Nutty Chocolate Chiffon Cake

I've been itching to bake cakes. Since I started baking more breads now, cakes seemed to have taken a stand aside in my baking list. For any cake cravings that I have, it's usually chiffon cakes that tempt me. They are light and airy. I know I won't get sick of eating them in anyway. For this cake bake, I decided to do Sonia's Nutty Chocolate Chiffon Cake. It not only looks pretty with the line, it also seemed good with the additional of hazelnut.

Recipe for Nutty Chocolate Chiffon Cake, adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover.
(Makes a 20cm tube pan)

Ingredients:
5 Egg yolks (50g egg without shells)
15g Caster sugar
35g Corn oil
55g Milk
80g Self-raising flour
40g Ground hazelnut
10g Corn flour

5 Egg whites
70g caster sugar

2tsp Cocoa powder

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar till light.
2. Add in corn oil, mix well. Then add in milk, stir well to combine. Add in corn flour, hazelnut and self-raising mixture, stir to well combine.
3. Beat egg whites till foamy, gradually add in sugar in there batches and continue beat until soft peak formed.
4. Take 1/3 of meringue and use a hand whisk to mix well and lighten the egg yolk batter.
5. Now change hand whisk to a silicone spatula, fold in 1/3 of meringue, gently fold with egg yolk batter till slightly combined. Fold in the balance meringue and gently fold till well combined.
6. Pour 1/3 cake batter into chiffon pan, sift a thin layer of cocoa powder on it. Repeat the rest of layers.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 170C for 45mins at middle rack or until cooked. (45mins was too long for my oven. 40mins should suffice for me.)
8. Once done, turn your chiffon tin upside down and cool completely before remove from the tin.

The chiffon cake is very fragrant from the hazelnut. It has bits of crunchy nuts as I didn't blizz it. I just used ground hazelnut instead of whole nuts to blizz. I baked it a little too long and was quite dry. Otherwise, the chiffon was still light and yummy.

Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

My daughter requested for Chocolate Cake for her birthday celebration. I had actually decided to bake a Chocolate Fudge Cake, ensuring that I had evaporated milk. Then when I saw Ann's post on Flourless Chocolate Cake, I changed my mind and decided that a flourless cake will be more popular with my family members. True enough, this was hit with my family members. The cake was soft, and you can feel the grainy hazelnut texture. Coupled with the raspberry coulis, it was a perfect combination of taste and texture. This is a sure keeper for me!

Recipe for Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake, adapted from Anncoo.
(Makes a 8" cake)

Ingredients:
100g Dark chocolate buttons (66%)
100g LIV unsalted butter, cubed
80g Caster sugar
2 tbsp Kahlua liqueur
100g Ground hazelnuts
1 tbsp Instant coffee granules with 1 tbsp hot water
4 Eggs (approx 55g each), separated

Raspberry coulis
120g Fresh raspberries
50g Water
40g Caster sugar

Method:

1. Preheat fan oven to 150C. Grease deep 8" round cake pan and line base.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring until mixture is combined and chocolates melted.
3. Combine chocolate mixture with sugar, kahlua, ground hazelnuts and coffee. Add in egg yolks, one at a time. Stir well to mix.
4. Whisk egg whites with electric mixer until peak forms (not too stiff); gently fold into chocolate mixture in two batches.
5. Pour mixture into pan; bake for 35 minutes or skewer inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan.
6. In a small pot boil raspberries, sugar and water together and stir over medium heat.
7. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes, mash raspberries with a spatula. Leave aside to cool totally.
8. Decorate with some raspberries on top of the cake and raspberry coulis before serving.

I'm submitting this post to  Aspiring Bakers #38: Boozy-licious (December 2013) hosted by Jasline of Foodie Baker.

Also to  'Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013' hosted by Baby Sumo of  Eat Your Heart Out.

Hazelnut Bakewell Tart

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

After a super long holiday in Germany during October, it was quite difficult to get back to my baking. :p I can only salivate at all other food bloggers' good foods and bakes.

After thinking and browsing through the recipes, I finally decided to bake a simple tart - Hazelnut Bakewell Tart. I realised that hazelnut-related snacks are really cheap in Germany. They have abundant hazelnut snacks - chocolates, wafers, biscuits and what-have-yous. I also didn't hesitate to buy a packet of 200g ground hazelnut (crazy me). So for this tart, I decided to use all hazelnuts. I even used ground hazelnut for my tart crust. All in all, it's a wholesome hazelnut treat!

Recipe for Hazelnut Bakewell Tart, modified from Kitchen Corner.
(Makes a 9" tart)

Ingredients:
Use your favourite tart crust recipe.

For the fillings:

100g Ground hazelnuts

25g Plain flour

1 tsp Hazelnut extract

83g Liv Unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

1 egg

50g Halved hazelnuts, toasted

Some chocolate ganache, or Nutella

Method:

1. Prepare your tart crust and mould it into the tart pan. Place it in the fridge until ready to use.
2. For the fillings, cream the butter, sugar and hazelnut extract in a bowl until light and creamy.
3. Add in the ground hazelnut, plain flour and beaten eggs and mix well.
4. Place in the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour.
5. Spread the chocolate ganache into the tart crust. Then spread the hazelnut cream over the chocolate.
6. Arrange the toasted hazelnuts on the surface of the hazelnut batter, pressing them in lightly.
7. Bake the tart in the 180'C preheated oven for about 25 minutes. Remove tarts from the oven and leave it to cool.
8. Spread a layer of chocolate ganache on top, and refrigerated.
9. Serve chilled.

Nutella Cake

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

When I saw Annie's Nutella Cake, I was sold! Totally sold! I love Nutella. I love hazelnuts and chocolate. This is a combination made in heaven! Since I need to bake a cake for Mother's Day. This will be it.

Recipe for Nutella Chocolate Cake/Torta Alla Gianduja, modified from Annielicious.
(Source : Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess book)
Makes a 9" cake

Ingredient:
For the Cake
8 Small eggs, separated (if large eggs use 6)
Pinch of Salt
125g Liv Unsalted butter, soften
400g Nutella
1 tbsp Frangelico, Rum or Water (I used Barcardi Gold Rum)
125g Ground Hazelnut
100g Dark Chocolate, 66% cacao, melted

For the decoration
100g Whole Toasted Hazelnuts
250g Chocolate Ganache
1 tbsp Rum

Method:

1. Toast hazelnuts in a preheated oven of 160C for approximately 10mins, or until it's slightly brown, or when you smell the fragrance of the hazelnuts. Let it cool completely before using. You may want to consider to make this a day ahead.
2. Grind 125g of the cooled hazelnuts. Set aside. 
3. Melt the chocolate using double boiling method, to allow it to melt over gently under indirect heat. Once chocolate begins to melt, stir it gently with plastic spatula. When almost all of the chocolate is melted, lift up the bowl from the saucepan and set it on the counter. Stir continuously until it is shiny, smooth and completely melted. Set aside and leave it cool before use.
4. Prepare a 9 inch (springform) tin, greased and lined. I used a 9" removable base tin.
5. In a bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the rum, egg yolks and ground hazelnuts.
6. Fold in the cooled melted chocolate, and set aside.
7. In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff, but not dry. 
8. Then using a spatula, scoop a large dollop of egg white into the chocolate mixture. Fold the egg whites into the mixture by a third at a time. Mix well.
9. Pour into the prepared tin and bake it in the preheated fan oven of 160C for 40-45 mins or until the cake centre is not wobbly.
10. Let the cake cool on a rack completely before you un-mould them carefully. This was supposed to be a damp cake, but mine was a little dry.

For decoration:

1. Mix in the rum into the chocolate ganache.
2. Ice the top of the cake with chocolate ganache.
3. Decorate it with the toasted hazelnuts.
4. Let it rest in the fridge before serving.
5. Cake keeps well in the fridge.

Hazelnut Chocolate Entremet (Flourless)

It's always a challenge to bake birthday cake for my elder sister. She likes chocolate and hazelnuts. She likes flourless cakes. Put them together and you'll get Chocolate Flourless Cake? Yes, done that and that. I had to hunt high and low to try to find a suitable recipe. In the end, it was a combination of recipes that I put together. I'm glad the cake turns out well and she appreciated it and loved it!

Recipe for Hazelnut Chocolate Entremet
Makes a 8"x8" cake

Ingredients:
Hazelnut Dacquoise, adapted from Daily Delicious
Makes two 8"x8" pans

140g Egg whites
35g Sugar
120g Ground hazelnut (I grind my own toasted hazelnut)
90g Icing sugar

Method:

1. Sift the icing sugar and mix together with the ground hazelnuts.
2. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until stiff.
3. Fold the hazelnut mixture gently into the meringue.
4. Pour into the two prepared pans equally.
5. Bake for 15mins in a preheat oven of 180C.
6. Remove from the pan and let it cool completely.

Chocolate Meringue, adapted from Cadbury.
Makes a 8"x8" pan

2 Egg whites

75g Caster sugar

1 heaped tbsp Dutch processed Cocoa powder 

1/2 tsp White vinegar

Method:

1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Continue beating, adding the sugar a little at a time until dissolved.
2. Sprinkle sifted cocoa powder and vinegar and gently fold in.
3. Pour in a lined pan.
4. Bake at 150C for 45mins. Turn off the oven heat and leave the door ajar to cool the meringue.

Chocolate Mousse

200g Whipping Cream

3000g Dark chocolates, chopped, at least 55%

200g Whipping cream, whipped

Method:

1. Heat the first 150g whipping cream.
2. Pour it into a large mixing bowl with the dark chocolates.
3. Stir until completely mixed and smooth.
4. Scoop up three big cooking spoon of the ganache. Put aside.
5. Whipped up the remaining 200g of cream till soft peak.
6. Fold in the bigger portion of the ganache into the whipped cream. Mix well. Set aside.

Toasted hazelnuts, crushed and wholes

To assemble:

1. Place the chocolate meringue as the base.
2. Spread with chocolate ganache (from the 3 big spoons bowl.)
3. Sprinkle crushed hazelnuts.
4. Topped with chocolate mousse evenly.
5. Place a layer of hazelnut dacquoise on top of the mousse.
6. Spread with chocolate ganache.
7. Sprinkle crushed hazelnuts.
8. Topped with chocolate mousse.
9. Place another layer of hazelnut dacquoise on top.
10. Frost all the sides with chocolate mousse, and the remaining on top of the dacquoise.
11. Chill the cake for at least an hour to harden the chocolate mousse.
12. With the remaining chocolate ganache, spread it evenly on top of the chocolate mousse. If the chocolate ganache has harden, heat in the microwave for 20 secs, or over a pot of boilling water.
13. Decorate with remaining whole hazelnuts and edible gold, or whichever way you like.
14. Chill well before serving.

Good Friday Dinner

With no other plans for Good Friday, I decided to invite my family over to my place for a simple dinner. Dining out with a big group might be rather difficult on holidays. They were very supportive. I wasn't prepared to whip up a storm, so I just prepared some simple foods.

On my dining table were:

1. Chicken Rice. This was prepared using the Prima Taste Fragrant Hainanese Chicken Rice Paste. My eldest son being a chicken rice rice freak, this was the best paste I could find on the supermarket shelves that will satisfy him. I also love this paste very much. You just can't go wrong making chicken rice using this paste.

(Source: Prima Taste Website)

2. Roast Chicken with Potatoes. The roast chicken was very flavourful as I marinated them for a couple of hours before baking. Using my Delonghi oven, I usually get a "burnt" chicken out. Nevertheless, the chicken still taste good, and even the breast meat was soft and tender! I marinated them with mushroom sauce, maggi seasoning sauce, light soy sauce, worchester sauce, HP sauce and chopped fresh rosemary. I also learned from Laureen the butterflied method of roasting. :)

3. Green Salads. The usual salad with coral lettuce, olives, red tomatoes on vine, yellow tomatoes, sweet basil leaves, raisins, sliced almonds, olive oil, pepper and salt.

4. Mushroom Salads. I improvised this from Laura Caulder's show. Infused olive oil with fresh rosemary and thyme, then sprinkle them over your mushrooms and grilled them. I added french beans for a taste of different textures. See recipe below.

5. Chocolate Hazelnut Tart. Using the sweet tart base, I mixed ground hazelnut into valrhona chocolate ganache and let it set. The base was very crispy. The chocolate was bitter sweet and soft with a light hint of ground hazelnut. The 9" tart was finished within one evening! First time I didn't have a chance to keep it overnight.

We ended the evening by driving to 717 Trading to have our dose of durians. Unfortunately, Mao Shan Wang wasn't in season now. So we ended up eating only D24. That was enough to satisfy us too!

Recipe for Mushrooms Salad, modified from Laura Caulder's "French Food at Home".

Ingredients:
200g Swiss button mushrooms (1 packet)
200g White button mushrooms (1 packet)
250g Portobello mushrooms (1 packet)

Some french beans, chopped to about 2" long (optional)

A sprig of fresh rosemary
A sprig of fresh thyme
Some olive oil (depending on how much you want to dress your mushrooms)

Method:

1. Wash and slice the mushrooms.
2. Lay them on a baking tray.

3. Warm up olive oil with rosemary and thyme in a pot, then turn off the heat immediately. Do not let it boil.

4. Sprinkle some olive oil in your mushrooms.
5. Bake your mushrooms at 180C for about 20mins.
6. Remove the mushrooms from the baking tray and place them in a salad bowl.
7. Stir in the remaining olive oil with herbs and mix thoroughly. Add a dash of black pepper and salt to taste.
8. If using french beans, blanch them in water. Drain well then mix into the mushrooms.
9. Serve and enjoy the juicy mushrooms!

Have a bunniful weekend!

French and Flourless

Happy Birthday to my dear sister!

It was my elder sister's birthday today. I asked her what kind of cake she would like me to bake for her. As usual, her request was: flourless, chocolate & hazelnut. I've known that she doesn't like cakes, cakes using flour. However, she has an acquired taste for good quality chocolate, especially dark chocolates. And she loves hazelnut. Having baked an almond torte before (for my youngest sister), which was flourless, I didn't think I wanted to bake the same cake for her. Knowing what her taste is like, it got me a bit stressed!

I rumbled through all my recipe books, looking for hazelnut tortes. Somehow, I didn't find many recipes. Since I bought the gorgeous cakes book, I've not tried any recipe from there. I happened to come across this recipe called "French and Flourless". That does sounds good. So I decided to give it a try, hopefully it will turn out good!

The baking process was smooth. However, the shocking part was after the cake has cooled down. It was really crappy, and crumbly and looked like every corner was falling apart! Hahaha... The cake sank so badly in the centre! The cake was baked without flour. I also didn't dare to risk adding ground hazelnuts into the batter. So I topped the cake with the toasted ground hazelnuts instead. Luckily I made a decision to do that because the top was simply UGLY! Heehee...

This was how the cake looked like during & after baking.


Fortunately, very fortunately, I used good quality chocolate: Ghiradeli's 66% Dark Chocolate. I knew she will appreciate that, so I used them. Therefore, the overall taste was really very good! My family all loved the cake very much! She loved it too! I'm so glad my first experience with this recipe was good. Shall try other recipe from this book again!


Updated on 1 Feb 09:
French and Flourless (from Gorgorous Cakes)

Ingredients
(makes 1 x 20cm cake)
250g Unsalted butter, diced
250g Dark chocolate, (approx. 50% cocoa solides), broken into pieces
5 Medium eggs, separated
220g Golden caster sugar* (can be reduced by another 40-50%)

Method:
1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl set over a pan with a little simmering water in it, stirring occasionally.
2. At the same, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar for several minutes until pale and doubled in volume.
3. You can do this in a food processor, then transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the remaining sugar, whisking for about 20 secs for each addition. Whisk till stiff peak.
5. Fold the chocolate and butter into the egg mixture, then the egg whites, in two goes.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared buttered & lined 20cm cake tin 9cm deep with a removable base.
7. Bake for 50-60mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging.
8. Run a knife around the edge and leave it to cool in the tine, when it will sink.
9. Its craggy appearance is all part of its charm, but if parts of the sides are very high, then simple break a little off to level them.

I just topped the cake with ground hazelnuts to cover the crappy appearance.

*Note:
The original sugar used was 250g. I reduced to 220g. However, due to the sweetness of the cake, the good quality bitter chocolate was masked by the sugar. Therefore, after discussion with my sister, we decided that in order get the real chocolate taste, the sugar should be reduced by half. Then the taste will be similar to the Almond Torte, but much better!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there!
This is specially for my mum!

Fresh from the oven, the Chocolate Hazelnut Torte.

Decorated with my love, for my mother.

For all the mothers...

Recipe is extracted from "The Cake Book", similar to the Chocolate Almond Torte I bake previously.

Chocolate Hazelnut Swiss Rolls

Felt like going back to my basics again. Failed at my sponge cake attempt, I tried to do my chiffon style again. This time, I follow strictly again on my chiffon method cake. I put it into the sheet pan, wanting to do swiss rolls...again.

My flat sheet cake.

Topped with chocolate glacage, whipped cream & crushed hazelnuts.

Roll it up and coat it with chocolate glacage...

and sprinkled it with snow powder.

Cross section of the Chocolate Hazelnuts Swiss Roll.

Recipe extracted from my baking school.