Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010) Roundup

Started with Small Small Baker in Nov 2010, I was honoured to be hosting this for Dec 2010. The response was very encouraging, which made the host very busy! Hahaha...It was also my pleasure to know so many talented bakers through hosting this event! Thank you very much to all of you who has supported the theme for December.

Here are all the wonderful bakes submitted for this month's theme - Christmas! listed in the order of the date of submission.

1. Vanilla Cupcakes by Nancy of Bake for a Queen
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2. Stollen by Esther of 我的厨房乐园
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3. Christmas Tree Custard Bread (Super Soft) 圣诞树卡士达面包 (超软) by Angel of  Cook.Bake.Love
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4. Polvorones (A Spanish Cookies) by Anncoo of Anncoo Journal
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5. Stollen by Cheah of No-Frills Recipes
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6. Bolo De Coco (Coconut Cake) by Peng of Peng's Kitchen
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7. Gingerbread Man by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise
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8. Chocolate Log Cake by Bakertan of Baking Library
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9. Fruit Cake by Missy of Sweet Crumbs
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10. Chocolate Cranberries Oatmeal Cookies by DG of Tested and Tasted
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11. chocolate cranberry cream yule log by Zoe of Bake for Happy kids
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12. Almond Crisps by Ah Tze of Awayofmind
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13. White Xmas logcake by Cathy of Cathy's Joy
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14. Belgium Speculas by Quay Po of Quay Po Cooks
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15. Christmas Muffins - Orange & Cranberry by Jean of Needmorenoms
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16. Festive Meringue Kisses by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets
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17. Christmas Candy Cane Cookies by Anncoo of Anncoo Journal
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18. Christmas Macarons by Alison of Sweets & Loves
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19. X'mas Honey Cookies by Wang Li Ying of Happy Flour
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20. Mini Mixed Fruits Buns by Vivian of Vivian Pang Kitchen
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21. Mont Blanc-cream of chestnut on almond tart by Lena of Frozen Wings
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21. Colourful Jelly Pudding by DG of Tested and Tasted
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22. Coconut Cookies by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets
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23. Mushroom, Tomato & Camembert Tarts by Wendy of Wen's Delight
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24. Oreo Yule log cake by HoneyBeeSweets of HoneyBeeSweets
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25. My Bar of Chocolate by Lena of Frozen Wings
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26. Super Moist Chocolate Cake by Jess of j3ss kitch3n
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27. Chocolate Banana Fruits Cake by Vivian of Vivian Pang Kitchen
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28. Chocolate Logcake by Jane of Passionate About Baking (That's me!)
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29. Garlic Roast Chicken with Stuffing by Wiffy of Noob Cook
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30. Christmas Log Cake by Grace of Kitchen Corner
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31. Sugar Cookies by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets
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32. Peppermint Mocha Blossoms by Jean of Needmorenoms
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33. Xmas cupcakes by quzzine of baking on cloud 9
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34. Cranberry Honey Cupcakes by Peng of Peng's Kitchen
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35. My Tiramisu Jingle by Wendy of Wen's Delight
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36.
Grand Marnier Butter Cookies by Jess of  j3ss kitch3n
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37. Cranberry Pecan Biscotti by Sotong of Cooking it my way!
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38. Checkerboard Cookies by Spear of My Baking Milestone
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39. Christmas Light Fruit Cake by Jess of Bakericious
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40.
Santa Claus Boston Cheesecake by Jess of Bakericious
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41. Chocolate Swiss Roll with Whipped Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Ganache by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink!
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42. Christmas log cake by mingfang of cherry-potato
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43. Chubble Wreath by kk of My Food Affair
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44. Cranberry Shortbreads by Aimei of My Baking Cottage
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45. Stone Fruit Tea Cake by Vivian of Vivian Pang Kitchen
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46. Roasted Chicken with Brown Rice & Chestnut Stuffing by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise
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47. Concorde Dessert by Jane of Passionate About Baking
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48. Grand Marnier Orange Fruit Cake by Wendyywy of Table for 2..... or More
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Also submitting two entries from Joceline Ng.
49. Mince Tarts
Adapted from "In the Mood for Pastries & Tarts" by Alan Ooi
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(A)
1 portion of sweet short crust pastry

(B)
1 green apple (diced)
100g dried currants
100g sultanas
100g fresh raisins
100g dried apricots (substituted with diced dried pineapples)
100g orange peels (substituted with mixed peels)
80g butter (melted)
90g brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
50ml brandy or rum
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon mixed spices

Method:
1. Mix all the fillings (B).
2. Pastry: Roll the pastry into 3mm thickness. Press into tart moulds. Pour in the fillings.
3. Cover with another piece of pastry. Egg wash and sprinkle with some sugar.
(I did the star-shaped covering on top of each tart instead, and did not sprinkle sugar)
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 Degree Celsius for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

For the sweet short crust pastry:

Ingredients:
(A)
200g plain flour
20g milk powder
110g butter (I used 100g)
50g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

(B)
2 1/2 tablespoon water

Method:
1. Mix all Ingredients (A) until crumbly. Add in ingredients (B) and mix to form dough.
2. Shape into a ball and press it flat. Wrap it up and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

50. Chocolate Peanut Butter Yule Log Cake
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Chocolate Roll Cake

Ingredients:
(A)
40g egg yolk
35g caster sugar
60g milk
1/4 tsp salt
40g melted butter
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
20g cocoa powder
55g self rising flour

(B)
80g egg white
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
35g caster sugar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. Use a whisk to mix egg yolk, caster sugar & fine salt to form a thick batter. Pour in the milk and mix well. Pour in the corn oil and vanilla essence. Blend them together thoroughly.
3. Lastly, sift the self-rising flour into the batter and stir slowly to form a thick batter.
4. In another clean mixing bowl, whisk egg white and cream of tartar at high speed, until fluffy and add in caster sugar. Whisk until a stiff peak meringue is formed.
5. Mix one-third of meringue into the egg yolk batter, using a spatula. Carefully mix in the remaining meringue, taking care not to deflate the egg whites.
6. Pour the cake batter into a 7" X 10" lined swiss roll tray.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven at 180c for 15 minutes, taking care not to overbake.
8. When the cake is baked, remove from tray and place on a clean tea towel.
9. Roll the cake up with the tea towel while it is still hot. Allow it to rest and cool.
10. Upon cooling, unroll the cake gently.
11. Spread the peanut butter cream filling on the cake.
12. Roll up gently using the parchment paper and leave the paper there to hold the cake in place.
13. Refrigerate the cake while preparing the chocolate ganache.

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients
Sufficient peanut butter (suit to taste)
30ml whipping cream

Method:
1. Whipped the cream until stiff.
2. Mix in the peanut butter until smooth and thick.
3. Spread the filling onto the roll cake when the cake is ready.

Chocolate Ganache
60ml low-fat fresh milk
60ml non-dairy whipping cream
125g dark chocolate

Method:
1. Chopped the dark chocolate into small cubes and set them in a saucepan.
2. Pour the milk and cream into the same saucepan, over the chocolate.
3. Cook over low heat, stirring continuously until all the chocolate melts.
4. Continue to cook and allow the mixture to thicken slightly.
5. Remove from heat and set aside for 15minutes. It will thicken on its own.

Assembling the cake:
1. Cut off one end of the roll cake and place it on top of the roll to form a "stump".
2. Frost the cake with the chocolate ganache.
3. Refrigerate the cake for at least 15 minutes to allow the ganache to set.
4. Using a fork, carve out the bark patterns all along the yule log cake.
5. Smooth the stump ends.
6. Using icing, decorate the stump ends with simple swirls.
7. Decorate the cake as desired, with sifted icing sugar and christmas decorations.
8. Chill the cake and serve when ready.
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Up next, Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favourite CNY Cookies (Jan 2011)

This month's event will be hosted by Jess of j3ss kitch3n.
Details of the event can be found here.

Lastly, some reminders to those who want to submit your bakes.

1. Please submit your entry according to the theme of the month. For example, if it is January 2011's theme, then only those blog posts in January 2011 are accepted.

2. You must mention in your post that you are submitting to "Aspiring Bakers" and provide a link to the blog of the host of the month, or else the entry will not be accepted.

3. Please send an email to the host to submit your entry. Just putting a link in your posts is not enough. If you submit more than 1 entry, you have to send email for each and every entry. This is to ensure that the host will receive your entry.

4. Please attach 1 photo only for each entry. Each photo cannot exceed 500KB.

5. Please put "Aspiring Bakers" as your email subject, just in case they land in the spam folder and got accidentally deleted.

6. Please be reminded to provide recipe, or a link to recipe in your post of submission. Write ups without the formers cannot be accepted.

Finally, happy new baking year!

11 comments:

Small Small Baker said...
January 1, 2011 at 9:00 AM

Excellent roundup! I'm so bad, as the organizer of this event, I didn't submit anything at all.

Wishing you and your family a great year in 2011. Happy New year!

ann low said...
January 1, 2011 at 10:08 AM

Happy New Year Jane :)
WOW! All the great bakers with those amazing recipes, I really love it!

Wen said...
January 1, 2011 at 11:29 AM

Thanks Jane for the round up! Happy New Year to you and all at home! May you have an even better year in 2011!

j3ss kitch3n said...
January 1, 2011 at 1:46 PM

thanks Jane for the round up! it's really heart warming to see the wide array of submissions! all of them are great bakers/cooks! happy new year once again!

Cheah said...
January 1, 2011 at 2:26 PM

An excellent round-up and a job well done, Jane! Thanks and Happy New Year to you and your family.

lena said...
January 1, 2011 at 10:11 PM

great looking at all those entries. it's a kind of inspiration, thanks!

quizzine said...
January 2, 2011 at 11:47 AM

Wow 50 entries! That's a real feat to consolidate and to do it so well! Thanks for hosting the event!!

Jean said...
January 2, 2011 at 12:58 PM

thanks for the compilation! the aspiring bakers community is growing :)

DG said...
January 2, 2011 at 8:53 PM

Wouw!! All beautiful baking and great recipes!
Happy New Year 2011, Jane :)

Jean said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:55 PM

thanks for the compilation! the aspiring bakers community is growing :)

lena said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:55 PM

great looking at all those entries. it's a kind of inspiration, thanks!

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