Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes seem to be the latest craze with Singapore food bloggers and I am probably one of the last few to be actually trying out the recipe.  When I first had a taste of this cupcake, I sort of compared it with a chiffon cake with fresh cream filling.  In fact it is pretty close to it.  The method of making the cupcakes is a chiffon method using oil plus requiring the egg whites to be whipped and folded into the cake batter.


After trying out this recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover, I came across another blogger who had actually made a comparison of two Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcake recipes, one of which is this one.  Check out the comparison Here!


Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes
Makes about 10 cupcakes
Recipe Adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients for the Cupcake:

3 egg yolks
1/8 tsp of salt
20g vegetable oil (you can also use corn/canola/sunflower oil)
20g milk
25g self-raising flour
105g egg whites (about 3 eggs)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
40g castor sugar

Method:

1) Whisk egg yolk with salt. Add in oil and milk and mix well.

2)  Sift flour and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture.

3) Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy and then slowly add in the sugar and beat till soft peaks

4) Fold in half of the egg whites into the cake batter and mix until incorporated using a whisk or spatula. Then add in the other half and mix them evenly (do not overmix - you want to maintain the volume of the cake batter).

5)  Fill the mixture into the cupcake liners.

6)  Bake at pre-heated oven at 160c for 20mins. Leave to cool completely before filling.

7) Make a small hole at the middle, pump the custard cream into the chiffon. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

Custard Cream Filling:

Ingredients:

30g non-dairy whipped fresh cream, cold from the refrigerator
1 tsp custard powder

Add the custard powder to the fresh cream and whip until it is almost stiff peaks.

French Macarons with Capuccino Ganache

I have been baking macarons for the last two weeks and have finally achieved zero spoilage.  This is truly a breakthrough and I am really happy about it.   If you have yet to try your hands at making macarons, make sure that you do lots of research first before starting.  Although macarons have no more than five ingredients to making the shells, the methods itself is somewhat tricky.  I would say that they are really fussy cookies! 

I recently came across this Site which gives you a run-down of the "do's" and "don'ts" ... mainly "do's" to having successful macarons.  Hope this helps with your adventure. 





French Macarons with Capuccino Ganache
Makes about 30 filled macarons
Macaron Template

For the Macaron Batter

Ingredients:

98g almond powder or almond meal
98g icing sugar
67g egg whites (aged 2 - 3 days in the refrigerator)
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp egg white powder (dehydrated egg white)
Food colouring

Method:

1) Combine the icing sugar and almond flour in a food processor.  Pulse until fine and powdery.

2) Remove and then sift into a dry bowl.  Set aside.

3) Add the egg white powder to the caster sugar and stir with a spoon until mixed through.

4) Place egg whites into another clean bowl.  Beat with mixer on medium.  until frothy.  Then add in the cream of tartar and beat until it is mixed - about one minute.  Then slowly add in the sugar with egg white powder.  Switch to high and continue beating until medium peaks.

5)  Then add in the food colouring and continue to beat until stiff peaks.

6) Add 1/3 of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold to combine. Then add in the rest.  Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip, pipe 1.5 cm rounds onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

7) Once you have finishing piping all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter). 

8)  Rest the macarons for an hour to develop a skin on the surface. 

9)  Preheat oven to 150°C. Bake for  about 15 minutes (baking time can be varied, from 12-15 up to your oven) or until firm to the touch. Mid way through baking, rotate the pans.

10) Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaroon to release from paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or until ready to assemble. Once assembled put the macarons into the refrigerator.  Best eaten a day later so that the flavours will develop.



Capuccino Ganache

Ingredients:

85g heavy cream or thickened cream
120g mixture of dark and milk chocolate
1/2 tsp instant espresso coffee powder (or instant coffee powder)
15g unsalted butter at room temperature

Method:

1) Place the chocolate into a bowl with the coffee powder.

2) In a saucepan, heat the cream until it comes to a boil.  Remove from heat and pour into the chocolate.  Let sit for a minute before stirrring to mix well.  Add in the butter and continue to stir until mix through.  Leave to cool before refrigerating.  Once the ganache has hardened slightly, you can use to sandwich the macaron shells.

Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken

I recently started a herb garden and I am glad to say that my plants are triving.  So now whenever I am in need of fresh herbs for cooking, I just head towards my planters and snip whatever I need.  I don't exactly have a garden as I stay in an apartment - so my herbs are actually grown in pots.

So it came about two weekends ago that I decided to make do a simple lemon (which I usually would have stock in my fridge) and thyme roast chicken.  This is truly a simple recipe and absolutely delicious.  It makes a great Sunday lunch or dinner for the whole family.





Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (approx 2.25kg), cleaned and pat dry
1 head of garlic, broken into pieces (do not remove the skin)
2 lemons, cut into half
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 onions, sliced into 1/8
4 sprigs of thyme
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp salted butter
1.5 cups cooked baby potatoes, slightly smashed
Salt and black pepper to taste
Additional olive oil for drizzling

Method:

1) Place the lemon juice, olive oil, sweet paprika, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. into a bowl.  Mix the marinade until well combined.  Rub all over the chicken and leave for about an hour.

2) Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

3) In a roasting pan, layer the potatoes on the bottom, cut onion and 2/3 of the garlic cloves.  Add 3 pieces of the lemon halfs into the pan.  Roughly pull the leaves off half the thyme and rosemary sprigs and strew them over the vegetables.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and black pepper.  Using your hands mix everything together and spread the mix out.

4) In the cavity of the chicken, stuff in half a lemon, the remaining garlic, the thyme and rosemary sprigs.  Push the butter under the skin of the chicken. 

5) Truss the legs with some string and tuck the wings under the chicken.  Place chicken on the bed of vegetables in the roasting pan, breast side up.  Add a final season of salt and black pepper.  Drizzle additional olive oil over the chicken.

6) Roast the chicken for about an hour until it is cooked.  If it starts to brown too much, place a foil over the chicken and continue to roast in the oven.

7) To serve, either carve at table or cut into 8 pieces and place on platter.  Serve vegetables separately and pour the gravy into a gravy bowl.

Noah's Ark .... a Cake or an Ark?

I have not made a fondant cake for a long, long time and decided it was time to put in some practice.  I decided to try out this particular design from "Cake Shaping" by Helen Penman which I had borrowed from the local library.

The fondant is home-made and the cake itself is a chocolate sheet cake.  The original design had a pair of hippos but somehow I could not manage to get the hippo's face.  After several attempts I gave up and went with little piggies instead







Chocolate Sheet Cake
Recipe Adapted from Joy of Baking

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (25 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed), sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (75 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Grese a 8 inch (20 cm) square cake pan,

2)  In a bowl stir together the flour, sugar, sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the melted butter, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.

3) With a fork, mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.