Custard Tea Cake

Recently the thoughts of giving up blogging has been kept popping out in my mind. I find it so hard to keep up with the blogging which require a lot of times spend on photos taking, photos editing, posts writing, blogs visiting, comments leaving etc... Both family and work have taken up most of my available times that there are not much me-time left over, I am so so drain up. It is not easy to just give up like that since so much efforts have been putting in for such long period. And I also need a place to record my cooking and baking too for my future reference, so still in dilemma........

This cake was baked on July 2012.  When I see nice bakes or bakes that given good review, I will normally bookmark and keep aside. Some recipes that really catch my attention will go into my To Bake List but may takes months or years until I finally lay my fingers on it, there are simply too many good recipes to try out lol.

For this custard tea cake, I got hooked by the oozing out custard filling immediately, how to resist it, it looks so tempting! The urge of baking it was so strong that I can't wait to get back home and do the baking. However when I took out my custard powder, it was expired!!! Errrh... so pissed and disappointed that I nearly wanted to use the expired  packet hahaha...

Believe it or not, I can't locate the custard powder in supermarket. It took me nearly 2 weeks to see the custard powder finally selling on the shelves again. Well, what can I say, the long waiting is still worthwhile.

I had a little problem when making the cake, I followed Roz to double up the custard filling since I wanted molten cake effect. However my batter hardly can covered the custard filling which I thought I am going to fail on this cake. I had to scrape and scrape the batter, little by little, from the bottom to cover the top, really sweat :P.

Luckily everything went smoothly, I didn't slice the cake immediately out from oven as I was rushing to run some errands. Thus my custard filling was set and didn't ooze out like erupted volcano, next time I will definitely slice it once out from oven.

Recipe from Home Kreation - Kitchen Corner.

Ingredients : Makes 7" round cake pan

125g butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg 

85g self raising flour
1/2 cup custard flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Fillings : (this is the doubled up amount)

2 tbsp custard flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/3 cup fresh milk
30g butter

4 tsp vanilla extract

Method :

1. Mix all filling ingredients except butter & vanilla extract. Cook above slow fire until thicken.

2. Off fire, add in butter & vanilla extract. Let it cool.

3. Beat butter & sugar until creamy.

4. Add in egg & mix until fluffy. Add in vanilla extract.

5. With slow speed, mix in both type of flour until combined.

6. Spread 1/2 portion into a greased tin (I will spread probably 1/3 portion 1st in my next baking) . Make slight dent in the middle & spread custard in the middle. Cover with the remaining batter.

7. Bake 170C for 25 to 30 mins. (I baked 25 mins)

8. Cool before slicing (if you want the eruption volcano effect, slice it immediately out from oven)

Verdict?

When I served a slice for dear husband, he gave me a kind of disguised look when he saw the custard filling, so bad! I insisted him to give it a try, he had no choice to give a small bite. I can see his eyes brighten up instantly and he finished the whole slice hahaha... He said the cake texture is unlike other cakes, loose texture with nice flavour, match very well with the custard filling. I shared the remaining with my colleagues and all given thumbs up, definitely a keeper, double and triple confirmed lol. If you are a custard lover, dun wait, bake it now!

Rose Levy's Whipped Cream Cake

Hello everyone, hope I am not too late to wish you a Happy Lunar New Year, 恭喜发财，万事如意！Pardon me for being not able to update my blog regularly and has not dropped by your blog recently. I am still super busy with both work and family, with the sickness of little kicker and dear daughter, dear husband's upset stomach that need to go for Gastroscopy, FIL nearly wheel chair bounded, MIL fell and hit her head... Gosh, wish all the bad lucks will be over and good lucks are on the way!

I am flying off tomorrow for business trip, after stopped for 2 years since my pregnancy (so grateful to my boss and my sales directors for being understanding to excuse me for not travelling and also thanks to my gals that travelled on my behalf). I have hard time with dear daughter, she cried and begged me not to travel. I thought she is alright after some counselling and "bribing" but this morning when preparing her to school, she cried so sadly :(.  I still not dare to tell her there are some more trips coming, and also little kicker, I am not sure how much I am gonna miss him too....

Anyway back to the bake, this cake was baked simply because I must get rid of a packet of whipping cream that gonna expire soon. I googled and found this recipe from here. I didn't want a plain cake since sil had given us a 9" butter cake during CNY so I added some cocoa powder to make it a marbled cake.

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover.

Recipe adapted from Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum with some modification.

Ingredients :
225g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
348g cold heavy cream (I used 38% whipping cream)
3 (150g) large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1/2 tsp pure vanilla powder)
225g superfine sugar (I used 180g caster sugar)

Chocolate Paste
2.5 tbsp cocoa powder
2.5 tbsp hot water

Method :
1. Grease and flour an 8”/9” metal tube pan/ bundt pan (I used 10” bundt pan). Preheat the oven 20 mins or more before baking, set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 190C (175C if using a dark pan).
2. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and the hot water together to make a smooth paste.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, vanilla powder and salt and then sift them together to make the mixture easier to incorporate.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk beater, whip the cream, starting on low speed, gradually raising the speed to medium-high as it thickens, until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.
5 . In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs (add in vanilla extract if you are using liquid form) 1st until lightly combined. On medium-high speed, gradually beat the egg mixture into the whipped cream. The mixture will thicken into mayonnaise consistency (unless high-butterfat cream is used). (my batter is quite runny)
6. Gradually beat in the sugar. It should take about 30 seconds to incorporate it.
7. Add half the flour mixture to the cream mixture with a large spatula , stir and fold the flour until most of it disappear, continue with remaining flour mixture.
8. Remove 1/3 of the batter and mix in the chocolate paste in to it.
9. Spoon in big scoops of vanilla batter into the bundt pan and alternating with some spoons on chocolate batter as well to create the marble effect. Repeat till all the batter has been put in.
10. Using a silicone spatula or spoon, scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Run a small metal spatula or dull knife blade through the batter to prevent large air bubbles, avoiding the bottom of the pan. Smooth the surface evenly with a small metal spatula.
11. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted between the tube and the side comes out completely clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cake should start to shrink from the sides of the pan only after removal from the oven.
12. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10mins before unmolding and cool completely on a wired rack before serving.

Verdict?
The cake is soft and moist, tasted like butter cake, it tasted better the next day. I must have over folded the chocolate batter that making it a little compact but taste wise, still not bad. I wouldn't mind to bake it again if I need to clear stock of whipping cream.