Princess and Doll Cake August 8, 2010

I first started researching on princess cake in early 2010, in preparation for my daughter’s 3rd birthday in April. I think it’s every girl’s dream to have a princess cake for their birthday. The Coolest Birthday Cake website is where I get my inspiration from. You can find many videos on YouTube of people decorating doll cakes – I found them very useful. However, none was comprehensive enough so I had to go to Wilton websites as well, to find out more about piping techniques – very helpful.

I didn’t get to make for Hazel’s birthday as I was too busy with work, and simply have no energy left to take on this challenging project. So I bought her one from Polar Cake Shop in the end.

Well, the other reason was also I don’t have enough fridge space for all he cakes I need to make to serve the guests. And I haven’t found the right dolls. the Wilton dolls are all very mature looking, not suitable for kids. I couldn’t find Kelly dolls that some website suggested too. Months later I did, but they were too expensive for me. Until recently, I found those “made in China” dolls that costs 3 for S$3.90 but look so adorable. they were perfect for this.

So along the way, I collect the Wilton mini wonder mold, piping tips, piping bag, icing colour, dolls etc. I’ve also never made icing before so lots of first for me. I finally decided to make it this Aug for a colleague’s birthday – a challenge I set for myself. The complete step-by-step can be found here.

I used the Black Magic Cake (a Hershey’s recipe) recipe that is so easy to make yet good to eat, half the recipe is enough to make 3 dolls. As for the icing, I use Quick and Professional Buttercream Icing that called for ingredients that I have readily in my kitchen.

What I could have done better is to use an icing recipe using vegetable shortening, so it can better withstand the humidity and heat in our temperate country. And to use colourless vanilla essence – I wished this had been indicated in the recipe.

As this is my first doll cake and I cannot fail because it’s for a birthday, I used the simplest piping technique (I’ve never done this before nor make icing from scratch so I was very nervous about how it will turn out) which is using stars. It is also not the full size Barbie cake (almost 3kg) but a mini one – which both easier to make and cuter. It was a hit!!

What is also extremely important which nobody would probably tell you, is to choose the right dolls. It is the soul of the cake and makes hell of a difference as you can see from the photos above. So make sure you spend time sourcing for seemingly the least important “ingredient” of the cake.

So here’s the link to step-by-step instructions – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=256212&id=678979347&l=8b5ee65a59

Japanese Cheesecake – attempt 1 July 19, 2009

When I ran out of ideas on what to attempt next, I asked my colleagues what is the one thing that they’d like to eat but can’t be found in the stores. Catherine came back with this request – soft, fluffy cheesecake. So I googled.

There were many Japanese cheesecake recipes but were very similar. Out of the 10+ wesites I reviewed, I shortlisted 6 secipes of which I singled out this recipe as the first to attempt. Theretically, it is most promising in turning out the lightest homemade Jap cheesecake – use icing sugar instead of castor sugar, cake flour instead of plain flour.

Ingredients:
140gm icing sugar (I used only 110gm cos I don’t like my cake to be too sweet)
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50gm butter
250gm cream cheese
100mlfresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice ( I also add in 1/2 lemon rind )
60gm cake flour ( I used top flour – cos I got confused and bought the wrong flour)
20gm cornflour
1/4 tsp. salt

Method :
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon rind and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cream cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 9-inch round springform pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).
4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160C.

I started by using a plastic spatula to stir the ingredients over boiling water. Taking care not to let the water touch the bowl.

After 10mins and the cream cheese was still not fully melted. I switched to a manual whisk and everything was well mixed in 2min! Another lesson learned.

While the cream cheese mixture was being cooled, I worked on separating the egg yolk from the whites. Notice that I used a small bowl for each egg, before transferring them into a bigger bowl respectively.

This was how the mixture looked after the dry ingredients had been folded in.

Adding egg yolks to the mixture. I like the rich orange colour here.

This was how it looked after the egg yolk was well mixed into the mixture.

Measure out the icing sugar.

Add cream of tartar to the egg white. You can’t really tell from this photo but there was a tint of egg yolk here, causing the egg white to fail to form soft peak later on.

Here i whisk egg white and cream of tartar manually until foamy then add icing sugar to it. I read in another blog which advised that cream of tartar be added after the white is foamy. I’ll try this method next time.

I took 45mins to get to this stage and it became apparent that this egg white was not going to form soft peaks. I later learned that this process should have taken only a few mins if I had used an electric beater.

This was how it looked after the egg yolk + cream cheese mixture was folded into the egg white. It’s clear that this cheesecake was not gonna turn out the light fluffy texture it’s supposed to.

I lined only the sides of the pan with baking sheets. It was supposed to be about double the height of the pan so that when the cake rises over the pan it doesn’t spill out. Of coz mine didn’t quite rise… I wrapped the exterior of the pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from seeping into the pan. I didn’t have a bigger sized pan so I poured water onto the baking tray for the bain marie (water bath) effect.

At this point, I was just hoping that the cake will be edible.

Nice colour, smooth surface, smells good… promising!

Hmmm… all wrinkled and shrunk… not looking as great as when it was fresh from the oven.

You can imagine how dense the texture was.

Taste was actually great!

  

 

The verdict
The cake tasted light and tangy. Some who tried actually liked the unique texture while most others felt it doesn’t cut as a Jap cheesecake. I definitely need to work on the egg white.

Notes

1. Advice from Joy on egg white: the important thing is to make sure there is no oil in the egg white including the mixer, bowl, etc. and NO strains of egg yolk…need to practice separating the whites! And lastly, eggs have to be at room temperature, not straight from the fridge.
2. More on how to beat egg whites http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2005/06/cooking-school-how-to-beat-egg-whites.html

Steamed Chocolate Cake – attempt 1

I was introduced to this recipe by Liana, my ex-schoolmate + colleague + fellow breasfeeding mom + cooking advisor +…. When she said steamed cake, images of huat kueh pops up in my mind. I just can’t believe that a western cake can be steamed and can be so good it gets wiped out within 24hrs in her household!

I just had to try it to be convinced. Except for reducing the sugar to 3/4 cup as I don’t like my cakes to be too sweet, I followed the rest of the recipe to a T. Oh! I also forgot to cover the pan with foil which could be the reason why my cake cracked. The taste and texture however were great! It was like a lighter and less sinful version of brownie. My colleagues tried it loved it.

This is how the cake looks when it's fresh out of the steamer. It shrank further upon cooling.

Some tips:

1. Serve the cake warm by steaming it in microwave.

2. I use Tudor Gold cocoa powder and it produces an unforgettable rich chocolatey taste.

3. Butter is preferred to corn oil. It produces a smoother mix and is much more fragrant which makes it taste more like a cake should be.

4. If you plan to add frosting, which is sweet, you may cut down the sugar even more to balance the overall sweetness of the cake.