent visitors who continue to grace this space.

Thank you for visiting.
Thank you for commenting.
Thank you for trying out the recipes published here. The greatest joy I derive out of this space is when I receive excited feeedback for the recipes. Knowing that my posts managed to inspire is priceless!

I leave you with this very humble and down to earth Pecan Cake adapted from Alex Goh's Walnut Cake Recipe in Creative Making Of Cakes.  Happy New Year and may we all have many many reasons to rejoice and celebrate in the new year!

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Pecan Cake
Recipe :
(A)
250g                Butter
20g                  Sugar
(B)
7                      Egg Yolks
(C)
7                      Egg Whites
170g                Sugar

(D)
190g                Plain flour
1/2 tsp             Baking powder
1/2 tbsp           Milk Powder (I omitted this as I ran out of milk powder)

(E)
160g               Chopped Pecans (You can replace this with other nuts such as Walnut)
100g               Chocolate Chips

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Cream (A) together
2. Add (B) to (A) and mix until light and smooth.
3. In a separate clean mixing bowl, whip (C) until stiff peaks are formed.
4. Fold meringue into butter and egg yolk mixture (2) until well combined.
5. Sift (D) into batter and fold until well combined. Add (E) and mix until well incorporated.
6. Pour batter into lined baking tin and sprinkle with some pecan nuts on top for decoration. Bake cake at 180C for 50mins or test until skewer comes out clean.

Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Jelly Cupcake

If you've always loved a good peanut butter jelly sandwich and if you are not averse to a luxuriously rich buttery cake, I suggest you bookmark this and bake it at the first opportunity you have. This cupcake is gloriously addictive and beats Magnolia Bakery's Cupcake hands down effortlessly!

So far, I've had pretty good results with the recipes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I only wish I have the time to bake every single one of them. (See here , here and here for the recipes I have tried...)
The recipes are in general not too sweet though I normally still try to tune down the amount of sugar used. I like it that Martha Stewart's book features a good collection of more adult and classic cupcake flavours and design.


This cupcake is moist and delicious enough to eat on its own. The incorporation of coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts adds lovely texture to every bite but the creamy peanut butter frosting is one icing on the cake that takes you to the realm of cake-bliss. I would gladly lick the frosting from a spoon.

However, be warned, the deliciousness is the result of copious use of sour cream, thick cream,cream cheese and of course, creamy peanut butter! However, your inhibition gets lost at first bite. So enjoy and worry later!

I am  submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's Blog. Please do take time to check out the event here. 



Recipe : (Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake with minor adjustment)

1 3/4 cups              all purpose flour
1/4 tsp                    baking soda
3/4 tsp                    baking powder
1/2 tsp                    salt
3/4 cup /136g         unsalted butter
1 cup                      sugar
2/3 cup                   creamy peanut butter (I used 100g)
3                             large eggs
1/2 tsp                    vanilla extract
1/2 cup                   sour cream
3/4 cup                   coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts
Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup                    strawberry jelly or jam

Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting
6oz (170g)              Cream cheese @ room temperature
1/3 cup (40g)          Confectioner's / icing sugar
1 cup (200g)           Creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp                     Vanilla extract
1/2 cup                    Heavy cream (whipping type)

Method :
Cupcake 
1. Preheat oven to 190C (375C). Line standard muffin tin with paper liners. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Mix in peanut butter, add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Mix in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture gradually and mix well to incorporate. Mix in sour cream and peanuts.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake at 190C for 20 min until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean.

4. Cool down cupcake completely and frost with creamy peanut butter frosting. Leave a small well in the middle of the cupcake. Add a dollop of strawberry jam into each well.

Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

1. Cream cream cheese and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

2. Add peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix until well blended.

3. In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream until medium / stiff peaks are formed.

4. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.