The Cooking Ninja

I just took a 4 days break visiting my best friend in Germany alone. It was a great break but I couldn't help missing my significant other and Little One every day. We left Little One with her grandparents for a week so that we get a nice 1 week break. We sound cruel, don't we ? She has recently entered into her terrible 'TWO' ... it's funny how my sweet little girl suddenly turns into Little Imp right after she hits 2. Someone told me that this will last till she's 18. I sincerely hope not!

This is our first summer in Clermont-Ferrand. So far I love the weather here - it doesn't rain as much as Nantes and less humid. With summer, we discovered what we have in the garden - a cherry tree, some wild strawberries in our front yard, 6 different type of prunes trees, some blackcurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry, and some wild black berries overgrowing from our neighbour's garden. This autumn we will be going back to Singapore, so we will not be doing any mushroom picking.

Before I left for Germany, I made a very simple cake calle 'Yogurt Cake' - the very first cake that every French kid learns how to make What makes this recipe so easy to do is the measurements of the ingredients are done using the yogurt cup or bottle (in France, the standard yogurt bottle is 125 ml). This time I decided to add a hint of originality by adding pandan flavour

Pandan Yogurt Cake

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 tubs or 250 ml plain natural yogurt
• 2 yogurt tubs or 200g sugar (a mix of brown and white)
• 80 ml or slightly less than 1 yogurt tub vegetable oil like sunflower or canola
• 4 yogurt tubs or 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Pandan essence or extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F - gas mark 4)
2. Lined the bottom of a 9" round cake pan with baking paper and butter the sides.
3. In a large mixing bowl, gently whisk the yogurt, eggs, sugar and pandad essence together until combined.
4. Add in the sift flour and baking powder and stir until combined.
5. Pour in the oil and whisk gently until it blend together.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is golden brown and the toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let it cool for ten minutes before transfer it onto a rack to cool completely.

The Verdict

I was surprised by how moist the cake turned out to be. It is dense yet fluffy (if that's how to describe it) and full of flavour. It's hard to stop at just one slice. The cake keeps well for a few days wrapped in a foil (to keep it moist) and the flavour develops with each day.

Notes

You can also bake this cake with fruit flavoured yogurt instead of plain ones.

What I like love about this cake is that one can replace the flavour with another without a problem and the cake still turns out as delicious. So we never get tired of it and can experiment with different flavours.

The next time I bake this, I'm going to try it with coconut or orange or orange-flower or even green tea. The combination is endless. I'm getting giddy just thinking about it.

Happy Birthday Little One !

Today we celebrated Little One's special day ... her big '2' ... my little baby is now a big girl. Hehehe ... she is still a little bit too young to understand what is a birthday all about but I think she is getting the idea more or less : delicious cake, blow-out candles and tearing those beautiful wrappers with surprises inside.

Her grand-mère dressed our little princess in her beautiful little red dress bought by her ma ma (maternal grandma) with cute little pigtails while we were busy putting up the decorations and getting everything ready before her grand entrance. However she caught us in the act. She was more attracted to the balloons on the ceiling than all the deco that we have put up for her like rose petals (compliments from our garden) sprinkled all over the table and the colourful garlands hanging from the wall to the ceiling. Then she saw those lovely petals and climbed on top of the table and started dancing. Looks like a star is born. This year she is quite spoiled on her birthday: a swing, a sandbox, 4 DVDs (all her favourite characters), a set of kitchen utensils (toy version of course), a set of mini cars (she loves cars like her dad), aquadoodle, a dress, a CD player and a Lego set. Oh... she went to visit her great great aunt this afternoon and they celebrated her birthday there again... she gets to eat more cakes and got another present. Shh... more presents are on the way from Singapore - she doesn't know that yet.

Originally I wanted to make a chocolate Teddy bear cake for her on her birthday but I had to scrap that plan as I have never done anything like this before and it was not the right the time to do an experiment. In the end, I made a simple chocolate cake and decorated it the best I can.

The chocolate cake recipe that I'm sharing with you today is one that I found on the Internet a few years back and it has since been a favourite in our family. For this special day, I made this cake with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

• 2 medium eggs
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ salt
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder (non sweetened)
• ¾ cup of milk
• 113g butter (melted)
• ¾ cup flour

Chocolate Icing

• 1½ cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp butter (softened)
• 2 or 3 squares dark chocolate (made for dessert)
• ¼ cup hot water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 175°C (350°C - gas mark 4) and butter a round 20 cm diameter cake pan.
2. In a big bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.
3. Stir in the vanilla extract, baking powder and salt.
4. Add in the cocoa slowly.
5. Then the milk and the cooled down melted butter.
6. Stir in the flour.
7. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake in the oven for about 40 - 45 minutes. When inserted into the cake, the toothpick should not come out completely clean. The cake is supposed to be a bit moist.
8. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before turning it out on the wire rack to cool completely.
9. Pour or spread the cooled chocolate icing on the cake and decorate it as the way you wanted it. Refrigerate it for a while so that the icing gets set nicely.

Chocolate Icing

1. Sift the icing sugar, cocoa powder and the dark chocolate pieces into a bowl.
2. Add butter and hot water and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. If the chocolate pieces do not melt, microwave them for a few seconds.
4. Let it cool to the consistency you want and then spread it on the cake.

Conclusion

No matter how many times I bake this chocolate cake, it always comes out perfect and delicious. However this is the first time I decided to put icing on it. Initially I thought a chocolate icing with a moist chocolate cake would be a bit too much... mais non... it's luscious - rich, moist and filling. And it wasn't too sweet either. Little One couldn't wait and was already helping herself with a teaspoon on the cake before we could even take a pic of the cake or even put the candle. While we were cutting the cake, she was busy scooping and eating the chocolate icing on the side. She loves it so much that she was tucking in her cake and at the same time scooping the icing off the cake. Everyone loved it.

Notes

Cake : If you bake it on a 9" round cake pan, bake it at the same temperature but the cake will be done about 30 to 35 minutes. The cake is delicious on its own without icing. Alternatively you can serve the plain chocolate cake with crème anglaise (light custard sauce) or a scoop of vanilla ice cream or sprinkle some icing sugar on top.

Chocolate Icing : The original icing recipe was a bit too liquid to my taste so I added a few dark chocolate tablets to get a thicker consistency. I have modified the above recipe accordingly. I have also used less icing sugar than what was stated above. I poured the icing on the cake when it had thickened to be just fluid enough.

Do you know that Mother's Day is celebrated on different days throughout the world? For example, Greece celebrates it on the 2^nd February while Thailand celebrates it on the 12^th August and Indonesia on 22^nd December. I have always thought everyone everywhere celebrates Mother's Day on the 2nd Sunday of May (11 May 2008) like in Singapore. To my surprise, in France, Mother's Day is celebrated on the last Sunday of May. At first it was kinda strange for me to celebrate it 2 weeks later than Singapore but over the years I have gotten used to it.

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day in France. The weather was a bit cloudy but that didn't stop us from doing a BBQ on our terrace. The honey marinated chicken thighs (that I have specially prepared for Little One) turned out beautifully and delicious but to my utmost disappointment, Little One wanted nothing to do with it. *sigh* Oh well, her loss, our gain. Next time, I'm going to BBQ chicken wings ...yummy.

For Mother's Day, Little One got me a nice Lafuma recliner (via her papa) that I wanted so much for the coming summer days. Pierre wanted to buy a cake for me but I said 'why waste money when I can bake one for us.' I decided to take this opportunity to do another experiment. This is what I made yesterday and is part of my contribution to this month's Sugar High Friday host by Helen of Tartelette :

Orange-Almond Cake

Ingredients

• 180 g self rising flour
• 100 g ground almonds
• 180 g butter
• 200 g sugar
• 1 whole orange (peel grated)
• 80 ml orange juice
• 3 eggs (white and yolk separated)

Creamy Chocolate Icing

• 200 g butter (cut into cubes & softened)
• 150 g dark chocolate (melted)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F - gas mark 4) and grease a round cake mold about 20 cm (diameter).
2. Separate the egg yolk and white.
3. Whip the butter and sugar in a big bowl until it is creamy and fluffy.
4. Add in the grated orange peel and egg yolk and beat till well mixed.
5. Add in the ground almonds and stir until combined.
6. Stir in the flour and orange juice on alternate turns until it is combined.
7. Whipped the egg whites till stiff peaks formed and delicately incorporate it into the mixture.
8. Bake it for about 50 minutes or until the wooden stick comes out clean.
9. Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the mold before turning it out on the wire rack.
10. Once the cake is of room temperature, delicately cut away the slightly crusty border and round edge.
11. Spread the chocolate icing all around the cake with the icing knife.
12. Cake is ready to be served.
13. The cake needs to be kept refrigerated because of the icing.

Creamy Chocolate Icing

1. Whipped the butter in a bowl with an electric beater.
2. Slowly add in the melted dark chocolate bit by bit until all is well mixed.
3. Refrigerate it for about 5 to 10 minutes before spreading it on the cake.

The Verdict

The cake itself is very aromatic - the delicious taste of orange and almond together. It is compact and just moist - not as dry as I thought it would turned out, and a bit crunchy when you hit on almonds. As for the icing, hmm ... not exactly to my taste - I find it a wee bit too creamy and buttery, however Pierre likes the contrast - slightly salty creamy icing with the sweetness of the cake. (salty because we always buy salted butter)

Ooops, I just realized that I didn't add the right quantity of dark chocolate in my icing. Perhaps that is why my icing tastes so creamy, buttery and salty.

Note

I wanted to whip up 3 egg whites but I was clumsy in separating the first one so I ended up with 2 white eggs instead for my above cake.

If you want a more moist cake, perhaps you can add a bit more juice and adjust the baking time.

Little One has made an amazing progress in her vocabulary during these past few weeks. She still can't make out a phrase but she just learnt how to say her name the other day at the park (well, not exactly accurate but her name is kinda difficult for her to pronounce at her age). She can understand both languages - in French and English. I'm still working on Chinese as I seldom speak to her in Mandarin, however I take the occasion to compensate that by reading Chinese story books to her. Hope that works too.

She has also learned to shout A table (literal translation 'at the table' meaning 'dinner is served') whenever a meal is ready. And when papa is still not there yet, she would shout 'papa, à table!' 'papa, à table' till papa sit at his place. hehehe She surprised us a month or two ago when she can associate which object around the house belongs to who - e.g. muffins- papa's, tool box - pépé (grandfather), which laptops belongs to who etc. She also has been playing tea party with her toys and feeding her teddies. Sometimes she would make a cup of tea (imaginary of course ) and serve it to each of us. Too cute for words. She also loves reading her books (well, mainly look at the pictures) and for bedtime, she will chose which books she wants us to read to her.

Oh ... she has a new favourite word besides gateau (cakes): 'cartoon'. Now that the weather is warm enough to set up her baby pool in the backyard, she keeps asking for piscine (swimming pool) even at night. Unfortunately she caught a chill. Thought it was just a normal runny nose and a slight fever which lasted for 4 days. Poor kiddo, her runny nose has caused her a right ear infection. With the medication, she is getting better however it is a real hide and seek when it's time for medicine - she would quickly either hide under the table or chair or behind the curtains and sometimes in the closet. Well, it is not always like this, sometimes she takes her medication bravely without resisting for she knows it to get rid of the 'little mouse' in her right ear.

Now back to food. It has been a while since I last baked something so I decided to try out this recipe that I have found in my cooking book but I did some modifications and tried two different methods of making it.

Orange-Coconut Cake

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 125 g butter (softened)
• 50 g dried schredded coconut
• 250 g sugar
• 180 g self raising flour
• 1 tbsp orange peel (grated)
• 250 ml milk

Coconut Icing

• 60 ml or more orange juice
• ½ tsp orange peel (grated)
• 90 g dried schredded coconut
• 140 g icing sugar

Directions

Preheat your oven at 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4) and prepare a greased round 20 cm diameter (approx) cake tin.

Method 1

1. Separate the egg white and egg yolk.
2. Beat the egg yolk, softened butter and sugar together in a big bowl till it is creamy and fluffy.
3. Stir in the grated orange peel and the shredded coconut and then add in the flour.
4. Pour in the milk and stir till combined.
5. Beat the egg white until stiff peaks formed. Fold it into the mixture till combined.
6. Bake it for about 60 minutes until the wooden stick comes out clean.
7. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out on the wire rack.
8. Once the cake is of room temperature, spread the coconut icing on the cake.

Method 2

1. Beat the eggs, butter and sugar in a big bowl till creamy and fluffy.
2. Add in the orange peel and grated coconut.
3. Stir in the flour and milk alternatively until combined.
4. Bake for about 45 minutes until the wooden stick comes out clean.
5. Follow step 7 & 8 in Method 1.

Coconut Icing

1. Mix the icing sugar and the grated coconut together in a bowl.
2. Add the grated orange peel and stir in the juice. (Add more juice if needed.)
3. Mix it to get a consistency but smooth enough to be able to spread it.

The Verdict

Method 1:

I find it to be light, moist and fluffy. The aroma of the orange, butter and coconut icing is a delicious combination. I was initially worried that the whole cake might turn out to be too sweet because of the icing but it tastes just nice - not overly sweet. I simply love it so did the rest of the family members.

Method 2:

The cake turned out to be light but dense and we can taste the bits of shredded coconut in the cake. It is equally delicious. Everyone likes both versions, however for me, I prefer the light and fluffy version above.

Notes

For method 1 : I would reduced the milk quantity a little bit.

To make your own self rising flour - for every 125 g of plain flour, add 2 tsp baking powder. Then sift the flour several times.

Trying to get myself inspired to cook, I found a very interesting recipe that combines chocolate and prunes... 'huh?' you might say... that was my first reaction too. But I was so game for it. So there I was, all set and ready... mixed my portion of chocolate with cream... buzzing sound of the electric beater trying to turn it into a mousse. 5 minutes passed... nothing, 10 minutes passed, still nothing was forming. OK, I wasn't darn going to give it up! Beated it for another 5 minutes... still nothing... I decided it was about time to get some manly muscle reinforcement. Pierre took a look at it and said that there was not a chance that the cream would turn into a mousse. Nooooo... it just needed a tinny bit more beatings, that's all. Pierre gave it another go just to please me... me thinking with his macho whipping, surely this chocolate mass would be seduced to turn itself into this beautiful glorious mousse it supposed to be. Arrrgghhhh... much to my despair it still remained a pot of creamy chocolate sauce. :~(

Ok ... this time around with no available recipe to guide me, I just had to go with my gut feeling and borrow here and there from the recipe books... then cross my fingers and hope it turns out beautiful and doesn't explode in my oven.

So, off I go, beating eggs & sugar till creamy and light, in goes my creamy chocolate together with a bit of vanilla, baking powder and melted butter. Final touch, I stirred in only 3 tbsp of cornflour against my better judgment of 90 g. Then off it went into the oven.

Like a little kid, I sat and watched my lovely cake grow and grow like a balloon... to a point I thought it might just really explode. Phew! Thank goodness it didn't. I was rather pleased and proud of myself at how beautiful my cake turned out. I couldn't wait to taste it. So off the timer goes, I eagerly took it out of the oven.

Holy crap! Nooooooo ... my beautiful cake .... boo-hoo hooo ... I watched in horror as the lovely mount collapsed into a pitiful crater.

I consoled myself that it didn't looked that bad...well that was what I thought before I turned it over on the wire rack to transfer on the plate ... as I watched in horror again like in a slow motion picture, it slowly sunk to the other side. OK, how in the world was I going to get it onto the plate in 1 piece? Breathe, Pamela, breathe... slowly and delicately I somehow managed to flip it over without further disaster... till I saw my cake ... I wanted to weep by then ... it was cracked like a marbled egg. I walked away in a total despair.

Michèle was there for tea and took a bite of it: it was very good! The surface of the cake is nice and crunchy, the inside is all soft and moist like a brownie. I didn't quite believe it... I thought she was just trying to cheer me up. I took a bite of it myself and indeed it was really good. It would have been better if I had baked it in a smaller pan though.

Yesterday I woke up with a super craving for a sinfully rich chocolate cake - you know the type that definitely choke up your artery kind - moist and slightly gooey. mmm So off I went browsing through my special chocolate cook books - there are so many to choose from but I fell in love with this one.

Rich & Moist Chocolate-Almond Cake

(taken from Le BA-ba du Chocolat)

Preparation: 20 minutes
Baking: 30 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 200 g dark chocolate (minimum 60% cocoa)
• 5 eggs
• 150 g blanched almonds
• 200 g butter (cubed)
• 170 g sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• a pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 180°C (350°F - Gas mark 4).
2. Grease the baking pan (about 20 cm in diameter)
3. Roughly chop up the almonds (not too fine and not too big).
4. Brown the chopped almonds in a non-stick pan on low heat.
5. Melt the dark chocolate in bain-marie. As it starts to melt, stir it gently with a spatula. Once it is all melted and smooth, add in the cubed butter and stir gently till it is well mixed with the chocolate. Remove it from the heat.
6. Separate the yolk and the whites. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and cinnamon till creamy.
7. Blend in the chocolate butter mixture, then stir in the chopped almonds with a spatula.
8. Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt with an electric beater till stiff peaks form.
9. Delicately blend it into the chocolate mixture.
10. Pour the mixture into the greased pan and bake it for 30 minutes.

The Verdict

It's exactly what I craved for - rich, moist, sinfully chocolaty with crunchy almond bits. I like it as it is but Pierre felt that it would taste better if it is left in the oven for another 3 minutes or so.

Notes

No blanched almonds in the cabinet? No problem.

Pour boiling water over the almonds and soak them for 1 minute. Drain and rinse them with cold water. Pat them dry. To remove the skin, just squeeze the almond between your index finger and thumb and the skin should just come off easily.

France is well known not only for its cuisine but also for its desserts and pastries. Lately, it seems one of the trendiest dessert in local restaurants is chocolate coulant - a small chocolate cake which has a liquid core that oozes when you cut it. I personally has never tasted a chocolate coulant before as chocolate isn't one of my favourite flavour (Pierre wouldn't believe it - how can a woman not like chocolate !). I was however very intrigued by the combination of a solid and liquid cake at the same time, and decided to try it.

Coulants au café

(taken from Le B.A-ba du Chocolat)

Preparation: 10 minutes
Baking: 8 minutes
Makes: 4

Ingredients

• 200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
• 60 g sugar
• 150 g butter (cubed)
• 40 g flour (sieved)
• 10 cl strong coffee
• 4 eggs
• a pinch of salt
• Walnut oil
• 4 ramekins

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 220°C (425°F - gas mark 7)
2. Break the dark chocolates into pieces and put them in a medium size bowl.
3. Pour the strong coffee (boiling hot) onto the chocolate and let the chocolate melt.
4. Add the cubed butter and the sugar to the chocolate mixture and mix it well with a whisk.
5. Stir in the sieved flour. Then add in the eggs one by one making sure that the mixture is well mixed before stirring in the next egg.
6. Add a pinch of salt and and whisk it one last time.
7. Grease the individual ramekins with walnut oil and pour in the chocolate mixture.
8. Bake it for 8 minutes.
9. Let it cool on a raised wire rack before removing it from the mould.

The Verdict

Well, given how rich the ingredients are, it better be good! And in fact, it is absolutely delicious: it's a very strong chocolate flavour with a tint of coffee aroma. If you like very sweet pastries or have a problem with the bitterness of dark chocolate, this one isn't for your however. And if you are on a diet you should probably not have read this far. In fact it is so rich that we had one each for tea time and ended up skipping dinner entirely.

Notes

The trick to get these cakes right is proper timing. Bake them a few minutes too long (or too hot) and they'll be solid like brownie. Too short and you'll have some chocolate sauce. In fact one of my ramekins was very slightly different in size and it's texture was already different from the three others.

We bought some bananas on Monday but it had somehow turned very mushy ... maybe it got squashed in the grocery bag during the car ride. So I was stuck with 6 ripe and soft bananas to get rid off ... I couldn't make goreng pisang out of it and the only cake I can think of at that moment was Banana cake.

I have my own banana chocolate cake recipe but I thought 'why not try out a different version.' So I changed the recipe a bit - using self-raising flour instead of plain flour and 2 eggs instead of 1 etc ... well, it was a flop. The cake didn't rise and it was moist and dense. I was quite disappointed how it turned out. Anyway, here's a picture of it.

I'll make it again another time.

Recently I have just discovered that the French version of a Pound cake is called Quatre-Quarts which means four-fourth. It's a traditional and popular cake of the French region of Britanny and as its name implies use the same quantity of the 4 ingredients.

There are many version of making a quatre-quarts ... from my significant other's simple home recipe to a more complicated one. So what's the big difference between the two of them ?

A Simple Quatre-Quarts (Pierre's recipe)

Preparation : 10 minutes
Baking : 1 hour
Makes : 1

Ingredients

• Weight 4 eggs
• Same weight for plain Flour, sugar and melted butter (salted)
• 1 packet of baking powder (11 gram)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350 F)
2. Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
3. Put all ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Stir till combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 55 - 60 mins or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
7. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes. Then remove cake from its pan and let cool on a wire rack.

NOTE :

For a more raised and spongy textured quatre-quarts, use 1/3 corn flour and 2/3 plain flour

Quatre-quarts

(taken from Le Grand Livre des Desserts - Fior Editions)

Preparation : 25 minutes
Baking : 1 hour
Makes : 1

Ingredients

• 250 g Butter, softened (salted)
• 250 g Sugar
• 2 tsp Lemon zests (chopped)
• 4 Eggs
• 250 g Self-raising flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 40 ml Milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F)
2. Lightly greased and flour one 9 inch round cake pan.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add in lemon zests and beat in the eggs one at a time.
5. Use a spoon and stir in sifted flour and baking powder alternately with milk. Alternate flour and milk in 2 or 3 batches. Mix till well blended.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth out batter surface. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
7. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes before removing cake and letting it cool on a wire rack.

Conclusion

It's hard to decide which version I like better. The simple home recipe has a more dense texture and great butter flavour which is delicious with a cup of tea whereas the book recipe has more of a lemon flavour than butter. Even without adding the lemon zests, the aroma of the butter is not as intense as the home recipe. But it has a lighter cake texture.

The book recipe can be adapted to different versions.

• Quatre-Quarts à l'orange (Orange Quartre-Quarts) Add 2 tbsp Orange zests (grated) to butter mixture and replace milk with 40 ml orange juice.
• Quatre-Quarts à la noix de coco (Coconut Quartre-Quarts) Add 90 g Coconut (grated) into the mixture before mixing in flour and milk.
• Quatre-Quarts aux noisettes (Hazelnut Quartre-Quarts) Mix 125 g Chopped Hazelnut before stirring in flour and dissolve 2 tsp Instant Coffee (powder) in the milk.