Hershey's Cocoa Chiffon Cake

So long never bake! I'm craving for a homemade cake. Here's a good Hershey's cocoa chiffon cake!

Looking perfect!

Have a slice!

Sharing the recipe here. It's a very simple chocolate chiffon cake recipe which uses only cocoa powder for the chocolate flavour. I always go for simple recipe which saves time. There's no need to melt chocolate and wash extra utensils. It also serves as a basic recipe which you can add extra for more variations. The taste is also good too. Remember to use good quality cocoa powder!

Hershey's Cocoa Chiffon Cake

Ingredients: (17cm chiffon tin)

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
40ml oil
60ml water (or milk)
45g cake flour
30g Hershey's cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites (or 5 egg whites if prefer taller and fluffier cake)
50g caster sugar

Method:

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by water/milk.
3. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together. Add into batter. Mix until just combined. Set aside.
4. In another clean bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until near stiff peak.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches.
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon tin. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 35 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

Adapted from: 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手

CNY 2016: Salted Egg Yolk Cookies / Monkey German Cookies

This year's CNY baking was a very last minute one as I lost the mood and motivation to bake. I only start to read up for recipes and ideas for what I want to try this year the day before I start baking! Plan was to bake 3 types of cookies, 2 of which are new tries. I don't need to bake a lot. Just dedicate 1 day of mass baking! Wash also once! Lazy! Haha!

The ugly side of baking. Mess in the kitchen plus dining area. Small production only. My 3 types of cookie doughs.

Started with the hottest cookies this year. The Salted Egg Yolk Cookies!

Salted egg yolk in the cookies

Flowery designs for the salted egg yolk cookies. Because no black sesame seeds at home.

Oops after baking, shape not so nice liao. So this is the famous salted egg yolk cookies. The smell from the oven during baking is heavenly! Hope it tastes good!

Second cookies is what I have been baking every year since 2011!

Remember my Sheep design melt-in-mouth German cookies last year? So cute right?

Want to make monkey design for the Monkey Year. And they end up looking like this! (Idea from here). Look like or not? It's very difficult to shape as the dough is very soft.

Before it goes into the oven!

Monkey cookies done! Have to hide them away, if not sure finish up before cny!

Too tedious to make so many 'monkeys'. Do the usual shape with the remaining dough!

Last one is a type of refrigerator (icebox) cookies which I have never tried before. Mainly because it needs to chill and shape repeatedly.

Too bad I failed so badly that I feel embarrassed to show. But must keep record still. It's supposed to look like monkey, only the top left one look slightly better. The rest er... all out of shape due to me very inexperienced in baking cookies (like only once a year haha). So disappointed as it takes up the most time. It's ok. I tried! And I think I know where I went wrong. I should keep the cookies in the freezer because the cookies were not hard enough. So went out of shape when I cut.

Salted Egg Yolk Cookies 咸蛋黄酥饼

Ingredients

85g butter, softened at room temperature
40g caster sugar
125g all purpose flour
10g corn flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
2 cooked salted egg yolks, mashed

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten to glaze
black sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method

1. Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.

2. Sift flour, corn flour, baking powder into the butter mixture and use a spatula to mix until the flour mixture is totally absorbed into the butter mixture.

3. Then stir in the mashed salted egg yolks and gather the crumbs to form a soft pliable dough. Wrap dough in cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

4. Line baking trays with baking paper and preheat oven to 170 deg C.

5. Place dough on a lightly floured surface to roll into 3 mm thickness and cut them into shapes using your desired cookie cutter. Brush the cookies with egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds on them and bake for 15 mins or until golden brown.

Recipe from: Min's Blog

Monkey design Melt-in-mouth German Cookies 德式酥饼

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
40g icing sugar, sifted
125g potato starch, sifted
80g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp cocoa powder

Method

1. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and lighter in colour.

2. Sift in potato starch and plain flour, mix to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into 2 portions (1 smaller and 1 larger portion). Add cocoa powder to the larger portion. Wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Roll the body of the monkey 8g each using chocolate dough. Roll 2 smaller chocolate balls and place on the side of the head as ears. Roll and shape a small plain dough into banana shape, press flat and put on eye area. Roll and shape a larger plain dough into round shape, press flat and put on nose and mouth area. Use a skewer, make indentations for the eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 mins, upper rack (need not bake till cookies turn brown).

I wish everyone a prosperous Monkey Year!
May all be safe and healthy!!

祝贺大家：新年快乐，猴年猴到不得了!!

Soft and chewy peanut butter chips chocolate cookies

My new found love of peanut butter chips! I am so glad that it is now commonly sold at supermarkets like Fairprice and Giant.

The original recipe is Death by Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies from Sally's baking addiction. I didn't do much of change except omitting the chocolate chips and using all peanut butter chips only. Please also do reduce the sugar as the original recipe is extremely sweet!

It's soft, dense and chewy type of chocolate cookies. Mine look a bit different from their version because I followed their recipe too exactly and fold in all the chips into the batter resulting in peanut butter chips hidden inside the cookies. If you want, you can put more chips on top of the cookie balls before baking so that they will appear more delicious!

Soft and chewy peanut butter chips chocolate cookies

Ingredients (I make 48 pieces, about 20g each)

75g unsalted butter, softened
50g castor sugar
150g light brown sugar (I reduced)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

225g dark/semi-sweet chocolate, chopped and melted

133g plain flour
21g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

200g peanut butter chips (original uses 180g semi-sweet chocolate chips and 180g peanut butter chips)
(can use all chocolate chips if preferred, can add or reduce if preferred, can top with extra chips if preferred)

Method

1. Whisk butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the sugars, the mixture will be granular.
2. Mix in the beaten eggs and vanilla extract until incorporated.
3. Add the melted chocolate in a steady stream and beat until combined.
4. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and fold in the mixture.
5. Fold in the peanut butter chips. Do not overmix.
6. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes. (I chilled overnight)
7. Measure dough into 20g each and roll into balls. (I use spoon to scoop instead of rolling as the dough turns soft fast)
8. Bake at 175 deg C for 10 minutes or until the cookies have just begun to set with the centers still appearing very soft. They will firm up as they cool.
9. Remove from oven. Leave the cookies to cool on baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to rack.
(This is a soft and chewy cookies. If u prefer crispier cookies, leave the cookies in the tray for a longer time.)

4-in-1 Brownies

This was baked way back in October last year. Was thinking about what flavours to bake for the brownies and couldn't decide as everyone has their own preferences. So I 假厉害 (trying to act smart) and made a 4-in-1 brownies with the 4 popular cookie and candies.

Used the old brownies recipe. I spread half of the brownie batter, added the kitkat, M&M's, marshmallows and oreo cookies in between and then topped with the rest of the batter. I was trying to imagine the surprise of biting the brownies and found the hidden 'treasures'!

I suggest using a smaller square pan like 6 inch or 7 inch because mine was not quite enough to cover. And... after it was out of oven, it didn't come out as what I predicted! The marshmallows melted and the colours of the M&Ms leaked. Ohh! The result of acting smart.

Still had to continue. Luckily I could cover all that up with a layer of ganache and adding the respective toppings. Remember to take note of the sequence of hidden ingredients you put earlier.

Despite the slight problem, this was enough to tempt anyone!

Which is your favourite?

What was in between the layers. Not as predicted though. M&Ms and marshmallow don't work. Always remember!

Neapolitan Chiffon Cake

My forever boring chiffon cake. ;p

Sorry if I really bored you with my bakes. Cos whenever I feel like baking, chiffon cake is always the first in my mind. Unfortunately, I love baking and eating chiffon cakes most of the time.

Maybe it's not so boring... Look!

Inspired by the Neapolitan ice cream which was is still my childhood favourite, I make a Neapolitan version of chiffon cake made up of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate layers.

I'm glad that the layers turn out quite well and even. Will share a little trick later.

Neapolitan Chiffon Cake

Ingredients: (17cm chiffon tin)

3 egg yolks (about 60g)
20g caster sugar
50ml vegetable oil
50ml milk/water
90g cake flour, divide into 3 portions 30g each

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp strawberry powder
1 tsp cocoa powder

4 egg whites (about 160g)
50g caster sugar

Method:

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by milk/water.
3. Divide the batter in step 2 into 3 equal portions. (My batter weighs about 180g, so divide into 60g portion each).
4. For vanilla batter - add in 30g flour and vanilla extract.
For strawberry batter - add in 30g flour and strawberry powder.
For chocolate batter - remove 1 tsp of flour from 30g flour, add in the remaining flour and 1 tsp cocoa powder.
5. Mix all batters well and set aside.

6. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
7. Divide the whisked egg white in step 6 into 3 equal portions. (My egg white batter weighs about 210g, so divide into 70g portion each *see below*).
8. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batters (in step 5). Be gentle but quick to avoid the egg whites deflating.

The 3 batters

9. Pour the batters into an ungreased chiffon tin layer by layer. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 35 minutes or 160 deg C for 40 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
11. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

** For step 7, instead of dividing the egg whites equally, I divided them in 60g, 70g and 80g portions. Add the lesser 60g portion to the vanilla batter which is at the bottom of the tin during baking, 70g portion to the strawberry batter, and 80g portion to the chocolate batter which is at the top of the tin during baking. This is to get the layers as even as possible. You may adjust depending on how you want which colour to be in which layer. You may also omit this step.

Adapted from: 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手

Mooncakes 中秋月饼 2014

It's Mid-Autumn again!

I have made some mooncakes since last week. Before that, a shopping trip to Kwong Cheong Thye is a must. They have so many different types of mooncake pastes, some quite unusual. You can try the samples before deciding which flavour is suitable for you. Best of all, they sell in 500g packets so you can get more varieties. They have all other ingredients to complete the mooncake-making shopping, including the moulds and packaging too. The location is few steps away from Aljunied MRT, along the shophouses.

These are what I got here. This year I bought Hong Kong low sugar white lotus, chocolate and the special red dates and longan flavour!

I also made a trip to Kitchen Capers because I wanted to get the mooncake mould badly (see below). So pretty! :) Bought the snowskin premix wanting to make snowskin mooncakes this year. But but but... I couldn't get shortening. Blame myself only went to buy 1 day before making. The places I went to all sold out. Stupid me never get kaofen also as it is needed for dusting. So the plan failed! Mum said she likes baked mooncakes better and can keep better, so I ended up making all baked ones. Lol!

Using the same recipe as last year from Anncoo Journal. Getting ready to start. Just mix and leave the mixture to rest.

I am making the very popular Baked Chocolate Mooncakes too!

While waiting, steam the salted egg yolks and weigh and wrap the lotus pastes.

My chocolate mooncakes. They smell heavenly even before baking with the Valrhona cocoa powder.

Using my favourite design plates 中秋 and 莲蓉 for the traditional mooncakes.

The new mooncake mould. Have been using plunger type and not used to this mould. Didn't do a very good job. I used 140g (50g skin, 75g paste, 15g yolk) but not quite enough to fill the mould up. Perhaps can try 150g next year. Added charcoal powder to one mooncake.

The mooncakes freshly baked. Need to rest them for at least 2 days to soften.

The mooncakes after 2 days! Time for photo-taking before sending away. :)

The left one is red dates and longan. A new flavour which my mum and her friends like very much. Middle is low sugar white lotus, not sweet and very smooth. The right is chocolate, my nephew and nieces (and me too) love love love! Guess it's a must to make chocolate mooncakes next year.

The bigger mooncake which can put in a whole egg yolk. but as I didn't fill up the mould, the yolks look a bit crushed. Nevermind improve next year.

Baked chocolate Mooncakes

Ingredients: (I make 12pcs, each 20g skin 40g paste)

113g Plain flour
18g Cocoa powder (I used valrhona cocoa powder)
85g Sugar syrup
25g Peanut oil
1/2 tsp Alkaline water
480g lotus paste, divided into 12 portions

Method:

1. Mix sugar syrup, peanut oil and alkaline water together thoroughly.
2. Sift plain flour and cocoa powder in a bowl. Make a well in the center and pour sugar syrup mixture. Using a rubber spatula to mix and form to a soft dough. Cover with a cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 12 portions, 20g each and roll into balls. Wrap the dough around the lotus paste.
4. Roll it into ball and dust with some flour. Press firmly into mould, unmould and place on a lined baking tray.
5. Bake at preheated oven 170C for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and rest mooncakes to cool for about 15 minutes. Then bake the chocolate mooncakes again for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Leave mooncakes to cool down completely before storing into an airtight container. This mooncake can be eaten immediately and taste cripsy. Wait for about 3 days for the mooncakes for skin to soften (回油) before serving.

Recipe from: Anncoo Journal
Original from: Cass @ 揾到食

Wishing everyone Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟，中秋节快乐！

School Holidays Special: KitKat and M&Ms Chocolate Cake

It's the March school holidays this week. I baked this KitKat and M&Ms Chocolate Cake yesterday to 'celebrate' the break. (Actually I prefer no school holidays, less noise at home, haha!) Well, the real reason is, I wanted to try making this cake so badly after seeing this cake everywhere online and at some bakery shops too. And I'm sure the chocoholics at home, including me, will love this cake very much. In fact, this cake is so easy to make that I will encourage you to bake and decorate it with your kids (if u have) during this school holidays!

Step 1: Make a chocolate cake

You can use any recipes that you prefer. I'm using a chocolate chiffon cake recipe from Carol.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

4 egg yolks
15g sugar
25g vegetable oil
45ml milk
50g cake flour
25g cocoa powder

4 egg whites
65g sugar
5ml lemon juice

Bake 160 deg C, 35-40 minutes

This cake is baked in a 8 inch round pan in the book. But I recommend a 7 inch or even 6 inch cake pan to make the cake taller, as the kitkat chocolate is quite long. Use a removable-base pan. Invert immediately after removing from the oven (just like baking a chiffon cake) and let it cool completely before slicing the cake into 3 even layers.

Adapted from：烘焙新手必备的第一本书

Step 2: Make chocolate ganache

100g dark chocolate
100g dairy cream

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and put in a bowl.
Heat dairy cream in a saucepan until just about to boil (when you start seeing some bubbles).
Pour the cream into the bowl of chocolate, set aside for a few minutes. Then stir the mixture until chocolate dissolves and a smooth ganache is formed. Leave it to cool and slightly thicken.

Spread the ganache between the cake slices and all around the cake.

Step 3: Decorate the cake

Place KitKat all around the cake and then pour as much M&M's as you want on top of the cake. Chill in the fridge for a few hours for the ganache to set.

Step 4: Slice and eat!

Slice, serve and eat!

Hidden Heart Chiffon Cake

I should have posted this yesterday, but just too lazy.

Few days ago, I did something that nobody has ever done before, or at least I have never seen anywhere online. Hidden heart in a cake is not something new. You probably have seen hidden hearts in pound cakes and cupcakes. But in a chiffon cake, it is just me daydreaming about it! So I daringly TRIED!

There's a HEART in my chiffon cake! It looks amazing right? But I can't say I succeed cos not every slice has a nice heart shape. Haha!

This is how I do it. I just use a chiffon cake recipe for a 17cm tin - 4 eggs (or any recipe that you like). Prepare the egg yolk batter as usual. Divide the batter into 2 portions. One portion I add strawberry powder to make it pink. The other I add cocoa powder to make it a chocolate chiffon cake.

Then beat half of the egg whites, for my case I beat 2 egg whites to peak first. Mix egg white to strawberry batter and bake in a square or any flat pan at 180 deg C for about 8-10 minutes until the top brown evenly. Set it aside to cool down, then cut the cake into as many pink heart shapes as you can. (Aiya, I should have used a smaller heart cutter.)

Next, I continue to beat the other 2 egg whites to peak. Another wrong estimation, I should have used extra white cos I end up not quite enough batter to cover the pink hearts. Then, mix the egg whites with the chocolate batter. Pour some chocolate batter into the chiffon tin. Place the pink hearts inside the tin all around - remember to place hearts upside down cos the chiffon cake will be turn over after baked. Try to place them as close as possible to avoid too many large gaps. Cover the hearts with the rest of the chocolate batter, then bake as usual.

And that's how I got the heart shapes in, although not perfect. My daydream comes true! LOL!

Merry Christmas 2013

This Christmas, I made a Christmas logcake for the first time.

The cake was made of chocolate chiffon cake, spread with nutella. The logcake was frosted and decorated by my nieces with nutella whipped cream. I did tried to help them to make the cake neater, but I was equally bad at it, haha! Luckily, once all the decorations were put in, the logcake looked pretty good! :)



The remaining of the chocolate cake batter, I put into my new mini flower chiffon mould. It was really cute!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

May everyone be blessed with good health and happiness!!!

Chiffon Cake #19: Chocolate & Pandan 双色巧克力斑兰戚风蛋糕

Hihi, here's another chiffon cake that I bake recently. Sorry I have to skip my chiffon cakes series from #13 to #19 first because I want to support the Pandan theme hosted by Joceline that is going to end this month. :)

Chiffon Cake #19: Chocolate & Pandan 双色巧克力斑兰戚风蛋糕

17cm chiffon tin:

4 egg yolks
16g sugar
40g vegetable oil

Mix the above and divide batter into 2 portions.

Using homegrown pandan leaves

For pandan flavour, add:
28g concentrated pandan juice
(I blend 12 pandan leaves in some water, let the mixture stand for few hours and use the bottom layer)
32g cake flour

For chocolate flavour, add:
28g water
22g cake flour
10g cocoa powder

4 egg whites
70g sugar
8g corn flour

Whip the egg whites to stiff peak. Divide into 2 equal portions and add to the pandan and chocolate batter.

Bake 170 deg C, 35 minutes

Recipe adapted from: Okashi: sweet treats made with love

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up September - Pandan hosted by Joceline @ Butter, Flour & Me, organized by Zoe@ Bake For Happy Kids and Mui Mui @ My Little Favourites DIY.