Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010) - Roundup

Thanks for the overwhelming responses for our very first baking event! I receive a total of 54 entries. I didn't expect it at all! Great thanks to all of you who have participated. Please continue to support for future monthly challenges. We will have different hosts for every month and I can assure you that the themes will get you very excited.

Btw, just a clarification, this is NOT a competition and there will be NO winners or prizes. It's just a platform for us to share our bakes and recipes. And an extra motivation to bake and challenge. :)

Here are the lovely bakes submitted for this month's theme - Chiffon Cakes, listed in the order of the date of submission.











































































































Lastly, Jennifer, who does not own any blog (yet), has kindly share with us her favourite Banana Chiffon Cake recipe. I will help her to post it up here.


Japanese Flour

Banana Chiffon Cake

Preparation:
Oven Temperature : 180 degree C.
Tin : 21" Chiffon tin
Baking Time : 45-55min
Position : medium lower rack of the oven

Ingredients:
Group (A)
70g Egg Yolk ( from abt 4nos of eggs weighing 70g w/shell )
70g Salad Oil ( can reduce to 50g )
30g Water
90g Mashed banana*
90g Cake Flour ( sift once. Note: i used the Japanese Flour with enclosed picture )
100-140g Diced banana*
* Note : used very riped banana as it will give the cake its flavour

Group (B)
180g Egg white ( from abt 5nos of eggs )
90g Icing Sugar
10g Corn Flour ( sift with icing sugar once )

Method
1. Put egg yolk, salad oil, water and mashed banana in a bowl to mix then add cake flour and mix the batter well
2. Add diced banana to the batter and mix well
3. In the mixer/ separate mixing bowl, beat the egg white till foamy, then add icing sugar + corn flour slowly to the meringue while beating. Continue to beat till stiff peak forms.
4. Mix one third of the meringue to the batter and mix well. Then pour the rest of the meringue to the batter and delicately fold the meringue to the batter till well mixed with a spatula.
5. Pour mixture into the chiffon mould. Give it a few knocks but dropping the tin on the table to release air the send it to the oven immediately.
6. When the cake is baked, remove from oven and overturn the tin to cool.
7. Only remove the cake from the tin when it is fully cool to avoid cake from sinking.

If I have accidentally omitted any entries that you had submitted, please leave a comment here, I will update them asap.

*****

I'm sure you are very eager to know the theme for this month. Here it is! :)

Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010)
This month's event will be hosted by Jane of Passionate About Baking.
Just Bake/Roast/Grill/Cook any Christmas related food.

The closing date is: 26 Dec 2010.
All entries will be compiled and posted by 28 Dec 2010.

Hop over to her blog for the details on how to participate.

Lastly, some reminders to those who want to submit your bake:
1. Please submit your entry according to the month of that challenge. For example, if it is December 2010's challenge, then only those blog posts in December 2010 are accepted. Don't send any Christmas food that were made in 2009 or Nov 2010.
2. You must mention in your post that you are submitting to "Aspiring Bakers" and provide a link to the blog of the host of the month, or else the entry will not be accepted.
3. Please send an email to the host to submit your entry. Just putting a link in your posts is not enough. If you submit more than 1 entry, you have to send email for each and every entry. This is to ensure we have received your entry. You know sometimes, we might be too busy to follow so many blogs.
4. Please attach 1 photo only for each entry.
5. Please put "Aspiring Bakers" as your email subject, just in case they land in the spam folder and got accidentally deleted.

Have fun baking and cooking for Christmas and don't forget to share with us on your blog.
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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Aspiring Bakers #1: Pandan Chiffon Cake

I have been receiving entries for Aspiring Bakers #1 in my email almost everyday. I certainly feel very encouraged that so many of you supported this event. I hope the good response will continue for our future monthly events too. The theme for December has already been fixed. Look out for the announcement during the roundup on 1 Dec. :)

I bake another chiffon cake for this event. Actually I wanted to be kiasu and bake 4 chiffon cakes, but I just didn't find the time, so I think this will be my 2nd and last entry for Aspiring Bakers #1.


This is my second time making Pandan Chiffon Cake. The first one failed miserably. This time I read through the How to make a Pandan Chiffon Cake: Almost everything you need to know guide, written by Dr Leslie Tay, the man behind the famous food blog ieatishootipost. To my mum who doesn't read his blog but have seen him on tv, he is the "Roti Prata man" cos I have shown her the video of this doctor making roti prata. I really want to try it out some day.


Back to this Pandan Chiffon Cake, I didn't follow his recipe exactly as he uses really big chiffon tin. I took reference from the Kiamnianwong extra egg whites recipe and roughly adjusted it to suit my small chiffon tin, trying to retain the flour to liquid ratio. Instead of using pandan essence, I use homemade pandan paste using the method from Wendy and Sonia.

Just blend 1 cup of pandan leaves with 1 cup of water. Filter and leave the liquid mixture in the fridge for a few days for it to settle down. Use the layer of pandan paste at the bottom only.


Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingredients (makes 16cm chiffon tin)

(A)
2 egg yolks (I use 50g egg)
20g sugar
A small pinch of salt
30g vegetable oil
40g coconut milk
1 tbsp pandan paste (homemade)

(B)
55g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

(C)
3 egg whites (I use 50g egg)
45g sugar

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves.

2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by coconut milk and pandan paste, and stir until well-mixed.

3. Fold in sifted cake flour and baking powder until well-mixed. Set aside.

4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.

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. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 30 minutes. (I bake at 180 deg C for the first 10 minutes, then reduce to 170 deg C for the next 20 minutes, for my 6 inch tin.)

7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.

8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

Recipe adapted from: ieatishootipost.sg - How to make a Pandan Chiffon Cake: Almost everything you need to know


I am submitting this chiffon cake to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010), the very first monthly baking event hosted by me. If you have baked any chiffon cakes in the month of Nov 2010, you can submit it to me by 30 Nov 2010. Click here for the details.

If you want to be the host for future monthly events or suggest a theme, please email to smallsmallbaker@yahoo.com.sg.
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Monday, November 08, 2010

Aspiring Bakers #1: Black Sesame Paste Chiffon Cake

I always have a lot of fear when baking chiffon cakes. Many times, although the cake rises very well in the oven, it tends to collapse during cooling. I hate to see it falling out of the tin halfway during cooling. Even if it doesn't fall out, it will have a sunken top like this. :( This was a pandan chiffon that I had baked years ago. I dare not blog about it. However, I keep this photo as a reminder of how badly I did.


So I always have some form of stress and anxiety when I'm unmoulding the cake cos I will only know whether I'm successful or not until the moment I fully unmould my cake. Below is my latest chiffon cake. Although it looks as if it is perfect, it has actually shrunk quite a lot after cooling. See the crustless ring at the bottom of the cake? It is not because I did not unmould it properly. It is because the cake has shrunk so much that the cake detached from the cake tin and leaving the crust on the tin. I'm not too sure what has gone wrong.


This Black Sesame Paste Chiffon Cake recipe is taken from Happy Flour, who is really good at chiffon cakes. I'm "eyeing" some of her other chiffon cakes as well. I like the texture of this cake, very soft and fluffy and has a very nice black sesame flavour.


I'm using this Black Sesame and Honey Paste.




I am submitting this chiffon cake to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010), the very first monthly baking event hosted by me. If you have baked any chiffon cakes in the month of Nov 2010., you can submit it to me by 30 Nov 2010. Click here for the details.

If you want to be the host for future monthly events or suggest a theme, please email to smallsmallbaker@yahoo.com.sg.
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010)

I'm thinking of starting our very own monthly baking event.

I'll call ourselves the "Aspiring Bakers" (you like this name?).

I'll start it as a monthly event first to see if the response is good.

For this month's challenge, I'll be the host and the theme is "Chiffon Cakes".

Who can join?
Everyone!(if you do not have a blog, just send me a photo of your bake)

How to join?

Step 1. Bake and post any chiffon cakes in the month of Nov 2010. You can submit more than 1 post.

Your post must include the recipe or link to the original recipe. If you are using a recipe from a book, please include the title of the book too. Please also mention in your blog that you are submitting your post to Aspiring Bakers #1: Chiffon Cakes (Nov 2010) and link to this page.

Step 2: Email to smallsmallbaker@yahoo.com.sg in the following format:

Your name or nickname:
Your blog name:
Name of your bake:
URL of your post:
Attachment of your photo in your email (one photo for each entry, preferably < 500kb).

The closing date is: 30 Nov 2010. All entries will be compiled and posted on 1 Dec 2010.

Looking for a host for the next month (Dec 2010), please email me with a suggested theme.

This idea just come to my mind today and I still need some time to fine-tune the details for this event. Any suggestions are welcome. Might need someone to design a logo as well.

Please support and join !
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