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.
This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!
My dear friend Doris, likes to tempt me with her bakings. Not tempting me with the eating of the food, but rather, more to inspire me to bake with her yummy bakings.
She mentioned about Nasi Lemak Lover cake and I assumed it was the Marbled Butter Cake. Turned out that she baked the Zebra Cake which was light and buttery, while I baked her Marbled Butter Cake, which was moist and buttery. We both liked the recipe we tried. Heehee.... The butter cake turns out to be really fragrant and moist. Even my children enjoyed it too!
Recipe for Marble Butter Cake, adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover.
(Makes a 8" round cake)
Ingredients:
250g Liv salted butter, soften
150g Caster sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
230g Cake flour, sifted
1 1/2tsp Baking powder, sifted
60g Whipping cream (original was 4 tbsp milk)
1 tbsp Cocoa powder + 1/2 tsp coffee powder + 2 tbsp milk – mix together
Method:
1. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy.
2. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. After well combine, slightly increase speed and beat for 1min till fluffy.
3. Add the flour and baking powder (sifted together) and beat well to combine, fold whipping cream alternately and combine well.
4. Remove 250g of plain batter and place in another clean mixing bowl, mix well with cocoa mixture.
5. Spoon the two batters, plain and chocolate batter, alternately into the prepared cake pan. Using a skewer, gently swirl it around the mixture in the tin a few times to create a marbled effect. Tap the tin to remove any air bubbles.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 160C for 50-55mins or until a skewer insert and come out clean.
7. Cool it completely before cutting.
This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!
Red Velvet Cake craze has never died off in my family for their birthday request. For the past years, it was those dense sponge cakes which are pretty heavy. This year, my sister's boyfriend happened to be in town and he requested for Red Velvet Cake again. I went online to check if there is a lighter version.
I found a Red Velvet Chiffon Cake recipe and decided to modify it. I used this cake as my sponge cake base. I also modified the usual cream cheese frosting to make it lighter for the chiffon sponge. This cake was very well received by my family members. They liked the light cake texture with the lighter cream cheese frostings. They added that this cake shall be the future RVC for them.
Recipe for Red Velvet Chiffon Cake
(Makes an 8" round cake)
Chiffon Cake, modified from LY's Kitchen Ventures.
Ingredients:
48g Unsweetened cocoa powder
112g Hot water
68g Buttermilk (64g whole milk + 4g fresh lemon juice)
80g LIV unsalted butter
1/2 tsp Fine rock salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tsp Red colouring gel
144g Cake flour
8 Egg yolks, room temperature
8 Egg whites, room temperature
170g Caster sugar
1 tsp Corn flour
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160C. Prepare two 8" round cake pans. Line the bottom but do not grease.
2. Dissolve the cocoa powder in the hot water.
3. In a small pot over low heat, warm the milk, butter, salt and cocoa mixture to about 60C or until the butter melts completely.
4. Add the vanilla extract and red colouring gel. Stir and ensure everything is mixed thoroughly. Remove from heat. Set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and colouring mixture and whisk thoroughly. The batter will become slightly thick.
6. Next, add the egg yolks one by one while whisking the mixture. Set it aside.
7. Using a mixer on medium speed, beat the egg whites. Mix corn flour into the sugar well.
8. When they turn foamy, add the sugar and flour mixture gradually until soft peaks. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the red velvet batter using a whisk. When the mixture is just combined, pour the batter into the meringue and fold well.
9. Pour half the batter into the two pans respectively. Bang slightly to remove bigger air bubbles.
10. Bake for 10 minutes before reducing the temperature to 150C for another 27 minutes. This prevents the cake from burning. DO not open the oven door while baking or the cake will deflate.
11. Check if the cake is done by piercing a skewer through it. The skewer should come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and invert them. Remove the pans and let them cool completely.
12. Refrigerate to enable easier slicing.
Cream Cheese Frosting
500g Cream cheese, room temperature
125g Liv unsalted butter, room temperature
120g Whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract (I used lemon oil)
200g Icing sugar (I used only 70g as I had ran out of them.)
Method:
1. In a cold mixing bowl, beat whipping cream till stiff. Transfer to a smaller bowl and keep in the fridge for later use.
2. In the same bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter on medium speed, just until blended.
3. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. With the speed on low, add the icing sugar in 4 batches, beating until smooth between each addition.
4. Fold in whipped cream. Chilled if not ready to frost yet.
To Assemble:
1. Slice each chilled cake into two equal layers. Slice the dome off for decoration later.
2. Place one cake layer on a serving plate/tray and spread some cream cheese evenly. Repeat this process until all cake layers are stacked.
3. Frost the cake completely.
4. With the remaining cake crumbs, add in some frosting, mix well and roll into 12 balls (I rolled 11).
5. Topped the balls with some frosting and placed it around the cake as decoration.
4. Chill the cake to set the frosting. Need not thaw before consuming.
My baking group of friends have been buying Chinese recipe books. Every other time, they will produce beautiful bakes from those Chinese books. So that tempted me to buy some Chinese books when I was in Taipei recently. Even though I might not be able to understand all the words, I know I can rely on some of my friends for the translation. Heehee...
Most of the bakers would have owned this book, took me so long to get one now. Recommended by my baking kaki and some other bloggers too. Here is my first bake from her book - 手作花样威风蛋糕 by Noriko Ozawa.
Recipe for Orange Peel Chiffon Cake, modified from 手作花样威风蛋糕 by Noriko Ozawa (translation based on my limited knowledge)
(Makes a 20cm/8" chiffon cake)
Ingredients:
180g Egg whites (approx. 5 eggs)
80g Caster sugar
10g Cornflour
70g Egg yolks (approx. 5 eggs)
60g Water
60g Vegetable oil
90g Cake flour
1 1/2tsp Orange extract
50g Orange Peel, cut into smaller pieces
Method:
1. In a mixing bowl, add in egg yolks, extract, water and oil. Add in the cake flour. Using a whisk mix till the mixture is well incorporated and smooth. Add in the orange peel and mix well.
2. In another mixing bowl of egg whites, whisk the egg whites till foamy. Then add in 1/3 of the sugar mix with corn flour.
3. Continue beating the whites until glossy. Add in another one 1/3 of the sugar and flour.
4. When it's thicker, add in the remaining sugar and beat till stiff peak, or until fine and glossy.
5. Take one third of the meringue and add into the egg batter. Fold well.
6. Pour the batter into the remaining egg whites and fold to incorporate thoroughly.
7. Pour the batter into a prepared tube pan.
8. Bake in a preheated oven of 160C for 45mins.
9. Invert the chiffon cake pan and let it cool totally before slicing and serving.
