Back in Baking

Sorry people, this blog is soon transforming into a food blog >.< My life isn't all about baking, but I can't resist posting up photos of my little babies!(babies = 结晶品)

I like glutinous rice, especially rice dumplings and 郑老师's glutinous rice (*gulp*). I like products of glutinous rice flour as well, e.g. 糍粑,汤圆,penang muachi, japanese mochi & daifuku, snow skin mooncake's skin.....etc (*gulp gulp*). Therefore, cake of the week for this week - Mochi Cake!

The recipe calls for blueberry. Blueberry is in season now and we have plenty of blueberry selling in supermarket. The only problem is that it's so super mega expensive....I decided to substitute it with frozen raspberry. And since we have plenty of lemon at home, I added some lemon zest and lemon juice in it. To further intensify the flavour, I added a teaspoon of vanilla essence in it....A blend of flavour eh.... @@

Before into oven:
The chocolate ones were added with cocoa powder (just feel like being a bit creative suddenly =p)

They didn't rise much in the oven, and started to collapse and shrink once removed from oven. After a while, only I realised that they were made from glutinous rice flour, which is gluten-free! A short summary for those who dunno what is gluten: Gluten is a protein component in wheat flour that is composed of glutenin and gliadin. These 2 proteins gives elasticity and strength to the dough, and can hold and trap gas produced during fermentation. Gluten thus contributes to the textural characteristic of wheat flour products e.g. breads and cakes. Without gluten, the product will be unable to expand or collapse easily....And thus the shortbread (biscuit)-like texture. Sooooo.....the same outcome for my mochi cake - shorty cake that is unable to grow tall - as u can see, they are at the same height before baking.....

The flavour isn't bad (quite complex - memang a blend of raspberry, lemon and vanilla flavours), and the sweetness is just right for me (with some tartness from raspberry). The only thing that I don't like is the over-cooked surface =( As u can see, there are cracks on the surface, makes it too dry to my liking. (The cracks somehow just remind me of old people grumpy face =p)

Ah, can't wait for next week's kimi's birthday cake!

(p/s: I'm so addicted that I hope to bake everyday!)

Baking = Updating

Spent my whole afternoon making Mah Lai Ko - a great way to de-stress! One thing that I need to mention, I've never tried Mah Lai Ko and have no idea how it should taste like. Nevertheless, I was pretty confident with my Mah Lai Ko (after watching a video demonstrating the whole process). Everything went on smoothly - from beating egg whites to become fluffy (for the very first time in my life!), to folding in the dry ingredients, up till proofing for an hour. And then, something totally went wrong....The recipe I followed stressed that the mixture should be steamed on 蒸笼， or a cakepan with removable bottom lined with baking paper to allow the cake to rise properly and to prevent "granules" in the mixture from sinking at the bottom. Being a rookie that has never lined a baking mould,I successfully prepared a lined cakepan after a few failed attempts. After pouring the mixture in, there comes the problem - how am I going to transfer the cake pan into the steamer? (note that, it's bottomless, and I only got a baking paper to support the bottom) It ended up that I almost spilled the mixture. Lucky enough that the mixture was viscous, I managed to save it, but the baking paper came off the cakepan and can no long hold the mixture. After all the mess, I was so upset and thought of giving up. Skipping the upset part, eventually I managed to make another lined cake mould, poured in the mixture and popped it (lol, masterchef gary and george like to use this word) in the steamer.

And here's the product:

It raised so beautifully in the steamer, but collapsed once taken out from the steamer >.<

Look at those big holes!!!! Damn ugly urgh......Just a guess - the mixture was supposed to stand for 1 hour before steaming to allow fine bubbles to form. I probably lost the fine bubbles during the transferring-pouring-spilling-transferring-pouring of the mixture, thus affecting bubble formation and therefore the ugly texture?

It was also a bit dry...If there is next time, I would just use the whole can of evaporated milk!

Fer's comment: Dry and it tastes just like traditional chinese "steamed egg cake". (anO's comment: Lol, probably I used normal brown sugar instead of "black sugar" (I have no idea what it is) or gula melaka, thus it lacks the fragrance from sugar.)

Xiao gu's comment: Dry and not sweet enough (anO's comment: I think the sweetness is just right, that I can have the second and third serve.)

Er gu: no comment (anO's interpretation - no comment = not good)

Nevertheless, it has spongy texture - me likes very the muchie! Six of us finished three quater of it. The last quater is in the fridge now, according to the recipe author, it would taste better and more moist the next day.....*fingers crossed*

In case you dunno how Mah Lai Ko should look like, here's the author's Mah Lai Ko....
献丑了~

Lesson of the day: 天将降大任于是人也，必先若其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为

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Ahh, the banana muffin I baked with jono~
An easy-baked muffin. It tastes alright, right moisture, right texture, right flavour, right sweetness. The only thing that doesn't go right is that anO doesn't like banana la.........(But I like m'sia cheap banana cake~)

Baking day: Raspberry Orange Muffins

I'd call it a small success - Raspberry Orange Muffins~ Why am I being so humble to call it "small success"? The muffins smell really great fresh from oven, and for the few mins, I thought I had success! But then....fer's comment after her first bite: why is it tasteless? She comments that I should add some vanilla essence in it... I'd already told her beforehand that these muffins wouldn't have the butter fragrance. But it actually ended up that it's just totally flavourless, with a very slight hint of sweetness at the end (*shy*)Err....I'd blame it on the lack of butter in the recipe =P I thought orange zest and orange juice blended with raspberry would make a good flavour. To further complicate the flavour, I added honey to substitute some of the sugar. It still didn't work T.T Ish, I should just substitute any oils (I used canola oil) with butter next time! Another complain: the frozen raspberry I used were too acidic! Nevertheless, the muffins are really pretty~! I was worried that they would be too dry like the lemon butter cake(since I wouldn't know the baking temperature), I thought of putting a small bowl of hot water in the oven to raise the moisture content. But it turned out to be quite moist, with a slightly crispy surface~(And hence, a small success! ^^)

Here goes the photos:
Fresh from oven~Look good, aren't they?

*Proud proud* Good appearance, good aroma~ (*ignore the tasteless part*)

Rasperry look great after baking!

Trivia: the seven-layered cake I made with jono the other day~These 7 layers took me more than 1.5 hours to steam!!!!

Fixed my baking-addict~Shall guai guai prepare for my coming weeks' crazy non-stop assessments!

我要努力向上!

*我要努力向上，
不枉诸君寄望!
我要努力向上，
要令朋友满心欢畅!

Hey，青年人要努力，
休悲怆休凄凉，
总之但凭我力量，
先要坚定我志向。

我若再受挫折，
努力但凭力量，
心中满是悲伤，
他朝得意乐洋洋。

良朋、情长，
良朋相勉励情谊难忘，
良朋恩高好比万丈， *

这首歌今晚一直浮现在我的脑海。原唱是陈宝珠，各位万勿误会，我还没有out到喜欢她（虽然最近有喜欢她的"青春阿哥哥"和葛兰的"说不出的快活";再out一点的还有周旋的"天涯歌女"（我有病呵=.=))，我听的版本是周星驰uncle lau的版本（记得么？整蛊专家里他们两个在街上边唱边跳的）

好啦，废话一大堆。。。想表达的是，其实我的潜意识一直很想好好努力的，可我只是个凡夫俗子，天使和恶魔的战争，只有在考试前最后一分钟，恶魔达成目标，奸笑离去了，天使才能辛苦战胜。。。唉，大学的最后的四个星期，谁有办法替我降伏恶魔，让我顺利毕业？（我已经能预见我接下来3-4个星期痛苦挣扎的日子>.<)


p/s:这个星期应小佐之邀做了9层糕（基于煤气成本的关系，我们只做了7层 =p),但是所有材料是已经混合好的，不算make from scratch,所以手好痒，好想再做一个蛋糕 >.<

p/s:亲爱的爹娘请安一百个心，我不会让烘焙影响我的学业滴~只有kimi有那个能耐~^^

步向成功之门 - 柠檬牛油蛋糕~

千忙里偷了一点闲，做了久仰已久的柠檬牛油蛋糕~原因? (一)这个蛋糕获一致好评,大家都说非常好吃 (二)材料都已经有了* (三)步骤看起来不太难 (四)我要拖延温习的时间
*呃,这个说起来有点不好意思 - 没错材料都有了,结果昨晚才发现家里没有鸡蛋了 =.= 刚才要去coles买,结果他们"普通"的鸡蛋竟然卖完了,剩下的只是超级无敌贵的 organic eggs 和 free-range egg...结果还要特地再跑去附近的IGA买...

说回蛋糕,这个看似级简易的食谱,竟然花了我超过2.5小时!不是食谱的问题啦,是我这个菜鸟的问题.....我连"把奶油打发" 的 "发" 是什么程度都不知道,昨晚还特地去youtube去找 "how to cream butter and sugar"....虽然看了视频,还是不太确定...所以用了超过一小时来量材料,和把奶油打发 T.T 终于把所有材料都拌好了,可是我越看越不对劲 - 面糊怎么那么稠?再三确定食谱,并没有要我加水啊...是面粉放太多了?心情跌入谷底 - 虽然是第一次做一个"真正"的蛋糕,但是我挺有信心地说...可是怎么还没放进烤箱样子就这样?T.T 时间已经不早了，不管３７２１，先丢进烤箱烤他个３０分钟再说．．．进烤箱后，我专心地准备需要倒在上面的柠檬糖浆　－刨柠檬削屑，挤柠檬汁．．．突然收到姐的电话，于是兴高采烈地告诉她我又在烘蛋糕，一看时间，呀！糟糕，蛋糕已经烘了３０分钟！要不是姐打点话来，后果实在不堪设想！（姐，你是我蛋糕的救命恩人！>.<)赶紧打开烤箱一看，哦，上面只焦了一小部分（幸好啊．．．）可拿出来一看，眉头一皱，怎么那么干啊？也没办法了．．．庆幸的是蛋糕闻起来超香的！（刚出炉嘛...) 把牙签插进去再拔出来，嗯，干净了，i.e. 蛋糕好了！赶紧把糖浆做好，淋上，大功告成！

淋上糖浆后的蛋糕~看吧，表面都龟裂了,而且也不平....一个字,丑! T.T

我向表哥要求，我要拍到能看到上面的lemon glaze的! （没错，相机是他的，不然你那里看到酱清楚的照片？）呃,其实看得出吗?


蛋糕切出来后~我参考的那几份食谱里的照片texture都是比较实的，没那么多气泡...是我把奶油"发"得太多了吗?还是烤箱的温度太高,影响气泡的膨胀?无论如何,总的来讲还是不错吃的~实不相瞒,我现在是一面打字,一面闻着蛋糕香(蛋糕正放在我旁边待凉后进冰箱),好香~美中不足的就是他的texture >.<

总的来讲,我对成品挺满意的,要是他再moist多多,那就好啦!

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突然爱上SHE的"星光" --
"黑夜如果不黑暗 美梦又何必向往
破晓会是坚持的人最後获得的奖赏
黑夜如果太黑暗 我们就闭上眼看
希望若不熄灭就会亮成心中的星光"

anO加油!!!为最后的两个半月奋斗!!!!

Steamed cheddar cheese cake

Oh no....I'm so addicted to baking (technically, it should be called cake-making since I didn't use the oven =p), I made another cake again today!

Verdict for today's steamed cheddar cheese cake:

Appearance: much much more better than Tuesday's steamed moist chocolate cake, since i used my springform pan instead of soft, weak muffin cups. It took longer to steam though....

Taste: Err, to be honest, everyone agreed that it smelled and tasted like chinese 蒸鸡蛋糕, i.e. no cheese flavour at all, but they said it was a success - everyone agreed that it tasted better than steamed moist chocolate cake. Fer and I think that it tasted more like kaya ball's dough...hmm, should be nice if i spread a layer of kaya in it as filling eh? Lesson learned? If I were to make this cake again, I will double the amount of cheese =.=

Trivia: since we don't have an electric mixer, I beat the egg + sugar mixture manually...T.T A very good exercise to my arms.

Hmm you might be wondering why on earth am I so interested in making steamed cake? (I explained 3 times already today >.<) Answer: because I didn't dare to use the oven T.T As this house is extremely old, the temperature readings on the oven already faded and there is no way I can measure the temperature in the oven....I need more successful experience to build up my confident before I can bear the failure of baking >.<

Assignment time! Bye~

p/s: Photos will be uploaded later =)

Edit: Here you are, the pics of my half-successful steamed cheddar cheesecake

Fresh from steamer =)I know it doesn't look attractive T.T Hmm I wonder why did I get the bubbles on the surface?


It's supposed to be topped with shredded parmessan cheese but they said it would taste extremely weird if "steamed egg cake" is served with cheese....oh well...as long as they swallowed the cake into their stomach, who cares? (Note: The cake is all gone 28 hours after it was done ^^)

Happy belated merdeka and Happy spring

Intended to update last night to wish all Malaysians Happy Merdeka, but was beaten by my laziness and now ended up wishing all Australians 立春愉快!

We don't have a good start of spring here - it has been drizzling since early morning and is freaking cold! Poor NoNe, was so excited to celebrate the arrival of spring and decided to start the first day of spring wearing a thinner jacket, and eventually ended up half-frozen while waiting for tram at Flinders Station. T.T

Btw, I made some steamed moist chocolate cake last night to celebrate Merdeka! Ahh, how patriotic this girl is! (To be honest, I was just trying to finish up gugu's butter, which will expire on 2nd of Sept >.<). The products....err, taste-wise, they were alright...but the appearance...err........imagine, they were so ugly that I didn't want to take any photo! It was supposed to be steamed in a cake mould, but in order to reduce steaming time (and therefore the gas bill), I filled the batter in muffin cups, which were too weak to support the mixture, and all muffin cups came out distorted >.<

Oh, running late for lectures! Tata~