Royal Tea Rose Butter Cakes

Last Sunday, I bugged my spouse to send me to ToTT for it's Mother's Day Sale. Unfortunately, he refused, thinking that I might stay there for a long time. So he suggested I drove there myself. Even though I was disappointed, I proceeded as suggested by him. I even brought my daughter along. The boys need to stay home to revise their work for the coming SA1.

I happily bought a cast aluminium sweetheart rose cake pan. I found such pans to be expensive. However, I decided I wanted to pampered myself with this pan this Mother's Day. So without hesitation, I took one. I also bought other items from ToTT. The joy is in the buying, not exactly the items sometimes! LOL.

I also brought my daughter to the Bistro for lunch. The kid's meal of fish and chips was pretty good. Both of us loved the mushroom soup. There were bits of fresh buttons mushrooms in them. Yummy.

After our lunch, I went to one of the shop and bought a small tin box of Valrhona Guanaja 70% Cacao for my sister as Mother's Day gift. It was costly for a small tin box like this. However, the tin packing made it worthwhile.

Since Mother's Day is just round the corner, I decided to use my rose aluminium pan to bake for my friends. Initially I wanted to do a marble cake, but thought that it was quite ordinary since my friends have already tried it. Finally, I decided to use the Royal Tea paste I bought from Kitchen Capers a week ago.

 Recipe for Royal Tea Butter Cake, modified from Ju's Marble Cake. (My all time favourite butter cake)
(Makes 12 roses, and a small rectangular loaf)

Ingredients:
225g Unsalted butter, softened
160g Caster sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self-raising flour
3 tbsp Whole milk
2 tsp Royal Tea paste

Method:

1. Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Fold in the flour, milk and paste until the mixture is smooth.
3. Scoop the batter into the rose moulds.
4. Bake the cake at 180C for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool.

This recipe might not totally be right for the rose mould as it rises after baking. I believe recipes that do not rise much should be used, otherwise, the rose might not be able to "stand" upright when it's overturned.

Anyhow, the rose cakes turned out rather nice and the patterns were rather distinct. It was a good investment. The royal tea cake taste nice, with a hint of tea. It's very special. Not overwhelming, light and mild.

Here's wishing all great mothers, a