Huat Kuih (Pinky Little Steamed Cakes)

I made these cute little pink cakes to satisfy my younger girl's craving for Huat Kuih, her favourite. I am very happy with the results - all the little cakes were smiling at me when I lifted up the lid of the steamer. They made me smile too :)

 

 

 

 

Steamed Huat Kuih (蒸发糕)

Ingredients

(Yield 7 muffin-sized little pink cakes)

• 80g Fine Rice Flour （粘米粉）
• 320g Cake Flour
• 8g Baking Powder
• 210g caster sugar
• 320g water
• 2 tiny drops of pink coloring

 

Methods

1. Combine the sugar and water together, stir till sugar melted.
2. Sieve the flours and baking powder together. Add the liquid and coloring into the dry ingredients. Stir till well combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into muffin cups, till 80% full.
4. Place the cake in steamer and steam over high heat for 12 minutes.
5. Off the fire and let the cakes stay in the steamer for another 8 minutes.

 

 

I am submitting this kuih kuih for Oct 2011's Aspiring Bakers - Make Traditional Kuih.

This pink little cakes are also in support of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month - The Power of Pink Challenge started by Beantownbaker,

Applesauce Cake with Home-made Applesauce

Here in Singapore we don't grow apples but we get a wide variety of apples from all parts of the world. It is now apple harvesting season in many countries as they enter into autumn. There are so many food blogs featuring home-made applesauce, apple pies, apple tarts and all kinds of bakes featuring their fresh apple produce. I always like to bake with fruit, especially apples. Seeing so many apple related posts enticed me to make my own applesauce and this light and tasty Applesauce Cake.

Home-made Applesauce
(yield about 2 cups of applesauce)

•  6 apples, peeled cored, diced into fairly large chunks
• 1 cup of water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• sugar or honey to taste, if required (I added about 2 tablespoons of honey)

 Method:

1. Add the apples, water and cinnamon sticks to a saucepan, bring to a boil, then add lid, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes until tender.
2. Add in lemon juice and sugar or honey to taste. Remove from heat.
3. Remove the cinnamon sticks and put the mixture in the blender and blend into smooth puree.

I made the applesauce a night ahead and kept it in the fridge. The next night, I used the applesauce and baked this applesauce cake, a healthy cake that is low in fat and sugar.

Applesauce Cake
(Source: Healthy Seasonal Recipes)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• Zest from 1 orange or lemon
• 2 cups applesauce
• ½ cup honey (I used slightly less than 1/2 cup)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 cups brown rice flour (I used plain flour)
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees C. Coat a large bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. Mixed eggs, zest, applesauce, honey and oil in a blender or food processor (I used hand whisk to beat them).
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Gradually stir the dry into the wet and stir until combined.
5. Immediately spread out into the prepared pan and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden brown and the cake springs back when lightly touched, 50 to 55 minutes.
6. Let cool in pan 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Hokkien Steamed Rice Cake & Fried Carrot Cake (without Carrot)

My mother is a Hokkien and her Hokkien Steamed Rice Cake is my favourite since childhood time! Now, my elder girl also likes it very much. It is a savoury cake and we usually dip it with hot chili sauce and it really tastes yummy!

I always wanted to learn making this cake from mum but knowing that she cooks everything without recipe and exact measurement, the only way to pick this up from her is by attending her "tutorial"  and observe her when she makes this cake. However, while she only makes this in the daytime when I am at work, and  I only go to her place on week-nights for dinner, so I've yet to find an opportunity to learn from her.

OK, enough of my excuses, back to the cake. This recipe is extracted from Agnes Chang's cookbook "Delightful Snacks & Dim Sum". Not sure where I went wrong, my rice cake is quite different from my mum's version - which is very Q and tasty. Mine is relatively soft and bland compared to hers.

While I was looking for dipping sauces to go with  this plate of steamed cake, my husband suggested that I could fry it with eggs, just like fried carrot cake. Nowadays,  the cakes used by most hawkers for fried carrot cake are usually steamed rice cake, no longer with  radish/carrot as the main ingredient. I though that was a very good suggestion from him since all in the family like fried carrot cake so much but we hardly eat them as they are usually quite oily.

Without delay, I cut the cake into cubes and stir fried it with eggs, garlic, preserved cai-poh (菜脯）and  it turned out really like the fried carrot cake from hawker centre, less the large amount of oil and salt. We had this for our weekend morning breakfast.  But we liked it so much that we had another plate of fried carrot cake as our afternoon snack on the same day and finished up the entire tray of the steamed cake :)

Recipe for Hokkien Steamed Rice Cake

Ingredients:

• 300g rice flour
• 2 tbsp corn flour
• 1200ml water
• 1 tsp alkaline water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Steps:

1. Mix the flours with water in a saucepan. Stir well to combine.
2. Add in alkaline water, salt and oil. Stir well.
3. Cook over medium heat. Stir continuously until they are sticky, gluey (half-cooked).
4. Remove from fire and pour the batter into a well greased 9 inch round pan.
5. Steam over high heat for 45 mins.
6. Leave to cool completely before cutting to serve

I am submitting this kuih kuih for Oct 2011's Aspiring Bakers - Make Traditional Kuih.

Baked Coconut Cake - Matcha Flavoured ( Kuih Bingka Gandum)

I baked this malay kuih on Sunday evening before I prepared dinner. This is a very easy cake which requires only a few ingredients and simple baking steps.  The original recipe uses Panda juice to create the green color but I can not get panda leaves from the supermarket yesterday. So I used match tea powder instead. It is dense, not too sweet, and with nice coconut milk taste, the presence of matcha is not so obvious though. Probably overwhelmed by the nice and strong fragrance from the coconut milk.

It's supposed to be much taller than what you see here in the picture, the typical nonya/malay kuih's height. However, as I used a slightly bigger baking tray, my kuih actually looked more like a green brownie or bar than kuih. :) LOL. Nonetheless, my daughters and I still like it. My younger girl asked for 2 pieces to be packed for her to bring to school for her recess. Whenever my younger daughter request for "take-away",  I know it much be good, at least to my little angel  :) 

Matcha Flavoured Kuih Bingka Gandum
Adapted from Cherry On A Cake's Pandan Flavoured Kiuh Bingka Gandum with variation

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 cups Castor sugar
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsps matcha powder (mixed with 50ml warm water)
• 400 ml coconut milk

Methods:

1. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and light.
2. Add in sifted flour and mix to combine.
3. Mix coconut milk with green tea mixture, add in to the flour mixture. Mix to combine well.
4. Pour into a 9X6 inch rectangular baking tray lined with baking paper.
5. Baked at 170 degree C for 30-40 minutes until the top is firm to touch and golden brown.
6. Remove from oven, un-mould from baking tray and leave to cool before cutting.

I am submitting this kuih kuih for Oct 2011's Aspiring Bakers - Make Traditional Kuih.

Honeycomb Cake (Kuih Sarang Semut)

A colleague of mine loves my honeycomb cake very much. When I was pondering what cake to bake on Thursday night to feed my colleagues in the office, I thought of her and I decided on honeycomb cake.

Honeycomb cake is a traditional Malay/Indonesian caramel cake. It is called Kuih Sarang Semut in Malay. It looks like a bee-hive in the inside, is a bit chewy/spongy and has a distinctive taste that set is apart from the typical western baked cake.

I have collected a few recipes for honeycomb cake. All these recipes call for the same standard ingredients like condense milk, sugar, flour and baking soda. There are only difference in the quantity of the ingredients, some call for lesser flour and more eggs, some more water and lesser condense milk,  which means will yield honeycomb cakes that are different in the texture.

 

For the honeycomb cake that I baked this time round. I tried out a recipe found in "Olden Tasty Treats" recipe book which has a good collection of traditional local cakes and other bakeries.

Compared to the last recipe which I used, this recipe gives me a cake that has more holes, softer and less chewy and yet equally tasty.

Honeycomb Cake Recipe

(yield a 9 x 6 x 3 inch loaf cake)

Ingredients

• 250g sugar (I used 190g of raw brown sugar)
• 230g water
• 150g all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 90g condensed milk (I used low-fat version)
• 80g unsalted butter
• 5 eggs

Methods

1. Preheat over to 175 degree C. Grease a 9 x 6 x 3 rectangular loaf pan.
2. Sieve flour and baking soda together. Set aside.
3. Cook half the sugar over low heat till brown. Pour in the water and braise till sugar dissolved. Add in remaining sugar and boil till sugar dissolved.
4. Beat butter and condensed milk at high speed till creamy.
5. In separate bowl, beat the egg until it foams, add them into butter mixture gradually and mix well.
6. Add in the flour mixture and beat at low speed to combine well. Pour in the caramelised sugar syrup and mix well.
7. Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1.5 hours or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. (It took me only 50 minutes of baking time).
8.  Invert the cake on rack to let it cool. 

This Honeycomb cake post will be my entry for Oct 2011's Aspiring Bakers - Make Traditional Kuih.

Swedish Ring Bread

This is a very pretty, tasty and moist bread that I will definitely make again. It is a ring bread with ground almond and dried fruit mixture filling in it. I am sure it will be equally delicious with other fillings that the baker's fancy. I already planned to bake this again next week, with ham and cheese filling to turn it into a savoury bread. Is the original sweet version better or will the ham-cheese version win more support? I will  let my residential food tasters to be the judge. :)

This recipe came from "The Essential Baking Cookbook" that I brought from the book store few months back at a very good discount. Given that this first recipe that I have tried from this book turned out so well-received, I will definitely refer to this book more often and put it into good use.

Recipe for Swedish Ring Bread

For the bread:

• 7g dried yeast
• 2 tbsp warm water
• 170ml milk
• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups plain flour (I used a mixture of bread and plain flour)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 egg yolk, mixed with 1 tbsp water (for egg wash)

For the filling:

• 30g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 100g ground almond
• 95g mixed dried fruit
• 100g glace cherries, cut in halves ( I replaced this with another 100g of dried mixed fruit)

Methods:

1. Dissolve yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm water in a bowl. Leave aside for 10 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface and the mixture is frothy.
2. Heat the milk, butter, sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a saucepan until just warmed.
3. Sift 250g of the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast and milk mixture and beaten egg and mix to a smooth batter.
4. Add the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and brush the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, or until well risen.
6. Meanwhile, to make the filling, cream the butter and sugar, then mix in the almonds and mixed fruits. Set aside.
7. Punch the dough down and give it a knead for 1 minute. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 10 x 18 inch (25 x 45 cm) rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving 2 cm border.
8. Roll up into a log and carefully bend it to form a ring with the seam underneath. use a little egg wash mixture to seal the ends together.
9. Place the ring on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Use a scissors to snip the outside edge of the ring at about 4 cm intervals. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes or until well risen.
10. Preheat oven at 175 degree C. Brush the ring with some egg wash mixture. Bake for 25 minutes or until film and golden. Cover with foil if the ring is browning too much.
11. Remove from oven leave it to cool down (this is the moment when all of us in the house could not resist the sweet and fresh aroma from the bead, especially my daughter who was doing her homework at the dinning table, right in front of the bread)

The bread is still so soft and aromatic in the next morning when we had it for breakfast. Brought a section to share with my fellow colleagues during afternoon tea time. They like it very much too.One of them even ask for a slice to bring home for her mum to try. This is how good it tasted :) 

Sweet Potato Pie topped with Golden-Toasted Mashmallows

I had wanted to make sweet potato pie for very long. There were several times when I bought a bag of sweet potato home with the intention to bake a pie but  I never realised the plan, until 2 weekends ago. Finally, I made this lovely Sweet Potato Pie with golden-toasted marshmallows on top.

I used purple sweet potatoes and got a nice purple colored pie.

Recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour, with slight modification.

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients:

For Pie Crust:

141g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

85g cold unsalted butter, cubed

60g cold orange juice

For Pie Filling:

454g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

57g water

2 large eggs

80g firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

170g cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground allspice

some chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

For Topping:

enough marshmallows to cover the whole pie

Methods:

For the crust:

1. Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes, and work it into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender until the mixture is unevenly crumbly. Sprinkle in the orange juice a tablespoon at a time, continuing to mix until the dough can hold together.
2. Pat the dough into a disk and wrap it using cling film. Refrigerate it for at least an hour.

For the filling:

1. Steam the sweet potatoes until soft and mash them. You should have about 1 1/4 cups of mashed sweet potato.
2. Mix the mashed sweet potatoes with the eggs, sugar, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and allspice.

To assemble:

1. Pre-heat oven to 220 degree C.
2. Roll out the crust to a 12" circle. Transfer it to a pie pan, and trim the edges.
3. Sprinkle the chopped ginger into the pie base. Pour the filling over, and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 190 degree C and bake for another 15 minutes.
5. Remove the pie from the oven and cover the top with the marshmallows. Return the pie to the oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the top is golden and a knife inserted into the pie comes out clean.

Note: I was too greedy and stuffed too much marshmallows as toppings, not expecting them to be fluffy and expanded to much after baking. there was an overflow of marshmallows which covered up the pie crust. It will be a neater and prettier pie if I had reduced the marshmallows quantity.

Strawberry Yoghurt & Jelly Cake - Birthday Celebration

My elder girl turned 12 yesterday As she is sitting for her PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) this week, she did not invite her friends to celebrate with her at home like the past years. Instead, we just brought her, her sister and cousin for her favourite Japanese BBQ dinner. She enjoyed herself very much. Besides getting to eat her favourite Japanese food, it was also because she has finally taken her the Maths exam in the morning. Maths is her weakest subject and she felt that for the PSLE this time, she has done relatively better than her school prelim for the same subject, phew!

Even though there is no party this year, I still baked her a cake. What is birthday with no birthday cake?

She loves strawberries. Hence, I baked her this Strawberry Yoghurt and Jelly Cake. It was a pleasant surprise to her. She loved the pretty design (though I think I definitely need more brushing up in my cake decoration skills) and the refreshing, light yoghurt filling. Each of the 3 kids asked for 2 servings each :)

I adapted the recipe from Happy Home Baking's Peach and Mango Yoghurt Cake. I had baked the Peach and Mango Yoghurt Cake using this same recipe 2 years ago for hubby's birthday and find it very good. Hence, decided to use the same recipe but replaced mango and peach with strawberry instead. And, this time, it is still so good.

Strawberry Yoghurt & Jelly Cake

Adapted from Happy Home Baking

Ingredients:

(makes one 18cm cake)

For the sponge cake:

• 100g cake flour
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 80g caster sugar
• 20g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons fresh milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 30g caster sugar
• 350g strawberry flavoured yoghurt
• 250g non-dairy whipping cream
• 1.5 tablespoon gelatin powder
• 3 tablespoons (45ml) water
• 4-5 strawberries, diced

For the jelly layer:

• 0.5 package of konnyaku jelly powder
• 500ml water
• 2 tbsp sugar

Method:

To make the sponge cake:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line the sides and bottom of an 18cm (7 inches) round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like trail when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Add sifted cake flour into the batter in 3 separate additions. Gently fold in the flour with a spatula each time the flour is added. Take care not to deflate the batter.
4. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended.
5. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30~35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, remove parchment paper and let cool completely.

  

To make the filling:

1. Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Mix sugar, yoghurt until the mixture becomes smooth.
3. With an electric mixer, whisk non-dairy whipping cream till stiff. Fold in the whipped cream to the yoghurt mixture. Blend thoroughly.
4. Add in the gelatin solution to the mixture, mix well.

To assemble:

1. Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers. For each layer, trim away the sides by about 2~3mm, so that the resulting layers are slightly smaller than 18cm. (This is to make sure the yoghurt filling can cover the sides of the sponge layer. I did not trim the cake. Instead, I used a cake pan with removable base which is slightly bigger than the cake).
2. Place one layer of the sponge cake into the cake pan. Spread a layer of yoghurt filling on the sponge layer. Scatter some diced strawberry on top. Place the second cake later on top and repeat with the filling and diced strawberry. Place the last layer of sponge cake and spread the remaining filling on the surface evenly. Pour the remaining yoghurt filling around the side of the cake. Gently tap/bang the pan on the table to remove any empty air pockets in between the sponge layers and the filling. Leave the cake to chill in the fridge for at least 3 - 4 hours (I left it overnight).
3. Pepare 500ml of clear konnyaku jelly according to package's instruction. Let cool a bit then carefully pour jelly solution over the cake to create the jelly layer. Let the jelly firm up in the fridge before taking it out. Unmold and decorate it with strawberry slices. Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to service. before serve.

I stumbled on The Power of Pink Challenge started by Beantownbaker, calling for bloggers to make something Pink as a way to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. My daughter suggested that I submit this Pink Cake's post to particpate. So here is my entry to The Power of Pink.