Copycat Sara Lee Pound Cake

Recently, my spouse and son got hooked on to Sara Lee cakes again.  I just to admit, Sara Lee cakes are really nice when I'm not a baker. But since I started baking, I find the cake sweet and looking at the ingredients, it doesn't sound too healthy isn't it? So I searched for a similar recipe and found from this site. It looked easy to attempt. However, my pound cake didn't yield the exact same look as hers. I wondered how to achieve the dense, no-holes look. However, the taste was nice and dense. Fortunately, my hubby likes it.
 
Recipe for Copycat Sara Lee Pound Cake, adapted from Copykat.
(Makes a regular loaf)

Ingredients: 
113g Unsalted butter, softened
120g Caster sugar

3 Eggs

137g Cake flour

15g Dry powdered milk

10g Corn syrup

juice of half a small lemon

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp Baking powder

Method:

1. Allow butter to reach room temperature. 
2. Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  
3. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.  
4. Add in flour, powdered milk, baking powder, and corn syrup. Beat each in well.  Add juice of half a lemon, salt and vanilla. Make sure everything is well blended, and pour into a greased loaf pan.  
5. Bake at 170C for 45 minutes, checking for done-ness by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean. You almost want to under bake this.

Blackcurrant Sunflower Seeds Pound Cake

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

Itching to bake cakes and to use up my sour cream, I made a Blackcurrant Sunflower Seeds Pound Cake. I bake into many many smaller loaves so that I can give away.

Recipe for Blackcurrant Sunflower Seeds Pound Cakes, adapted from Honey Bee Sweets.
(Makes 6 mini aluminum loaves)

Ingredients:
250g Liv unsalted butter, room temperature
310g Caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2tsp Vanilla paste
200g Sour cream
400g Plain flour
2 3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
80g Sunflower seeds
80g Blackcurrants

Method: 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Prepare 6 mini aluminium pans.
2. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and the hot water together to make a smooth paste.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs and then vanilla. Then add in the sour cream, and scraping the bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure it is evenly combined.
4. Fold in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and blend well.
5. Lastly, mix in blackcurrant and sunflower seeds into the batter and mix well.
6. Place in the oven to bake for 32mins. Bake till golden brown and the tester comes out clean. 
7. Once baked, remove from oven and let cool completely.

Lavender Cream Cheese Pound Cake

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

Good as a gifts for Christmas. :)

Recipe for Lavender Cream Cheese Pound Cake, adapted from Honey Bee Sweets.
(Makes 3 small and 3 mini loaves)

Ingredients:
330g Plain Flour
340g LIV unsalted butter, room temperature
250g Cream cheese, room temperature
6 Whole eggs
240g Castor Sugar
1½ tbsp Rum
1 tsp Salt
1½ tsp Dried Lavender

Method:

1. Preheat fan oven to 160°C. With a k-beater, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in rum and lavender.
3. With mixer on low, add flour and salt in three additions, beating until just combined.
4. Pour batter into the prepared pans. Even the top with a spatula.
5. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out almost clean, approximately 40-43mins.
6. Cool them in the pan completely 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.

Banana Cream Cheese Pound Cake

After meals, my eldest son will ask,"what's for dessert?" I will ask him what he want for dessert. Not that I alwyas have desserts at home everyday, in fact, it's vice versa. He will hunt for other snacks, like those leftover cookies from CNY or snacks from the kitchen cupboard. So, to prevent him from asking too much, I decided to bake a simple cake.

I decided to bake a Banana Cream Cheese Pound Cake, modified from Little Corner of Mine. The addition of banana to this original cream cheese pound cake makes it very fragrant, but not overpowering the cream cheese. It taste really soft and nice.

I'm also submitting this post to the Aspiring Bakers #5 Fruity March.

Recipe for Banana Cream Cheese Pound Cake, modified from Little Corner of Mine.

Ingredients:
113g Unsalted butter, soften
80g Fine sugar
113g Cream cheese, soften
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
125g Plain flour, sieved
1/2 tbsp Baking powder, sieved
1/2 tsp Fine rock salt
95g Banana, mashed

Method:
1. Beat butter in a bowl with electric mixer on medium speed.
2. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition, until very light and fluffy.
3. Add cream cheese, beat to mix well.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, beat to mix.
5. Add mashed bananas, mix well.
6. Add flour, baking powder and salt to the mixture.
7. Beat to mix well.
8. Pour the batter into greased 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pan and bake at 180C for 45 minutes.

9. Let it cool in the pan completely before removing.

Pound Cakes Revisited

I cannot resist pound cakes when I see one, especially those beautifully baked pounds. Even though I have my own foolproof pound recipes, I'm always tempted to try new recipes.

When I saw NEL with her Fruit & Nut Pound Cake, I cannot resist it. So I baked one loaf. It was exactly like what she described - moist, but not heavy, buttery but not overpowering!

As if baking one wasn't enough. Two days later, I used the same recipe and baked a Chocolate Chip Pound Cake for breakfast. This time, I think I overbaked it slightly as I was using a smaller loaf pan. Even so, the taste was also very good. I replaced 15g cake flour with cocoa powder and added 120g chocolate chips but omitted the fruits and nuts. Do try this recipe if you have craving for some pound cakes (just like me!)

Earl Grey Pound Cake

Since I started planning for my workshop on pound cakes, I've been searching around for good pound cakes to try them out. Somehow, I derived a sense of satisfaction when my pound cakes turned out to be crusty and fragrant. I found that simplest cake like this can really satisfy a craving for cakes. Since I saw the Earl Grey Pound Cake from Crummb, I've been wanting to try it. Unfortunately, there wasn't any recipe available.

Then, as if Universe knows what I want, Ju made this Earl Grey Pound Cake and shares her recipe! Isn't that great? So I used her recipe and made two mini loaves: one for my family consumption and the other, I gave it to my boss for his birthday.

After baking, I left it on the rack to cool. Even before it was thoroughly cooled, I took out one loaf and slice it. My elder son has quite a sharp nose. When he smell the pound cake, he said there was a scent of tea leaves. I was pleasantly surprised and told him it was an earl grey pound cake. Then the three kids came in and took a small piece each. I couldn't resist it, so I tried the cake while it was still warm and found it to be really nice and fragrant. I think pound cakes should be eaten warm in order to enjoy the true taste and fragrance of the butter and the flavour!

Orange & Almond Pound

I baked an Orange & Almond Pound cake for a colleague who is recuperating at home from cancer. It was really a heart pain to see her like that. Even though we were not very close all this time, my heart went out to her the moment I heard about her case. I was really sad, and I sms her once a while to cheer her up, and give her all the encouragement that I can. I finally found the courage to ask if I can visit her. Even though she looked differently, she is still as pretty as ever. I made an excuse to bake for her, so that I can visit her. She was happy that I visited her, and liked my cake very much. I tell myself, if I have the time again, I will bake for her again, at least to keep her going and make her happy.


This pound cake will be taught for under my Perfect Pound workshop. Sign up for it now!

Experimenting

I was experimenting with some pound cakes and decorations for my new workshop for Valentine's. I was glad the combination turned out to be perfect - Almond pound cake with chocolate ganache. I was pleasantly surprised that my children almost finished up the whole mini cake! The almond pound cake was really fragrant and nice, especially when it's chilled! I also like it very much. It will also be a good cake for any ocassions!



Watch for it coming up soon!

Bees-Z Garden

Last month, two of my colleagues and I had to do some course assignments jointly. As another colleague, LJ, is better in English, we "arrowed" her to do the consolidation for us. She obliged despite her busy schedule. In the end, the two reports (part 1 & part 2) were very beautifully crafted and presented, all thanks to her! I meant, we did our parts too, but she had to put in more effort to ensure that the parts gelled well.

In order to show my appreciation, I've decided to bake a cake, and had it decorated in fondant for her. Well, it was a long over-due token of appreciation. But then, it's better to be late than never!

This "Bees-Z Garden" consists of three bees- LJ, SC (another colleague) and myself. I used the marble pound cake as the base cake, crumb coat it with buttercream and covered them with rolled fondant. I made it into a garden of bees because it reflected that we are as diligent as bees! Heehee... We had to do our report outside our working time, during weekends or weeknights. "Beauty Bee" represents LJ, who has eye shadow on her eyes. Heehee... The four flowers actually represented that she is most diligent.



"Bonny Bee" is SC. She is working on a three-flowers branch. As for moi, "I" was just moving towards a two-flowers branch. Slow & steady is what I represent myself! "LOL" I hope LJ likes this theme and the cake.

Cakes on the list

There are always time for baking cakes. Any kind of cakes are good enough to bake, as long as you want to. There are always recipes that you fall back on, and new ones which you put them in your "To Bake" list. For me, I have more of the latter than the former. Sometimes, I just want to try new recipes. Other times, I just want to "play safe". Whatever it is, both will derived satisfaction equally.



Last weekend, I didn't manage to do any baking as I attended a full three days workshop. I only managed to catch up on some bakings yesterday. I baked marble pound cakes and Oreo Cupcakes. The Oreo cupcakes were extracted from Yochana's Blog with modification. I'm glad it turned out good. I wrapped them up and let my son bring them to school to give away to his teachers and friends. This is the last week of school. They'll get their well-deserved holidays soon. Boy I'm so happy too!




Recipe for Mini Oreo Cupcakes (modified)
(Makes approx. 60 cupcakes, base about 1")

Ingredients:
230g Salted butter
150g Fine sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
235g Self-raising flour (sieved)
100g Oreo Biscuits - crushed lightly
30g Chocolate Chips (Optional)

Method:
(1) Using a k-beater, beat butter and sugar till fluffy.
(2) Add in the eggs one by one. Mix well before adding the next one.
(3) Mix in vanilla extract.
(4) Add in the flour in 2-3 batches. Mix till combined. Continue beating until smooth, but thick.
(5) Stir in the crushed oreo biscuits and spoon into paper cups.
(6) Topped with one chocolate chip each.
(7) Bake at 180C for 14mins. or until cooked.
(8) Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Mousse

I invited my colleagues over to my place for dinner last night. So my domestic helper prepared a sumptuous dinner for us, including three cup chicken, fried bittergourd eggs, mixed vegetables, lotus root soup and oriental salad prepared by me. They enjoyed the dinner very much. I also prepared chocolate mousse for them, they loved it very much and complimented that it tasted just like those in restaurants! :) I was really happy. Before I could even try a cup, my three children finished the other three cups! No more chance.


Recipe for Chocolate Mousse, extracted from Daily Delicious.

Ingredients:
120g Ghiradeli Milk Chocolate
40g Ghiradeli 72% Dark Chocolate
40g Sugar
145g Eggs
170g Whipping Cream
2 tsp Dark rum
A dash of salt

Method:
1. Put the chocolates in a heatproof bowl. Half fill a saucepan with water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and place the bowl over the pan. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted. Add rum and stir to mix thoroughly.
2. Using electric beaters, beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is thick, pale and increased in volume.
3. Add the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, and use the electric beaters to mix thoroughly.
4. Beat the whipped cream till slightly thicken.
5. Gently fold in the whipped cream to the chocolate mixture.
6. Spoon into five dessert glasses and refrigerate till firm, at least 4 hours.
7. Serve with whipped cream and some toasted almond nibs.

Baked a pound cake for another friend again! Hahaha...how boring can I get?!?!

Buttermilk Pancakes

It was another Sunday at home with my children. For about a month now, we didn't go to my parents' in-law house for lunch. The kids were home, and we had to prepare lunch. Last minute I didn't want my dosmetic helper to cook "proper" lunch. So I decided to make pancakes instead. I remembered I saw some pancake recipe in some blog. But being last minute, I couldn't find one with buttermilk recipe. In the end, I got one from Joy of Baking instead.

Hmm...why insist on buttermilk? That was because I had a tub of Paul's plain yogurt in the fridge and I wanted to use it up quickly. I read from The Sunday Times quite a while back that food consultant Chris Tan said that buttermilk can be substituted with half plain unsweeten yogurt and half milk. So I tried it out. The pancake turned out to be soft and moist. I spread it with my homemade chocolate banana jam and cut bananas. It was so tasty, and most importantly, I felt rather healthy!


I also baked Rei's Chocolate Pound Cake the day before so as to serve my participants for the Roses Decoration workshop.



Recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes, extracted from Joy of Baking.
(Makes about 5 4-inch pancakes)

Ingredients
140g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Baking soda
¼ tsp Salt
28g Fine sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
240ml Buttermilk (120ml Plain yogurt + 120ml Whole milk, mixed well)
40g Unsalted butter, melted

Extra butter

Method:
1.In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
2.In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter.
3.Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, all at once, and whisk until just combined.
4.The batter should have some small lumps. Do not over mix the batter or the pancakes will be tough.
5.Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the butter to the heated pan.
6.Scoop about 3 tablespoon of pancake batter onto the pan, and spread it lightly.
7.When the bottoms of the pancakes are brown and bubbles start to appear on the top surfaces of the pancakes turn over. Cook until lightly browned.
8.Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter between batches.
9.Serve immediately with maple syrup, cut fruits (especially banana) or your favorite jam. Or simply squeeze Hershey's chocolate syrup and enjoy!

How much can you achieve in a day?

How much can you achieve in a day, assuming you don't have to do housework? I wonder what do employers do when their maids are taking their day off on a Sunday. It was my helper's day off today. She was really kind to help me to settle the children's basic needs (like preparing breakfast and bathing them) before going out. That left me enough time to do my Yam Cake in the morning. I had some frozen yams from PH previously and thought I might as well use it for my yam cake. I didn't really follow the recipe exactly, and so, I think the yam cake didn't turned out that well. Fortunately, it's is edible!



While the yam cake was steaming, I spent time with my twins to do some fondant moulding. Quizzine has very kindly did a step-by-step guide for Grace and myself on moulding bumble bees. So I thought I might as well do it with my children. As the more we mould, we ventured into moulding other stuff - fruits and pizza. Finally, here was what we did.




After lunch, we went to Kitchen Capers to buy some stuff. Gina was there, preparing for her demo class at KC. Then we came back for my children to rest as my daughter was not feeling well. While they were on their "independant" mode, I had the chance to do some bakings. No prize on guessing what I baked! It was pound cakes again. This time, I decided to add chopped almonds to the pound.



After baking, I prepare ingredients for dinner. When my helper is not around, I'd prefer to cook very simple dish - fried noodles. It's good and it's easy. My hubby and myself are great fans of noodles!


When I was taking my dinner, then I realised how tired my feet was! It just feel so good to be seated and resting!!

More Pound, more variety!

Despite attending my Barista Training Workshop for two evenings this week , I still find some time to do some baking. One of the cake, had to be pound cake again! Not that I purposely wanted to bake pound cake, but it was actually a request from a colleague to have pound cake. Actually she requested for blueberry pound cake, but I baked an orange coconut cream cheese pound cake for her instead. My excuse was - I don't have blueberries at home. :p Partly also because I still have cream cheese and I want to use them up. I discover that by adding desiccated coconut to the orange pound cake, it makes a whole lot of differences! It's a new "concotion" I discovered, and I'm rather happy with the combi. Anyone of you can try it too! :p



I also made some chocolate banana jam because my children told me that they like the bread with jam in school. So I thought I'll made them some jam. However, after I made the jam, they didn't want to take it. *sigh* children!


Today, I decided to bake some breads, and swiss rolls was decided some last minute. Nowadays, I like to prepare bread dough the night before, and do the rest the following morning. Usually, it'll be Friday prepare dough and Saturday to mould and bake. Then I'll leave the dough in the fridge to proof. I also added pre-ferment dough to the fresh dough to make it softer. Today, I made plain buns (for my egg mayo), pork floss buns (of different shapes) and white lotus buns with black sesame seeds. It's really not easy baking food for a family of 6. If they like the food, it'll be gone in a day or two. However, if they don't like, the food can be kept for a week and nobody eats! I had to bake about 16 buns on weekend to see us through Sunday breakfast. That means 400g of flour (bread + plain). See what I meant by feeding a family of 6, almost like a small football team!


I was testing out the swiss roll cake sheet for a cake order next week. Not wanting to waste the cake, I used the chocolate banana jam as my filling and added whipped cream to it. It tasted rather good, even though the whipping cream was rather thick. I've not baked swiss rolls for a long long time!

Finding Time

Time is always ticking away. It's difficult sometimes to decide what you want to do when time is not on your side. Lately, I was quite busy with work, followed by course assignments (from work), baking and surfing for recipes. Also, school exams are drawing nearer. I still have to spend time coaching my eldest son once a while, even though I've out-sourced his learning out. That was also my excuse for not updating my blogs as often now.

I found that no matter how busy I am, I will set aside sometime to do some baking. It's a "mandatory" activity I just have to do. I think I derived satisfaction when my bakes turn out to be good. If it didn't, I'll be disappointed. Then I try to analyse what went wrong. I try to make it a point to take notes on the bakes, what was reduced, what was added, what was the temperature etc. So that the next time when I use the same recipe again, I'll just follow exactly.

This week was no different. Some bakes, some good, some are not. Here are the consolidated list for this week.

Baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes.


Orange Cream Cheese Pound Cake.


Chiffon Sponge.


Chicken Curry Buns.


Pork Floss Buns.