Afnan looooves lava cake.
The easiest one to get is from Dominos Pizza.
But the cake alone is close to RM9.
(Kedekut pulak.. padahal my tall latte costs more than that.. haha)
Anyway, inspired by the recent Masterchef episode recently (no, not the Malaysian version), I decided to try my hand at this. I mean, it only needs 5 ingredients.
It doesn’t need a mixer. And since today Unaisah behaves well (she’s the new addition to the family), I had time.
And succeedeed!! Yeay.. so gave me a reason, purpose to blog… Hahahahaha
Here’s the recipe that I tweaked from here.
(i cut the recipe to one egg).
Molten Lava Cake
2oz of dark chocolate (or any old cooking choc) 2 oz butter —- Melt the chocolate over double boiler then add the butter Put aside to cool
1 egg 20g sugar —— Beat these till bubbly and slight foamy. Add in the chocolate mixture.
10g flour —– Blend into the chocolate mixture.
2 medium size Rameskin —– Grease and flour the rameskin and pour chocolate mixture into rameskin. This mixture is enough for two medium rameskin. Since mine was smaller, it fitted into 3 small rameskin (just enuff for Sorfina, Afnan and I).
Bake in preheated oven for 10mins (15 mins max, else you wouldnt get that lava ooey goeey stuff. Maybe less for smaller rameskin). My oven was set to 180ºC. This slightly higher than the usual temperature I use to bake cakes. What you want is the outer to cook quickly, but the inside stays liquid.
So, there. Little ingredients. Little time. Minimum effort.
But a whole lot of deliciousness…
Sorry no pics though.
ps: what i love about the recipe is that it is easy to remember. Here’s my train of thought: 1 egg Double oz choc = 2oz Butter same as choc = 2oz Sugar in gram, but same as above. 20g Last, flour, half of sugar. 10g. Easy, no?
Remember I once (or twice) blogged about red velvet cake? There are so recipes out there.
But nothing really fits my tastebuds. Until, my birthday last year. Everyone said Anis’ cake was the best.
And I can’t agree less… It’s moist, it’s has that balanced taste of tanginess and cocoa.
But it was on the sweeter side for me. So I decided to try that recipe and altered it according to my taste.
And so, this is what I ended up with:
And little note before we start:
1. This version is a recipe that I altered from Rima’s blog.
2. For this recipe, I separated the egg whites from the yolk, an idea I got from the book, the Undomestic Goddes by Sophie Kinsella. I like the outcome of cakes from this technique as cakes become from fluffy and less dense. But some people prefer rich and dense cake (especially butter cake), so you may not want to use this technique. Or if you’re a LB like me, can just dump the single egg at one go like the original recipe.
3. It is best to use a mixer with a power of 250watt above, so that you don’t have to whip you egg whites forever to achieve the desired result.
4. I prefer to add color to the yogurt / buttermilk because it is less messy.
5. I’ve converted the measurements to metric so that I aim to get the same result everytime. But it’s ok if you want to stick to cups/spoons for quick and easy measure (like the original recipe).
6. This is just the recipe for the cake, not inclusive of the frosting/icing (typically me).
Enough ramblings, here ist the recipe:
Part A
113g / 4oz flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (skip if using salted butter)
1 tbsp (about 3g or so) cocoa powder
—————— Sift and set aside
Part B
1 plain yoghurt (1/2 cup) (or buttermilk: 1/2 milk + 1 tsp vinegar)
1 tbsp red coloring
—————— Mix well, set aside
Part C
1 egg white
—————— Beat till stiff, set aside
Part D
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 oz butter
100g / 3.6 oz sugar
—————— Beat butter and sugar till soft and fluffy (basically the coarse sugar) Add in the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until well mixed.
Add in 1/3 of the flour mixture (Part A) Mix well. Aid 1/2 of the yoghurt mixture (Part B) Mix well. Repeat (A, then B) until for remaining mixture.
Fold in the white egg mixture (Part C) just till combined.
Part E
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar
—————— Mix the baking soda and vinegar and with all that fizz, pour in to the cake batter. Mix well.
Bake for 35- 40 mins for an 8×8 pan. Or 20 mins for cupcakes.
Expect the next three or four posts to be food related. Why? Because that’s about the only thing that excites me right now. Ohh so bored. Work, mmg banyak. But just can’t find the motivation at this precise moment.
Today, I just would like to share how I do cheesecakes. Why? Because everybody thinks it’s hard and time consuming. In truth, this is about the most easy cake anyone can make. Don’t be scared. And truth be told, which I admit, I am about the laziest baker that you would ever meet, and I take shortcuts whenever possible. (That’s why you would rarely find me baking cookies, tarts, etc). So, if this cheesecake was so hard, I won’t be making it as often as I do.
But, please note that:
This may not be the right way to make a perfect cheesecake. It’s just, my way of doing it.
It may not also be the most delicious or heavenly. But ok enough to pass, I guess. Especially for beginners, it’s quite good.
This recipe uses biscuit base crust, and not a sponge cake (or anything else).
So, let’s not waste time and just get straight to it.
1. You should prepare your tin with aluminium foil. Either inside the tin (if you’re using a normal tin) or outside the tin (if you’re using those springform type of tin). Why? Because, later we will be using a waterbath method, using a foil will prevent water seeping through your tin to your cake crust making it damp, wet, watery (springform) and that it would easy to take out the cake later (normal tin).
Here a good referal if you need some idea, because i completely forgotten to snap this step.
2. Then comes the crust preparation. Ok, the lazy baker in me, NEVER, (unless desperate, insufficient amount available) measure my biscuits and butter. I just estimate about about 1½ tablespoon (tbsp) of butter and 10 pieces of digestive biscuits. You can opt to use other biscuit. Apart from digestive, I like oreos. But other types you can use, milk biscuits, choc fudge, marie, oat biscuits. Your choice. Your preference of taste, doesn’t really matter.
Why I choose digestive? Because it is easy to crush. What I do is just put it in a plastic bag, and BAM, BAM, BAM on the counter. (If not, using other biscuits, i would probably need to put it in a grinder, or food processor, or the least crush it with a tool like a roller, or masher).
Tada!!
2. Then, you melt the butter and pour it in the pan along with the crushed biscuits.
Melted butter. About 20 secs on high in the microwave.Just pour everything together. Some would combine it in a seperate bowl first.
Just pour everything together. Some would combine it in a seperate bowl first.
Now you pat tight those crumbs into the pan. Make sure there's no holes. Tada (again)..
4. While you freeze (just put in the fridge, not freezer) the crust, get your ingredients ready. It is easier and faster if you weigh and measure everything before you start mixing. Because, if you measure along the way, you hands maybe dirty than everything will be messy you start to move slower.. well, you get the drift. Anyway, here are the ingredients.
Now, remember what I am, (yes, the LB).. which I can’t spare time to wait. So what I do, if I plan to bake the cake at night, I would have put out my cream cheese in the morning before going to work. If I plan to bake in the morning, then I would put it out before going to bed. Therefore by the time I would like to use it, it is soft and ready. Doesn’t really matter what brand.
5. Ok, get you mixer ready. I have a stand mixer, so this is advantage. Which to say, I don’t have to wait on (hold) the mixer. I can start it, and do that crust thingy while it is going. Put the cream cheese and pour the sugar. Mix it at medium speed until it is smooth, or you pretty much don’t see the sugar grains or the mixture is paler in color.
That’s my cap ayam mixer. ☺ No kitchena|d or kenw00d there.
6. Next pour in the eggs and mix it altogether. Some people would put the eggs one by one. But with a toddler screaming at the top of the stairs, who has the time to wait. The only reason I see why you probably want to do this is probably not wanting the egg to splash all over. Oh well. Just dump it all and start slow if you have to.
7. Next pour in the flour. Mix. After that the lemon and vanilla. Mix.
Now, you may ask, being the LB that I am, why not just dump EVERYTHING all at once? Hmm.. I have thought of that too. But if I do that, I may have a different result. For one, you would want a smooth creamy mixture out of the cream cheese first before you can mix everything else. Secondly, if i dump the flour with the liquid and eggs, I might have lumpy mixture (not good) and lemon + milk/cream may produce buttermilk (not something that we need). Ok?
8. And last, pour in the milk + whip cream. What kind of milk? Evaporated, Pasteurized, UHT.. all can. But not that sweetened creamer or susu pekat manis. If you don’t have double/whipping cream, just do without. I guess you would probably just end up with a padat cake, that’s all.
9. This is what my final mixture look like.
If you don’t have a mixer, you can dump it in a food processor. I think, I’ve seen Nigella do it. I think a blender would be fine too. Maybe you would need to blend the milk with the cream cheese first then put everything else. Just make sure it doesn’t smell/taste of chillies or whatever. I think I’ll try it one of these days.
10. Now, take out your pan and pour this mixture into it. Oh, alamak. No picture plak.
11. Okay, now comes the important part. How to bake your cheesecake. This ensures that it remains moist and not crack in the process of cooking. You can put your pan in a bigger pan filled with hot water or you can put the hot water below the rack that you put your cake like this:
The black pan/rack is filled with hot water. This is called water bath.
12. Then, bake it at 45-50 minutes at 150°C. Well, that’s what I do with my oven. Different oven heats up differently. Get to know yours.. then you’d pretty much know which temperature to use.
My cap butterfly oven
13. This is what my baked cheesecake look like. And after this you have to put it in the fridge for at least 60 minutes.
17. When it’s ready to be eaten, just pour you favorite jam or filling on top:
1. if you google “macaron kuala lumpur“, guess whose blog comes up number 1 today (19 April 2011)? (number 3 if you’re looking for the plural)
2. klynnismail was number 10 a few days ago when one googles “macaron putrajaya“.. today (19 April 2011), i’ve fallen to rank number 29. (26 for macarons.. ☺)
3. if you’re looking to buying macaron in seremban, trylah this nora rashid from redvelvetinc.
4. if you’re looking to buying macaron in putrajaya (or kajang) consider ana from dalissacuppacake.
Commenting on a friend’s picture over at fb, I remember this rule of thumb I learned through a cooking show many, many years ago (more than two decades ago) which I think is very wise ☺.
So, I thought, I’d share it here. So, ready?
3 Simple Rules in Food Making:
Your food must smell good – so that, people from afar will come over to see it.
Your food must look good – presentation is very important. It has to look delicious enough to make people want to try and taste your food.
Your food must taste good – because that is what good food is all about. But if it’s not, well… too late already. Eaten already, what?
This idea came from Bakerella who made the recipe from scratch. But if you’re a lazy (or need-to-be-speedy) baker like me, you can try this.
These are ridiculously easy (with Pi||sbury 0ne step Pancake Mix) but amazingly delicious.
Even though I said 9 steps, but they are REALLY EASY steps.
Try ’em!
1. Preheat your oven. (I put mine at 150°C, top and bottom heat.)
2. Get your stuffs ready: Pancake mix, a bowl and a mini muffin pan. Oh, and choc chips (not in the picture).
3. Mix the pancake mix in the bowl as directed by the box. I just added water.
4. Add the choc chips. (But you can leave them plain, if you like).
5. Grease your pan (i used margarine). If you have those nonstick pans, just skip this.
6. Fill you muffin pan with the batter, till about ¾ full.
7. Pop the pan in the oven for about 10 -12 minutes.
8. Bring them out. To cool a little bit.
9. And they’re ready to be eaten. ENJOY!
I completed these (from bringing out the ingredients and tools, to cleaning up and eating) in less than 20, 25 minutes, top.
Yesterday was a sweet day.
Sweet why? Because dapat rezeki berkali-kali.
1. First in the morning, I ordered a macchiato from my friend. This friend stays near a drive-through coffee outlet and therefore able to order one on the way to the office. I never imagined able to drink a macchiato from my Putrajaya office in the morning. Anyway, when I wanted to pay him, he said it was on him. Free coffee. From the shop. In the morning. Sweeeeeeet!
2. Then for lunch, old friends from old office asked out to lunch. I’ve been wanting to go to this restaurant that served ikan patin again. And all their other lauks are delicious too. Simple but delicious. Well, according to my tastebuds lah kan. Well, apparently one of the friends had just confirmed his promotion and it was backdated 2 years back. That 24 months beb.. So lunch was on him. Alhamdullillah..
3. And the last one, my baker friend was testing out her latest item – colorful macarons. And she was giving out free samples. Who am I to say no to free macarons? Me, who would order from KL and pay for delivery charges. Or drive to Subang to get a taste of one? A tiny one, the size of a twenty sen coin. No. Not me dude. And her macarons are definitely tasty! Just as good as the ones from Subang. Seriously. You should order from Ana.
Talking about Ana.. I admit. I am so jealous of her. Geram betul because she is this great lady.. hehehe. Bukan geram sakit hati.. but more of kagum sebenarnya. Envious. We have the same job. She, in a bigger agency than I am. Her kids are just as many and as big (small) as mine. And yet she can find the time to bake and take orders. And her baked goods taste so, so goood! And did I mention, maintain a great figure at the same time. Beb, tabik spring! But, don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself. Her cakes and cookies lah.. not her. And it’s really fairly priced too. So, if you’re looking for sweet delicacies – macarons, cheesecakes, cupcakes, etc. and you’re around putrajaya or kajang, consider Ana.
(the ones that I can think of right now.. must be top of my list)
1. All things mini.Macam ada mini cup. Miniature spoon. Apa-apalah. I would find them all too cute. That’s why I love shot glasses. Because they are like mini glasses. And the same goes for cupcakes. Popcakes. Kan, small things tu..
2. Packaging. Food Packaging. Hand made food packaging. Gift wrapping ideas. Dulu, my ambition was to be a packaging designer. Which, of course, didn’t really happen.
3. Greeting Cards. Handmade greeting cards to be exact. Alah comelnya. I love pop up cards. Hand painted. Comic drawn. Collage cards. Semualah.
4. Colors of rainbow. In food. Colorful cookies. Cupcakes. Rainbow cake. Macarons. Coconut candy. Flavored drinks. Jello. Am I a budak or mak budak.. heheh.
5. Ice cream. I hardly ever say no to ice cream. Dulu, my freezer would ALWAYS have ice cream. Lately ni kurang. Because there’s too much of other stuffs.. plus the EBM.
6. Grey t-shirt. Weird, eh. But my favorite t-shirts are GREY t-shirts. I love them. But currently I only own two. Of which I wear everyday and everywhere.
Remember this?
Over Aidil Fitri, I successfully made six cakes, over two days:
1. Cheese Marble Choc Cake – 2
2. Carrot Cake – 2
3. Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake – 1
4. Blueberry Cheesecake – 1
Phew!
But of late, I can’t sit still thinking of red velvet cakes. Maybe it’s the “jolly” season.. maybe it’s the weather. I don’t know.. As I had written recently, I did go out and grabbed myself not one, but TWO of this baby.. but I was still unsatisfied till I baked it myself.
So, after two nights of incomplete ingredient, last night I made myself do it, despite of insufficient or suffiecient ingredients.
So, this was the end product:
Verdict?
This cake called for the creaming method, which I can’t remember the last time I did that. What came out, wasn’t as crumbly as I expected it to be. Thank goodness I used my good sense and halfed the recipe so that I would need just 1 egg. I wouldn’t feel so bad if it didn’t turn out right.
Anyway, if I were to do it all over again, I would:
1. Not make a paste of the food coloring and cocoa.
2. Instead sift the cocoa with the flour
3. Definitely use the pink food coloring again as I did here. I didnt have red on hand, just hot pink. And it turned out, the red is just nice.
4. Use just whipped cream with cream cheese instead of buttercream
5. Wait to see it bake, at least at the last 10 minutes.. instead of falling asleep which in the end the cake didn’t rise well, alas becoming a bit dense.
Red velvet, is still not my slice of cake.. yet. But maybe will try again.
I’ve been wanting to eat red velvet cake for the longest time. Am too lazy to whip one up. In case it may not taste good. And I only really want to eat one. What’s more, you don’t usually find them in bakeries. Till recently. Apparently it has gain a lot of popularity lately. And with christmas around the corner, red velvet becomes a popular menu (since it’s in theme with christmas colors – red, green and gold).
Anyway, recently I had the chance to go to Subang. I’ve been reading and told about this popular red velvet from the whisk. I wasted no time a grabbed one. And coincidently, Coffeebean is also promoting red velvet cake this Christmas and there is an outlet where the whisk is. I decided to do a comparison. But to my disappointment, they said that their stock has yet to arrive. “But we have red velvet cupcake”. And I thought, oh, why not. It’s still cake.
So here we have.
And my verdict? Let’s compare first.
The Whisk
1. It’s a big slice. 2. Thinly covered with white sugar frosting. With a touch of cream cheese. 3. It’s moist. 4. You can taste the cocoa flavor. 5. It costs RM11.90 per slice.
Coffeebean (the cupcake)
1. For a cupcake, this is rather big. The size of a muffin. 2. The topping is pure cream cheese. 3. Texture more like butter cake. 4. The cocoa taste is really mild. 5. It cost RM5.05 (after tax).
Verdict?
For the cake, I’d go for the whisk. It’s moist and really tastes homemade. But cream cheese would really heighten the taste. And in whisk’s frosting you can barely taste the cream cheese plus, it is too sweet for me. It’s a big slice though, its portion I think is equivalent to 2 CB cupcake.
CB’s cupcake would have been nicer if it’s slightly more moist and a little bit more cocoa. But the cream cheese frosting is perfect, if only they weren’t too stingy and put more. And it terms of price, I would definitely choose this over the other. I wonder how the slice cake would actually compare, though. And it’s only RM7.90 (before tax).
The guy at CB was right too, you have to heat the cake up to do justice to it. I put both cakes in the microwave oven for 15 sec and seriously, sedaaaap.
Anyway, I had always imagined that red velvet cake would taste like moist chocolate cake. But, not exactly. Plus, eating it means now I’ve got red coloring all over the place and my clothes where the crumbs fell. Guess, red velvet cake is really not my slice or cup of cake. For now.
My Life, Remembered... 