Flourless Almond Chocolate Cake

Happy New Year! 
May 2018 brings you good health, more bakes and more sharing!

This has got to be one of the best flourless chocolate cake I have baked and ate. The cake is chocolaty and soft, without feeling too much of the almond. The texture is smooth with bits of ground almond. This is not those dense thick chocolate kind of cake. It's light and soft. I was really satisfied with this cake. I made blueberry coulis to top the cake. However, my sister commented that she preferred the cake without the blueberry coulis. Nevertheless, this cake is easy to prepare and good to the last bit.

Recipe for Flourless Almond Chocolate Cake, adapted from Food52.
(Makes a 10" cake with 1 1/2" height)

Ingredients:
250g Ground almonds (lightly toasted)

250g Couverture chocolates, 76% cocoa

250g Unsalted butter

140g Caster sugar

Freshly brewed espresso (approx 25g), let it cooled slightly

6 Large eggs, separated

Blueberry Coulis (Optional)
250g Blueberries
2 Tbsp Sugar

Method:

1. Line a removable base 10" round pan.
2. Preheat oven to 150ºC.
3. Place the chocolate in a glass bowl set over a bain marie (double broiler, or a pot of simmering water).
4. When melted, remove the bowl from the heat and add the butter, stirring with a spatula to help it melt and mix. 

5. Add in the cooled espresso and stir well.
6. Then add the sugar and the almond meal, stir to incorporate.

7. Once the mixture is no longer hot, add the egg yolks and stir to combine.
8. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites with beaters to soft, fluffy peaks.

9. Fold the whites gently through the chocolate and almond batter.

10. Pour the batter into the cake tin, smooth over the top and bake for approximately 40mins or until the top appears dry and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs attached (not wet batter). It is important not to overcook this cake so that it retains its wonderful moist consistency.

11. Let it cool completely in the tin before removing. Dust with powdered sugar (if desired).

12. For blueberry coulis: Cook the blueberries and sugar together in a pot. Let it simmer and stir constantly. Cool slightly before topping on the cake.

Grand Marnier Fruit Cake

I went for a vacation in California during the school holidays to reward my children for studying hard for their national exams - two for PSLE and one for GCE 'O' levels. While I was there, I couldn't resist the opportunity to shop in Costco, a famous wholesale centre where they have in-house brands and sells other famous brands, in bulks.

What I looked for are the dried fruits and the nuts. They sell in big packets and it's relatively cheaper, and some, you can't get it locally. Therefore, with the dried fruits, I decided to bake fruit cakes as Christmas gifts for my friends and family. It so happens that my colleague told me about Wendy's white fruit cake, so I decided to use her recipe since I was already thinking of using Grand Marnier instead of the usual Myer Rum for my fruits. So here's my version of Grand Marnier Fruit Cake. I hope my family and friends like them. 

Recipe for Grand Marnier Fruit Cakes, adapted from Wendy.
(Makes approximately 5 small loaves)

Ingredients:
Dried fruits:
100g Dried White mulberries
100g Montmorency cherries
150g Dried Blueberries
100g Dried Cranberries
100g Golden raisins
150g Grand Marnier (+ some orange juice, optional)

Combine everything and let it soak for at least 2 days.

Cake:
375g Butter (I used salted)
200g Caster sugar
6 eggs
338g Plain flour
200g Toasted pecans, coarsely chopped (keep some whole pieces to decorate the top)
100g Grand Marnier

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150C. 
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Put in eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flour into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until no clumps are seen.
5. Fold soaked fruits and all the remaining liquid into the batter. Add pecans and mix well.

6. Pour batter into the pans, level and bake for 40-45mins.

7. Remove cake from oven. Pierce holes in them and brush them with Grand Marnier. Let it the cake air and when cake has totally cooled, keep them in air-tight container.

8. Drizzle more Grand Marnier for the next few days before consuming.
9. Wrap it up and present as a gift.

Merry Christmas & a Happy 2016 with lots of baking and feasting!

Blueberry Pecan Cast Iron Cake

I was hoping to use my cast iron pan more often since I got it almost a year ago. As my helper seldom use the cast iron pan, I was afraid it might become white elephant at home. So I figured I'd better use it more often. 

A sudden craving for cake made me bake a blueberry skillet cake with added pecans. The verdict for this cake is really good. With loads of blueberries and pecans on the cake, it gives really good texture. I would exclude caramelising if I were to make this again. The caramelised sugar didn't turn out too well for me since I reduced the quantities. I also made some changes to the steps.

Recipe for Blueberry Pecan Cast Iron Cake, modified from Taste of Home.
(Makes a 10" cake)

Ingredients:
30g Unsalted butter
90g Brown sugar
1 tsp Lemon juice
2 packets (250g) Fresh blueberries
80g Toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

188g Plain flour
80g Sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Egg
130g Plain Yogurt
113g Unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. 
2. In a 10" cast iron, melt butter over medium-low heat; stir in brown sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice; sprinkle with blueberries, then pecans. [Can skip caramelising the sugar. Can just melt some butter then sprinkle blueberries and pecans.]
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar till light and creamy. Add in egg and mix well.
4. Alternate yogurt with flour. Mix until incorporated. Pour over blueberries. Spread out evenly.
5. Bake for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. 

Blueberry Cheese Tarts

Somewhere near my office was a bakery that sells good Blueberry Cheese Tarts as proclaimed by many of my colleagues. However, when I tried it, I seriously don't think it's as good as so many of them claimed. To me, the tart were just ordinary. Wonder what was so good about it.

I decided to try baking Blueberry Cheese Tarts using my homemade blueberry jam. I realised that I'm quite bad at moulding tart shells. I really need some workshop to learn rolling and moulding. The fillings were just enough to fill up the tarts. Truthfully, these blueberry tarts were very good. They were very well received by my family members!
Recipe for Blueberry Cheese Tarts, adapted from Irresistible Pastry by Alex Goh.
(Makes 27 regular tarts)

Ingredients:
Sweet Pastry
100g LIV Unsalted butter
45g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg, small
210g Plain flour

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla and add in egg.
2. Add in flour and mix until well blended.
3. Press it into the tart mould. If not using immediately, refrigerate it until ready to use.

Fillings
250g Cream cheese
30g Sugar
25g Liv unsalted butter, room temperature 
1 Egg
25g Whole milk
20g Plain flour
Blueberry jam or fillings

Method:
1. Tart shell: Press the sweet pastry into the tart mould. Prick some holes onto the pastry shell and bake at 190C for 13 mins or until light golden brown. Leave it to cool.

2. Filling: Cream cheese, sugar and butter until light and smooth. Add in egg and cream until well blended. 
3. Add in milk and mix until well combined. Lastly add in flour and mix until well incorporated.

4. Scoop a teaspoon of the cheese fillings into the par baked pastry shells. Place some blueberry jam onto it and swirl it into a marbling effect.

5. Bake at 190C for 10mins.

Blueberry Jam

Another blueberry sales in the local supermarket recently. It happened that I wanted to do a blueberry cake for my sister, so I bought many packs of them, and decided to make blueberry jam too!

The blueberry jam turned out to be really good with some sweetness and tartiness from both the lemon juice and blueberries. I felt that the sugar could have been reduced more.

Recipe for Blueberry Jam, adapted from Against All Grain.
(Makes approximately 550g jam)

Ingredients:
500g Fresh blueberries (4 packets)
130g Caster sugar (can reduce to 100g )
3 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Lemon zest

Method:

1. Wash your blueberries and dry them.
2. Place the blueberries in a medium sized sauce pan and crush them with a potato masher.

3. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

4. Stir frequently while the mixture boils for 15-20 minutes and it starts to thicken. 

5. Skim off any foam, then ladle the jam into a sterilized jar. Cover and leave it to cool completely before storing it the fridge.

Jaime's Special Chicken Stew

Usually during the National Day, we will celebrate my dad's birthday. His actual day is the day after. This year, I invited them to my place for dinner. I thought the easiest was to prepare a one-pot food. So I decided to make Jaime's Special Chicken Stew. I made several changes to the recipe as I do not have some of the ingredients available.

Recipe for Chicken Stew, adapted from Jaime Oliver.
(Makes for 12-14 persons)

Ingredients:
salt
freshly ground black pepper
20 Drumsticks
1 packet Fresh thyme, leaves picked, stalks kept
4 tbsp Wholegrain mustard
4 heaped tbsp Plain flour
extra virgin olive oil
1 large White onion, peeled and chopped wedges
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and whole
2 Yellow Zucchini 
5 large Potatoes, cut into quarters
3 Carrot, cut
2 good knobs Butter
1 can (Tiger) Beer
750g Chicken stock (3 whole chicken bones boiled with water and some salt to get chicken stock)

Method:

1. Season your drumsticks inside and out and stuff each of them with the thyme leaves. Using your forefinger, carefully part the skin from the drumstick and smear wholegrain mustard into the flesh. Rub the flour all over the chickens so they are covered in a thin layer. Keep any flour that falls off. Keep in the chiller for at least four hours. 

2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. In a pan, fry your drumsticks in olive oil on all sides on low heat until browned (but not totally cooked). Remove them and place in a baking tray or baking pot. 

3. With the remaining oil, fry off the onion and garlic in the pan. Add the butter and spare flour and continue to fry for about 4 minutes, scraping off any goodness that is on the bottom of the pan. Add your beer, potatoes, zucchini and carrots and let it simmer for about 10mins. Now pour in your stock. Mix well.

4. Pour into the baking tray or pan, add in more thyme leaves stalk, then cover it. Cook for an hour. At the last 10mins, remove the foil or the cover, and let it continue. (I cooked mine in a baking tray and in cast iron pot)

5. Serve the chicken with rice or with artisan bread.

And not forgetting, I made a birthday cake for my dad too!

Blueberry Bakewell Tarts 2

This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!

I've done this tart before. I can vaguely recall the taste. Since blueberries are abundance lately, I've decided to bake some blueberry desserts. Just so happened that Grace did her Blueberry Bakewell Tart again, I decided to do it too. I did some changes to the recipe. Here is how I did it.

Recipe for Blueberry Bakewell Tart, adapted from Kitchen Corner.
(Makes 9" and 6" tarts)

Ingredients:
Tart crust adapted from Alex Goh's Irresistible Pastry
70g Icing sugar, sifted
150g LIV unsalted butter, room temp
1 Egg
260g Plain flour
1 tbsp Milk powder

Method:

1. Mix icing sugar and butter until well combined. Add in egg and cream till smooth.
2. Add in sifted plain flour and milk powder and mix until well blended.
3. Refrigerate for 30mins or until firm.
4. Take out and roll between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to fit 9" and 6" tart pans. Refrigerate if fillings is not ready.

Blueberry tart fillings
250g LIV unsalted butter, soften
130g Caster sugar
3 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
315g Ground hazelnut (remaining amount that I have left)
250g Fresh blueberries (2 packets of 125g from supermarket)

Method:

1. Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer till light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one at a time and beat till incoporate.
3. Add in vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Add in ground hazelnut and mix till everything combine and become a thick paste.

5. Layer all the almond fillings onto the pastry dough. Arrange blueberries on the top and chill for an hour before bake.

6. Bake the tart in an 180C preheated oven for about 45mins-50mins, or until browned.
7. After baking, remove from the oven and let it cool completely before serving.

Dad's 69th Birthday Celebration

My dad's birthday falls on 10th Aug, the day after National Day. So year after year, how best to gather the family together to celebrate, will be on National Day itself, where it's a public holiday. Most of the time, we dined out, therefore, missing out on the actual national day parade and the fireworks. On one or two years, I convinced them to come over to my place, so that we can watched the 'live' NDP on television, and watched the fireworks from my house.

This year, it was no exception. We celebrated his birthday at a restaurant. The only exception was, the children were not with us. After getting some bonus in July, I felt generous and wanted to buy a good meal for my family. With my sister's recommendation, we decided to go for some Italian cuisine. We figured that the children might not able to enjoy the food, so I left my children at my sister's house with her children. And the adults, together with my eldest son, went for some "fine" dining.

My sister did the 'ground work' of arranging with the restaurant a six-course menu for our family of 10, at $80++ per person. The place to be was PepeNero at Stanley Street. The restaurant set up was small and simple. The decorations on the wall are kept to a minimum too. The lime green wall made the place feel refreshing and the lit candles on the table made it cosy. If you like a quiet ambience, then this is the place to be.

Here's the menu for the evening.

Grissini & Ciabatta bread with olive & sundried tomato dips.

Astice alla Griglia con Pinzimonio di Verdure di Stagione
Grilled Lobster with Fresh Vegetables Sticks and Vinaigrette with Sea Salt
We had a whole lobster to ourselves! The grilled lobster was very well done. It was flavourful with juices flowing out of the fresh. The lobster was really very fresh. There were also lobster flesh in both its pincers. The lobster flesh is limited to the lower half of the body though. I didn't have enough of this! This is a must-try!


“Fritto Misto” di Pesce dell’ Adriatico con Salsa Tartara
Adriatic “Fritto Misto” with Tartar Sauce 

This was a mixture of fried calamari and prawns. Dipped them in the special tartar sauce tasted good. As this was served before we finished our lobster, it wasn't as crispy as we hoped it was.

Risotto ai Frutti di Mare
Sea Food Risotto
Seafood risotto was very tasty. In fact, it was a tad too salty for our palate. My parents didn't really like too much salt in their food. However, despite it being salty, we like the flavour. There were squid and prawns in the risotto. The grain was cooked through and was very soft.

Lasagnetta al Forno Profumata al Tartufo con Funghi Misti di Bosco
Scented Truffle Oven Baked Lasagna with Mix Roasted Mushrooms
This...was really good! The truffle really lingered on the palate after eating it. I didn't realised there was truffle in this lasagna until after tasting it! The lasagna was pretty light, not too heavy. Between layers of pasta sheet, you can taste fresh mushrooms and tomato bits.

Pollo alla Cacciatora in Umido
Chicken Huntr's Style
The chicken looked like it was simmer for hours as the meat was easily shredded. It was very soft. The additional of basil leaves gave the dish a special flavour.

"Caponata" di Verdure al Forno
Oven Baked Vegetables "Caponata"

Caponata done it the Chef's way. Every Italian Chef I was told, had their way of making Caponata. As this was my first time trying it, all I can say is, I like it. The cherry tomatoes were really juicy and sweet. The vegetables were full of flavour and very soft till it melts in the mouth.

Totano Farcito con Pane di Altamura, Vongole e Gamberi con Basilico Fresco e Pomodorini Siciliani
12 hours slow Stewed Squid, Stuffed with Altamura Country Bread, Clams and Prawns with Fresh Basil and "Pachino" Cherry Tomatoes
After 12 hours of stewing, you can never find a chewy squid! The squid was so soft, and effortless to eat them. The stuffing was not too fantastic though the sauce was good.

This was complimentary for us. It was Italian Cherries. They were as good as USA cherries - sweet and fragrant.

The dishes were well presented. The culteries were changed after each dish. The service staff were very prompt in topping up our water. As we don't drink, we didn't order any wine. Otherwise, you can find a whole range of wines in the restaurant to compliment your meal.

My favourite dish was the grilled lobster. The sauce goes well with the lobster. I could visit the restaurant again just for the lobster! Truffle lasagna was really good too! Please note that I paid fully for the meal. The review is purely my opinion.

After a great dinner, we adjourned to my sister's house to join our children, and to continue our birthday celebration with dad. As usual, I baked a cake for him - Blueberry Chocolate Cake, using canned blueberries. It so happened that my house has ran out of all fresh fruits!

Since the day I started baking birthday cakes for my family members, they've never really celebrated their real age, because we only used one candle (to save the earth)! LOL.

Happy 69th birthday to my dearest papa!