Sweet potato chiffon cake

Sweet potatoes - great for chips, roast dinners and barbecues. But who would've ever thought to use them in cakes?! I know....it sounds a bit weird but HEY - this is a gorgeous soft cake.

So I googled sweet potato chiffon cake and a range of recipes came up including purple sweet potatoes! I scavenged all around the supermarkets in the UK and had no luck so resorted to traditional orange sweet potatoes. It was depressing not having the chance to achieve the bright purple colours but it was great anyhow.

The texture was heavenly and although the cake didn't taste as potato-ey as I thought it would be, it was alright! It was a very light cake indeed. I originally badly failed on my first attempt due to a VERY - I repeat; VERY silly mistake. The recipe instructed for 100g of sweet potato. I looked on the bottom of the bag holding about 5 sweet potatoes and saw "90g" somewhere. So without weighing the potatoes, I dumped the whole bag in the mix. I thought it was quite light for such few potatoes but I was so excited about making this cake that I just didn't care. When my cake appeared to still be gooey and sticky after baking for over an hour, I realised something must have gone wrong. Later did I notice that the 90g was for one potato, not the whole bag. Great.

Here's the recipe. And make sure you weigh out the ingredients correctly :)

Sweet potato chiffon cake
makes one 7 inch diameter cake

A
3 egg yolks
20g brown sugar

50ml vegetable oil
100g sweet potato (boiled and mashed with 5 Tbsp of milk)
zest of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp baking powder
100g flour
1/2 tsp salt

B
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Peel and cut sweet potato into chunks. Boil until cooked and mash with milk. Leave to cool.
2. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
3. Separate egg yolks/whites.
4. Mix together egg yolks, oil, brown sugar and lemon zest.
5. Whisk the flour mixture and oil/egg yolk mixture until fully incorporated. Add in sweet potato and mix well.

6. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar with an electric mixer stiff peaks form.
7. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.

8. Pour batter into a 7 inch tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter. 8. Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for 45 minutes or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before unmold. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the centre core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Vanilla Kisses

You remember my piping nozzles from quite a while ago? I've put them to good use today with these rosettes of buttery cookies.

I've got to say, they were quite hard to pipe in the beginning as the butter wasn't as soft. 
However, warm and crunchy from the oven, these vanilla kisses are worth indulging in, no matter what!

 So...there was a Vienna cream to go with these gorgeous cookies however I thought they were great on its own so I omitted it. You can, of course sandwich the biscuits with the cream if you wish.

And check out my new cupcake cookie jar! Perfect for my upcoming bakes!!

Vanilla Kisses:


Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
1/4 cup (35g) self-raising flour
2/3 cup (100g) cornflour
1/4 cup (30g) custard powder

Vienna cream:
60g butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup (120g) icing sugar
2 tsp milk

Method:

1. preheat oven to 200C/180C fan assisted. Grease two oven trays; line with baking parchment
2. beat the butter, sugar and egg with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, in two batches.
3. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe little spirals, about 3cm apart on the trays.
4. Bake for about 10 mins, cool on trays
5. Meanwhile, make the Vienna cream by beating the butter and extract with an electric mixer until white as possible. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and milk, in two batches.
6. Sandwich biscuits with Vienna cream once cooled.

Mixed Spice Biscotti

A mixed spice biscotti is definitely cooking itself up today! They are large, crunchy, almond biscuits, made through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking in the oven. 

The word originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked/baked. These Italian biscuits smell divine, especially when they come out from the oven. Amazing with a cuppa or great on its own, this nutty treat will send some of you nut lovers off!

Although the recipe may look quite long-winded, its definitely worth a try!

Recipe:
Ingredients:

50g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

50g caster sugar

50g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

275g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

100g blanched almonds, chopped

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. Grease a large baking sheet. Place butter and sugars in a large bowl and whisk together until pale and creamy. Whisk the eggs into the mixture.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in the bowl.
3. Add the chopped almonds, reserving 2 tablespoons, and mix together to form a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and, with floured hands, knead for 2-3 minutes, or until smooth.
4.Divide the dough in half and shape each portion into a log shape measuring about 4cm/1 1/2 inches in diameter.
5. Place the logs on the baking sheet and flatten until each is about 2.5cm/1 inch thick.
6. Sprinkle the reserved almonds on top of the logs and press into the dough.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 mins.
8. Reduce the oven temp. to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Using a serrated knife, cut the baked dough into 1 cm/1/2 inch thick slices and place, cut-side down, on ungreased baking sheets.
9. Bake for a further 10 mins. Turn and bake for another 10-15 mins or until lightly golden brown and crisp. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and harden.

Rainbow Chiffon Cake

AND....after having not blogged for so long, I've decided to show you the most successful rainbow chiffon cake I've done!  It's about my fourth attempt at it and after having deflated or half-cooked chiffon cakes, it was about time I've mastered the basics. 

Do you remember THIS chiffon cake? I wanted to go beyond myself and tried this colourful chiffon cake! the "greeness" has improved..I'd say. "less artificial"?!

Super soft and incredibly tasty, these were gone in a flash! NOM NOM nom nom...........

I have found the recipe from this blog here when I was searching for more excuses to bake up a storm in the kitchen. Check it out and have fun adding some colour to your cakes :)

Salmon Puff pastry

Ahh..puff pastry is tooo cool~!! Its perfect for a late dinner when you're not bothered to cook anything!

I topped the pastry triangles with some luscious salmon and fresh salad this time. Amazing!! - I think I will prefer these ones than the chicken one; theres something to it that makes it ever so indulging.
Heres a picture to get your mouth watering :P

Chicken puff pastry

Nom nom nom....It has been a tiring week and mum wasn't too bothered to make dinner and so I stepped in and made her a lovely, hot chicken pastry (: Puff pastry came out puffy and perfect like always and every bite was sensational. 

Be sure to slice the the chicken thin enough  so it can cook before the pastry starts to burnt. Top the pastry up with some lovely sweetcorn and tomatoes and kick in a handful of parmesan cheese. Add some lemon juice to "zing" up the flavours; and you're done!

Back to the classics - Choc chip cookies

I've had quite a break from baking recently due to all sorts of excuses HOWEVER I've managed to bake these classic choc chip cookies seeing as the cookie jar was left empty for a good few weeks (although topped up with custard creams now and then). And after baking these cookies, I don't think I can part away from baking for this long again - I really do miss it :') 

Chocolate Chip cookies (for about 18 cookies)

Ingredients:
70g caster sugar
115g softened butter
140g plain flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt
175g choc chips
70g soft brown sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 C/375 F/ Gas mark 5. Beat the butter with both lots of sugar until creamy. Break the egg in and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix it in.

Add the flour, salt and bicarb into the mixture, a little at a time. Stir everything together until well combined. Add in the choc chips.

Butter the baking trays. Spoon small mounds of the mixture on, leaving quite big spaces in between. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Move onto wire rack and cool.

Cupcakes for year 6

It was Year 6's SATs week back in May when I made these cupcakes and forgot to post it on the blog. 

They had just finished all their exams and were going to hold a party. Seeing as my sister was having trouble thinking of what to bring in, I stepped in like all big sisters would and helped her sort out her crisis over food. I offered to bake something special for her class so I decided to personalise these cupcakes like I did with the baptism ones in Easter. I'm very proud of these cupcakes and Year 6. Well done!

Ingredients:

50g marshmallows

125g lightly salted butter

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

150g self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Line a 12-section bun tray with paper cake cases. Cut the marshmallows into pieces using kitchen scissors. Put all the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat with a hand-held electric whisk for about 1 minute until light and creamy. Stir in marshmallow pieces and divide mixture amongst cake cases.

Bake in a preheated oven, 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 20 minutes until risen and golden.

Passionfruit Cream Cupcakes

I adore passionfruit and I adore cupcakes so the perfect treat for me are passionfruit cream cupcakes :D. 

They are wonderful! The cake is light and spongey and the passionfruit just lets out that zingy tang to dissolve into the sweet flavour. Once dusted with icing sugar, they are thenomenal! I suggest you try these out NOW!

Passionfruit Cream Cupcakes

Ingredients:

150g lightly salted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 passionfruits
150ml double cream

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-section muffin tray with paper cases. Put the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer for about a minute until light and creamy. Divide the mixture between the paper cases. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Half both passionfruits and scoop the pulp into a bowl with cream and 1 tablespoon icing sugar. Whip until it just holds its shape. Peel the cupcakes away from its paper cases and cut it in half horizontally. Sandwich them together with the passionfruit cream. Dust with icing sugar and serve!

Puff pastry frisbees

Doesn't EVERYONE just LURRRV puff pastry?! It's the easiest thing to use and guides you to baking lovely homemade goods in no time. Another +ive is that it goes well with sweet AND savoury foods! In this case, I've used it to make these lovely fruit frisbees; looking delicate and a piece of food thats taken ages to make - but really, literally 2 minutes! And the best thing about it? - nothing will ever go wrong with this recipe!

Fruit Frisbees
Ingredients:
225g ready-made puff pastry
A sprinkle of caster sugar
Apricot jam, warmed, sieved
A pear
Sliced peaches
2 plums
A glace cherry
A banana
Melted butter

Method:
Set oven to 220C/425F/gas 7. Lightly grease the baking tray with some melted butter. 
Roll out the pastry to about 3mm thick. Cut circles using a cutter/circular lid. Cut around the banana twice to make two banana shapes.
Slice the plums and pear thinly and arrange as "fans" onto the circular pastries. 
Cut the banana in half and lay onto the "banana-shaped" pastries. Brush the fruit with some melted butter and sprinkle the sugar on top. 
Bake the tarts for about 20 mins until the pastry is crisp and the fruit is cooked. Put on a wire rack to cool.
When the tarts have cooled, brush the fruit with a little apricot jam, to glaze the tarts.

Just a simple lemon drizzle loaf...

Lemon is a fruit which tingles your taste buds when eaten on its own. They are healthy in a lot of ways and provide vitamins A, B, C & E! And for that reason, I add it into my cooking. Never mind if the vitamins are still there after its been mixed into cake batter and cooked in a rather hot oven... Ahh well, another excuse in baking up another lemon drizzle loaf!

Recipe:

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter , softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest 1 lemon/2 lemons if you like it stronger
225g self-raising flour
FOR THE DRIZZLE TOPPING
juice 11⁄2 lemon
85g caster sugar

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the eggs, one at a time, slowly mixing through. Sift in the flour, then add the lemon zest and mix until well combined. Line a loaf tin (8 x 21cm) with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top with a spoon.
Bake for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the lemon juice and sugar to make the drizzle. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle - the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve. Will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.

Baptism cupcakes :)

It was me and my friend's baptism on Monday (25th April). It was a lovely day with the sunshine out as well ^^

With the friend having hayfever, it would be nasty getting her flowers so I decided to bake cupcakes for her instead! If you remember my birthday cupcakes, she was the fantastic baker!

  
I omitted the fudge frosting as I had to write on them, however you can always add in the frosting as an extra treat =] Chocolate fudge cupcakes...mmmmmmm =P 

Topped up with some bunny and chick marshmallows to match the 'easter' theme..

And here's the recipe! : 
For 12 Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Ingredients
125g lightly salted butter, softened
150g light muscovado sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

Fudge frosting
100g plain or milk chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons milk
50g unsalted butter
75g icing sugar

Method
Line a 12-section bun tray with paper cake cases. Put the butter, muscovado sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a bowl and beat with a hand-held electric whisk for about a minute until light and creamy. Divide the cake mixture evenly between the paper cases and bake in a preheated oven, 180c/350f/gas mark 4 for 20 minutes or until risen and just firm to touch. Transfer to a wire rack.
Make the fudge frosting: Put the chocolate, milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the chocolate and butter have melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar until smooth. Spread the frosting over the tops of the cupcakes while still warm.

Easter cake

Easter = MORE baking! wakakakakaaa............

 I've made this easter cake for a bbq party last week and I've finally got time to upload it! It's made of three layers - in chocolate and coffee flavour. There were gonna be a mix of adults and children that day so I had to come up with a grand plan everyone's liking. My mum voted for coffee flavour but my sister insisted I should go for chocolate. What happened in the end?! - I ended up with both;  and it came out perfect!

I advise you to try out this recipe; impress your friends and family!

Coffee cake

150g caster sugar

150g butter

3 eggs

150g self raising flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp hot water

1 tbsp (or more if you like it stronger) instant coffee

1. Preheat oven to 160c/325f/gas mark 3

2. Grease two sandwich tins/line with baking paper

3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

4. Whisk the eggs in a mug one by one and add to bowl with one tbsp of flour each time

5. Sieve in rest of flour and baking powder. Fold it in

6. Dissolve the coffee and flod it in

7. Divide into two tins and bake for 30 minutes

8. Turn out onto a wire rack and cool

Chocolate cake 

125g butter

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

125g self raising flour

2 big tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4 

2. Grease one sandwich tin

3. Beat the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy

4. Add one egg at a time and stir until smooth

5. Sieve in the flour and cocoa

6. Add milk and beat everything together until smooth

7. Place in sandwich tin and bake for about 20 minutes

8. Leave to cool in tins and then turn out onto cooling rack

Chocolate buttercream

115g softened butter

150g icing sugar

2 big tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp milk

1. Place the butter into a bowl and sieve in the icing sugar and cocoa

2. Add the milk and beat everything together until smooth

To assemble

flake chocolate

mini chocolate eggs

1. Place the coffee cake down first. Spread buttercream then put on the chocolate cake etc. Cover the sides with buttercream

2. Cut some pieces of flake and arrange into a nest shape

3. Using the leftover buttercream, stick on some chocoalte mini eggs onto the nest

Crazy with the whipped cream.

I got a set of piping nozzles for my birthday and it was until a few days ago that I could play around with them. Seeing as it was so hot and I didn't want to bake anything, I just played around with some whipped cream! 

We were messing about and having a whole load of fun..UNTIL the cream started to melt ): ahh wells, can't complain when the sun is out (;

Nevertheless, I managed to pipe out a rose from the whipped cream; its not that good, but practise makes perfect!

Lots of love to my Mummy..

Mother's Day today ^^

I spent yesterday baking some heart-shaped shortbread for my Mummy..they took me forever to make though as I didn't have different sized cookie cutters which meant I had to cut holes in cookies instead to create the 'window' effect.

These lovely shortcakes were sandwiched with Nutella and everyone loved them - they were gone within a day!
Although the last batch got a little burnt, I'm sure mummy didn't mind - I told her it was the "barbecue effect"!

I'm terribly sorry for the rubbish quality of the last photo; I had to try and "hide" it away from mum so resorted to taking a picture in the low lighting of my bedroom.

Anyways, I hope you had a good day Mummy, I love you (; xxx

Pandan cake.

So we're off to Malaysia today with their amazing pandan cakes. Fluffy, light, moist and with so many flavours and colours, I am totally in love with them!

Pandan is the flavour of this cake. They are leaves, found in most asian stores. However, living in the UK, it isn't as easy as you think when looking for pandan leaves.

But nothing will stop me from making this fluffy cake, so I moulded around what I had which happens to be pandan flavouring.

Although I'm not 100% with the artificial "greeness" of this cake, the texture satisfies me enough :)

Birthday~ PART 2 !!

On Sunday, my friends celebrated my birthday with me. And this time, it wasn't me that had to take part in baking my cake - hahaa. My friend kindly baked some choc chip cupcakes for me spelling out "happy birthday"..now what is there not to like about these amazing cupcakes?!!?

nom nom nom..

Happy Birthday to me! :D

Well, am I another year older!? my sister offered to bake a cake for me, however she kinda gave up a quarter of the way through the baking process, and so I had to finish it up for her. it may not be the best looking cake in the whole wide world, but I'm pretty darn sure it has the most love put into it!

My mummy cooked up the most delicious pasta for us and we had some fish for the starter! thank youu mummy ^^
And for dessert...ME AND MY SISTER'S CHOCOLATE CAKE! :D

it was pretty amazing I'd say, filled with strawberries and topped with blueberries...always on the healthy side of course.. *wink wink*

"Filling it up with strawberries :P"

"Piping on the words..."

so whats left for me to say? happy birthday to me!

Chocolate goes first!

I got inspired by bakewell tarts on Saturday. and, of course, chocolate! Bakewell tarts are made up of a pastry on the outside, and a nice cake as the filling.

They are mainly garnished with a drizzle of icing and a cherry-on-the-top. BUT I thought I should be healthy this time and so kicked in some strawberries instead.

and BECAUSE chocolate goes first..the pastry was made out of chocolate and the cake was...chocolate flavoured!

*Remember remember: add some icing sugar into your pastry - they would turn out awful otherwise - i mean, savoury chocs?!

Coconut Milk Buns~ 奶皇包

My cravings for chinese buns are still on the go and so I tried out another recipe..

These buns are called 奶皇包 meaning coconut milk buns. The filling is made up of custard and coconut milk and the bun is just a plain easy-to-make bun. 

I love the fact that they turned out so round and fluffy! equivalent to a small fluff-ball I'd say :P

These buns turned out really well for a first time although the filling was a bit too sweet for me and my family :S

Will try these again and hopefully make some changes to the amount of sugar..to prevent another sugar hype. :)

Pineapple buns (:

Last week, I spent the day making pineapple buns - also known as 菠蘿包 in chinese. It is a type of chinese bun, quite sweet and pastry like at the top. Unbelievably, they don't have any pineapples in them! I think the reason of them being called a 'pineapple bun' is because of its lovely golden crusty pastry at the top.

 The process includes making the bread first, allowing that to rise, and then make the pastry, slap it onto the bread and THEN bake it..quite a story!!~

All in all, I got to treat myself with a warm pineapple bun on the couch :D