Durian Chiffon Cupcakes

You would think that fruits durian, kumquat and even cranberries are seasonal fruits that only available certain times of the year. But with the help of proper packing and freezing methods, you can practically have these fruits all year round! So when you crave for that durian chiffon cake or egg tart, remind yourself to buy extra next time to keep in the freezer for "rainy days". I would usually freeze in smaller packs of 100 g which would be easier to when I use them for baking. 

Today I will be sharing this lovely Durian Chiffon Cupcake recipe which you can, yes you can, bake as and when you have some durian whether fresh or frozen. I used only 200 g of durian flesh, which is only about 4 fruit amount of D24....okay lah, you are not wasting anything when you use it to bake, it still goes into your tummy!

My first trial on this recipe and really glad that it still manage to turn out so wonderful. When I started off writing this recipe, I had the idea of a chiffon cake texture which is not too soft or mushy. I want soft but still springy and a slight bite to it. I would feel substantial enough after eating one. So if I compare this with Ogura cake, this is contains slightly more substance, not that melt away feel when you eat an Ogura steam baked cake. Perhaps it is my own personal preference, I love mine this way. But if you love Ogura cake, hop over here and here to check out my recipes. :)

Ingredients for Durian Chiffon Cupcakes

5 egg yolks

50 g caster sugar

1/3 tsp salt

200 g durian flesh

100 ml evaporated milk

50 ml organic cold pressed coconut oil ( you can use vegetable oil or melted butter)
150 g cake flour (sifted)
1 tsp baking power

5 egg whites

80 g caster sugar

• Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. I usually use cold eggs from the refrigerator, much easier to separate.

• Whisk the egg yolks and 50 g of the caster sugar till it is double in volume and creamier.

• In the blender, add the durian flesh and 100 ml evaporated milk. (Note that evaporated milk is creamier then fresh milk, so try not to substitute it) Blend till mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside for use later.

• Whisk the blended durian cream into the egg yolk batter. Then add in coconut oil and combine as well.

• Next sift in the cake flour, baking powder and salt, and whisk to combine till no visible lumps and creamy.
• Preheat the oven to 160C, prepare cupcake liners. I baked about 14-15 of these 4 oz cupcakes.
• Beat the egg whites with the remaining caster sugar till it reaches stiff peaks.

• In 3 separate portions, gently fold in the meringue to the egg yolk batter. Do not overtax and deflate the egg whites.

After well combined, carefully scoop the cake better into the cup liners. Divide equally. Of course you can also bake a whole chiffon cake, no problem there. For small cupcakes, bake for 15-17 minutes till tester comes out clean whole chiffon of 22 cm diameter, it will be 28-30 minutes or till tester comes out clean.

I bought my square cupcake liners at Phoon Huat. Unfortunately, they come in packs of 50 or 100, so you will take a longer time to finish using them. 

The main reason why I baked this batch of chiffon cupcakes was for my brother whom was back to visit. I always try my best to bake for him when he returns, because he enjoys simple home baking even though he travels so much and tried so many different cuisines. And awesome idea to bake durian cake for him when he came back during off season. So he gets to enjoy this even when there was no real durian to eat haha! 

That fluffy soft texture! So fragrant too! Who would have thought that durian and coconut bake can be so awesome. Another good point for the healthy coconut oil. So versatile and yet great in most bakes. 

Do try this out when you have some durian flesh to spare. Or do like me, buy more and freeze for rainy days. You and your family can enjoy these delicious chiffon cake even in February Chinese New year time haha! Hurry and go stock up now...December month has some too. ;)

Happy baking everyone!

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Pumpkin Wholewheat Blueberry cake with Oatmeal Streusel

Feeling a little motivated to blog tonight, so I immediately got myself to work on it before the feeling fades away, haha! Been baking and masak as often as I usually am, just lacking that "umph" to get me to seat down to type out all these. Anyways, tonight shall be an exception, at least I get this post up before the year 2016 ends. No worries, I will be blogging still, but taking my time and posting selective recipes. :)

Without further ado, here is the healthy cake which I concocted after reading several masakbooks over the last couple days. Pumpkin wholewheat blueberry cake topped with Oatmeal streusel. Frankly speaking, I am a sucker for anything with streusel, haha! Crunchy sweet and buttery altogether, what's not to like seriously! But mixing oatmeal into it....oh that's like goodness in a whole new level.:9 And I just love adding healthy stuff like pumpkin and wholewheat to my bakes. ;)

Ingredients: (Makes 9"x 12" rectangular pan, I chose to bake in mini loaf pans)
Streusel Topping:
150g all purpose flour
80g instant oat 
150g light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp salt
150g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

Pumpkin wholewheat blueberry cake:
100g cake flour
100g wholewheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp vegetable oil
125ml fresh milk 
125g peeled, steamed pumpkin and blended/mashed till smooth
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries(tossed in 1 tbsp flour)

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line with parchment the baking pan. 
• To make the Streusel: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, instant oat, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Add in the cubed butter and rub in till well combined. Work the mixture with your fingertips to press into nice karge crumbs, set aside.
• To make the cake: Heat up the milk to almost bubble. Remove from heat, add in the pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil and mix well. Add in the egg, vanilla and stir well.
• Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and combine well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and scatter with the blueberries that has been tossed in flour (prevent sticking) over the top of the batter.
• Then sprinkle evenly the streusel crumb evenly over the blueberries and cake batter. It will completely cover the whole top of the cake, it ok!
•  
• Bake and rotating at mid time through the baking time until the tester comes out clean and the streusel topping is golden brown, about 45 minutes.
• Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and let cool completely before removing from the pan.

So loving the golden pumpkin cake and I can't taste the wholewheat in it too! The juicy blueberries giving the cake a even more moist mouth feel. Plus the ever so yummy streusel oatmeal topping to complete the whole cake, too good! I am super please with the outcome of this cake, definitely a keeper. ;)
If you do try this out, do let me know by dropping me a comment or tag me in Instagram @ig_honeybeesweets . ;)

Have a good night guys! Gonna catch some Zzzz before the start of another busy day. ;)

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Santa Claus Bread

If you asked me how many types of bread have I baked up to date. I don't think I will be able to answer that. :P It is really beyond me to remember that huge number (and still counting) which also includes the unrecorded / un-blogged ones. Like I said it before, I love baking and masak more then writing. Having this blog was to mainly keep a record of those recipes that are worth sharing. And today, this Santa Claus bread is perhaps another one in the record. People that knows me, knows that I have been such passion for bread baking. Well mainly the soft asian breads. They are much easier in my opinion and my kids prefer them too. And since Christmas is so near, I decided to bake another fun one; Santa Claus!

There is more fun in baking then eating for me! Besides, the little ones are always amused by the fun shapes that I conjured out. But I have to say taste is still the top priority over looks. I cannot stand those that only looks good but tastes horrible. :P

This recipe uses super ripe gedangs and straight dough method. Almost leaves you with no excuse not to try it. :P The recipe allows me to make a Santa Claus and two small loaf of cinnamon chocolate rolls.

Recipe for Santa Claus Bread  & Chocolate Cinnamon rolls (gedang bread dough) 

380 g bread flour

175g gedang Super ripe

35g caster sugar

4 g salt

5 g yeast

150 ml milk

25 g unsalted butter room temp

2 large dried raisins (eyes)

1/8 tsp of red food colouring (to colour his stocking cap and cheeks)

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except for the butter and start kneading. 

• Dough will be rather sticky initially. Continue kneading and resist from adding more flour as it will not turn out soft if you do. (I have so many readers asking me why the bread turned out hard but left out the detail that they had actually added more flour into the dough recipe. :P So bottom line is, if you cannot stick to the recipe, I cannot help answer your queries). Continue kneading till the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

• Now add in the unsalted butter at room temp and continue to knead the dough again. And when the dough once again pull away from the sides, it is ready to proof. (Note that my dough actually lift out by the hook.)

• Grease the same kneading bowl and then place the dough in it to proof till double in size. Once proofed, stick a finger into the dough, if it doesn't bounce back up, means it is ready.

• Divide the dough into the following : 180 g , 150 g, 100 g, 80g, 4x 50g. As for the remaining dough, I divided them into 2 equal portions and made them into cinnamon rolls (recipe later).
• Take the 180 g dough portion and roll it into a big tear drop shape. as shown below:

• The specs are the gedang's seed, so don't freak. Next you take the 150 g dough portion and roll it into a semi circle shape, as shown below. 

• Then you start snipping the semi circle using a kitchen scissors into strips but not all the way, leaving the center still intact.

DO NOT worry if you didn't cut it all pretty. It doesn't matter, really. Once you start placing the dough portions together, you cannot tell how badly you have cut the dough, just make sure you don't cut all the way to the end. Carefully place this semi circle over the tear drop dough. Start twisting the strips of the semi circle so it looks like locks.

•  Repeat till all the strips are twisted as shown above. Again, no worries if it is not the prettiest looking locks, it will still bake out nicely later. Then use the 80g and again roll into a semi circle but small one this time and snip the strips again. This smaller portion is for his moustache. Again carefully place slightly above the beard.
• Take the 100 g dough portion and roll into a thin log that is just the length of this stocking hat top which Santa is wearing.
• Roll the 50 g portions into 2 ovals and 2 circles. Ovals for his cheeks and rounds for his nose and the white ball on the tip of his stocking hat. (note that you can adjust the size of these portions to your liking, bigger nose, smaller cheeks, it's really up to your creativity, no restriction there)

• Lastly add in the two raisins as eyes and leave the dough to proof for a good 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 170C.
• Once proofed, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes till the bread it slight gold brown. Once baked, remove from the oven and let cool on the rack. At this point, you can choose to colour the stocking hat and his cheeks to make it more cheerful.

This gedang bread is actually good on it's own or with some salted butter. My kids just devoured it...no problem on the cuteness haha. For the chocolate cinnamon rolls on how to shape them and the filling, please refer to my previous post here.

Will be loading the video on how I made this Santa Claus bread on my FB HoneyBeesweets Kitchen soon, so stay tune. 

And if you do attempt this, do share it with me! I would love to see your Santa Claus bread as well. ;)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

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Strawberry Light Cheese Cake with Lemon Mascarpone frosting

Someone asked me this once, " Why do you always change your cake recipes? It's almost like every birthday cake is different from the other?" I never really thought about it until I was asked of this. True enough, I had hardly ever repeated the same birthday cake recipe twice before. Even though I was told that was the best birthday cake I have baked so far. Why you ask? I am not too sure of it myself, perhaps I love experimenting new flavours and techniques? Or maybe I just get bored easily? But one thing's for sure, I love making my family guess the flavours of the cake! 

As you can see this is another simple bake. Something I did in 2 sessions of 2 hours (separate days). I baked the cake 1 day before. Made the frosting the following day and assemble it as well. So this is pretty much a stress free bake. It can always be the case if I plan my time properly and know how I want the cake to be. So planning ahead is essential my friends. ;)

Considering my family members are not big on sweet and creamy cakes, fruity cakes are the obvious choice. And since my SIL gave me a big bunch of really ripe and sweet Korean strawberries...I decided to go with that.

Recipe for Strawberry Light Cheese Cake (makes an 8" x 3" round cake)

100 g fresh made strawberry jam

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 10-12 large strawberries, slice small and place in sauce pot with 3-4 tbsp caster sugar. masak till the strawberries break down and thicken. Once the consistency is similar to jam, remove from fire and let cool till needed.

6 slices of cheddar cheese

6 large egg yolks

100 g unsalted butter

100 ml fresh milk

100 g cake flour

6 egg whites

100 g caster sugar

• In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, fresh milk and tear up the cheddar cheese slices in. 
• Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use.
• Add in the cooled strawberry jam into the cooled cheese mixture and combine well.

• Ladle big spoonful of the strawberry cheese mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well. 

• Sift in cake flour and whisk the mixture till no visible lumps.
• Preheat the oven to 160C. Prepare a water bath and place in the oven. Grease an 8" x 3" round cake pan and line with parchment paper. 
• In another mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and caster sugar till stiff peaks. 
• Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture in 3 separate portions. Careful not to deflate the batter. 

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and wrap the base of the cake pan with thick aluminium foil to prevent water from sipping in.
• Use a toothpick to run through the batter to remove any air pockets. Then bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 minutes till the cake tester comes out clean.

• Once baked, carefully remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Note that it is normal that the cake will shrink a little when it cools down.

• At this point, you can chill the cooled cake in the fridge for a day or two before use. I did exactly that and the cake was still moist and soft.

Lemon Mascarpone Cream frosting

500 g mascarpone cheese

120 g confectioner's sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tbsp)

80 ml heavy whipping cream

• Place everything into the mixing bowl and beat at high speed till it thickens. Mixture is still spreadable and creamy. At this point, you can chill the frosting till needed, at least 1 hour.

Assembling the cake:

1/2 fresh sweet mango, peeled and cubed

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• Puree the fresh mango with 1 tbsp of lemon juice
• Slice the cake into 3 equal thickness discs. 
• Place one of the cake disc at the cake plate. Frost about 1/5 of the lemon mascarpone frosting on it. 
• Then spoon about 1/2 of the mango lemon puree over the frosting.
• Top with another cake disc and repeat with another 1/5 frosting portion and the other half of the mango lemon puree.
• Finally top with the last cake disc and frost the whole cake with the remaining mascarpone frosting. I did a "naked" frosting style which it does not require as much cream frosting as a normal cake frost. But it is really up to your personal preference.

When the cake was served, despite its simple decorations, everyone was still very eager to give it a taste (after a heavy dinner :P). There...simple enough right? But the taste is still refined enough to make your cake tasters go wow. :) I guess sometimes simple can be very attractive too! :)

Pardon the poor lighting... at the restaurant. But you get the picture. ;) But...I still manage to salvage one slice to bring back for me to take another shot teehee. :P

Ahh much better and can see the soft moist lecture of the strawberry light cheese cake, the mango puree and the creamy lemon mascarpone frosting. 

Yes yes, everyone loved it and even some asked for 2nd servings. ;) Strangely, I had this urge to bake this cake again...never happened before though. Yes, it is that good. ;)

Have a great day ahead everyone! Have fun baking!

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Bacon Wrapped Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach and Mushroom

I am sure every Christmas you will be wondering what is THAT recipe you will serve on your dinner table. A recipe good enough to make those heads nod with pleasure and yet won't make you run around the house like a headless ayam trying to get it done. Com-on...who has time to roast a whole turkey? Let alone time to visit the salon before the party? But again, you are not gonna serve just a plain old roast ayam...even NTUC has that :P So that pretty much leaves us with Lamb or Pork...on the safer side...go pork since it is more wallet friendly and not as gamey taste.

Pork can be quite blend if it is not seasoned well and quite dry if overmasaked. So stuffing the most tender part of the pork sounds about the right choice. Better still, wrap it with Bacon!

Fresh out of the oven...oops pardon the string haha. My recipe is so easy and yet yields a really moist and delicious roast meat, definitely worth a try. Let's get started!

Ingredients for Bacon Wrapped Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach and Mushroom (Serves 4-5)

1.5-1.8kg fresh pork loin (I got mine from the butcher, those ready cuts in the fridge was too small)
2 cups fresh spinach
10-15 button mushrooms (white or cremini is fine)
1 large zucchini
1 carrot
1 large sweet potato
1 large or 2 medium red onion
4 cloves garlic2 large potato or 4 medium potato
1 large tomato or 1/2 cup cherry tomato
4 to 6 strips bacon (I used apple-wood smoked)

• First minced the garlic, slice the onion thin, slice the mushroom, wash the spinach, cut the vegetable into large chunks, this will help the vegetable to masak easily when roasting. As shown below:
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• Next you fillet the pork loin so it is flat sheet as shown below. Season the surface with salt and fresh ground pepper generously. Set aside for use later.
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• Next you heat up a saute pan and add a tbsp of olive oil. Next add in the minced garlic and sliced onion and masak at low fire till it is translucent and soft. Takes 5-8 minutes.
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• Next you add in the sliced mushroom and masak covered at low fire till it is masaked down and soft. Takes another 5-8 minutes again.
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• Scoop out the mushroom mixture. Add in the spinach, season well with salt and pepper, then masak till it wilt down. Then squeeze out the extra liquid. Chop it roughly.
• 
• Now you spread the chopped spinach over the pork loin, leaving about 2 inches on the side.
  After that you spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the spinach.

•  Then gently roll up the pork loin from the long side and carefully wrap the bacon over it. Then if you like, you can use some baking string to tie the pork loin. Link here to check how to do that. Preheat the oven to 200C.
• 

• Now grease your baking dish and also add about 2 tbsp of olive oil over the cut root vegetables.Then season it well with salt and fresh ground pepper. Place the vegetables in the baking dish and then the pork loin over the vegetables.
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• Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, then lower the heat to 180C, cover the meat with aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.
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• Be sure to let the meat rest for a good 10-15 minutes before slicing into it. Enjoy!

The pork turned out perfect, tender and perfectly seasoned. Love the moist and flavorful mushroom stuffing inside too. If you are like me, lazy to make sides, baking the root vegetables together with the pork will be perfect! Yes, there is that extra time you earn to go salon haha!

Sliced version of my stuffed pork loin..served over my new Christmas theme plate. This lovely  handmade plate is from Italy. Also my new snowflake dinner plate from Boradallo Pinheiro from Portugal. Bought all these from Tangs last weekend so I can serve it during Christmas. :) My one stop shopping for Christmas this year. 

Hope you all like this recipe. And may all your dinning guest love it as much as I do.
Good night guys!

 

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