Wake Up And Smell the Mug

There’s no question about it, it is a lovely piece of art. I had got hold of it while having coffee in the hotel and was pleased with the presentation of a simple coffee. The coffee mug itself is a statement. They are modern and sleek mugs are so comfortable to hold with. If you are left-handed there is certainly a mug made just for you.

Now, if you are a coffee addict like me, then its time to grab one! This coffee mug is one of the new collections of Villeroy & Boch called NEW WAVE CAFFE is such a delight to sip coffee with. Check the online store for other products that compliments with it. Whether you are looking to upgrade your dinnerware or looking for a nice present to your loved ones, it is just about the right time to grab them while they are still on sale at 50% off MSRP prices through end of August 08. The good thing about it is they provide free shipping for all online orders over USD100.

Wondering what recipe to go with your nice mug of coffee? Hmmm… Try this Mocha cupcakes I’ve made last weekend.

Mocha Cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

½ cup milk

1 ½ cup plain flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

¼ cup cocoa powder

3 Tablespoons instant coffee

Topping

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

½ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon instant coffee

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F/ 160 degrees C. Line a 12 cupcake tray with fluted cupcake papers. In a mixing bowl, Light beat butter and sugar until creamy; add eggs and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add mil, flour and baking powder and stir to combine. Add remaining cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes until light and creamy. Divide the mixture evenly between the cake papers. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes. Allow to cool fully before icing.

Topping:

While the cupcakes are cooling, combine all topping ingredients in a mixing bowl. Decorate cupcakes using a spoon or piping bag with different designs.

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

This post is long way overdue. I made this for hubby’s birthday last week, along with the PORK TERRINE. But, I count on the saying "better late than never". I just don’t have the time to compose this post until now.

Well, this cake may seem complicated when you look at the recipe but if you had been making cakes before, things become simpler. I love the flavor, its mild and creamy with the bitterness of coffee and chocolate that melts the mouth with a sip of coffee, ohh so heavenly.

If you are a coffee lover, there is no reason why you wont like this with your favorite cup of coffee. I’ve bookmarked this in the recipe book waiting to be done for quite a long time. Just waiting for an occasion. Birthday calls for a cake; what is birthday without a birthday cake after all? Source of the recipe is my book which I had for quite a long time and I just flip the pages when I’m looking for some inspiration when there is an upcoming occasion. The book “Cakes and Cake Decorating” by Angela Nilsen, Sarah Maxwell and Janice Murfitt. Below is the recipe that I have copied from the book for this post, but I didn’t follow everything as I have to consider the portion for just the 2 of us. I used a circular pan and cut in half and layered it. If you are wondering why the cake is just half the circle, its because I’m limiting the portion. I don’t want to have big extra cake sitting in the fridge after because I’m sure I will keep on coming back and have a slice and this cake is rich and creamy with lots of goodness… too good for my belly, that is. (winks)

Another alteration for this recipe, I don’t have coffee liqueur, so I just used coffee powder instead. Any coffee powder will do, not necessarily espresso powder.

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

Ingredients:

175g plain chocolate, chopped
2 tsp instant espresso powder; dissolved in 3 Tbsp boiling water
3 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

Cocoa powder

For the coffee cream filling:

¾ cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup mascarpone or cream cheese; softened
2 Tbsp. coffee flavor liqueur
25 g. plain chocolate, grated

For the Coffee Buttercream:

3 egg yolks; at room temperature
5 Tbsp. Light golden syrup
¼ cup sugar
1 cup butter, cut into small pieces and softened
1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water
2 Tbsp. coffee flavor liqueur

Procedure:

Make the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F/ gas 4.

Grease a 40 x 27 cm baking tray. Line with baking parchment. Grease the parchment.

In the top of a double boiler, over a low heat, heat the chocolate and dissolved coffee powder until melted and smooth, stirring frequently. Set aside.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar for 3-5 minutes, until thick and light colored. Reduce speed to low and beat the chocolate mixture until blended.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer with cleaned beaters, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks begin to form. Do not overbeat. Stir a spoonful of whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin, spreading into the corners and smoothing the top evenly. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cake springs back when touched lightly with a fingertip. Sprinkle a clean dish towel with cocoa powder to cover and turn the cake out on to the towel. Peel off the paper and cool.

Prepare the filling:

In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, whip the cream and sugar until soft peaks form. In another bowl, beat the mascarpone or cream cheese and liqueur until light and smooth. Stir in the grated chocolate and fold in the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the Buttercream:

In a bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the yolks for 5-6 minutes until thick and pale in color. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the syrup and sugar until the mixture boils, stirring constantly.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, slowly pour the hot syrup over the beaten yolks in a slow stream. Continue beating until the mixture feels cool, 5-6 minutes. Beat in the dissolved coffee and liqueur. Refrigerate until ready to use, but bring to room temperature before spreading.

Assemble the Cake:

With a serrated knife, trim off any crisp edges of the cake. Cut the cake crosswise into three equal parts. Place one cake on a cake plate and spread with half of the coffee cream filling. Cover with a second cake and the remaining filling. Top with the last cake.

Spoon about one third of coffee butter cream into a small piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle. Spread the remaining buttercream on top and sides of the cake. Pipe this around the cake with the design. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Allow to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

Apple Pie

What’s the difference between a pie and a tart? These two pastry dishes always confused me. I didn’t know until just recently that I have to be specific what to call my dish, tart or pie? For the benefit of those who are still confused until now, the difference between these two pastry dishes is that the other is covered with pastry or “pastry crust” and the other is uncovered.

As per Wikipedia’s definition:

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savory ingredients. Pies can be either "filled", where a dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, "top-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings.

A tart is a pastry dish, usually sweet, that is a type of pie with an open top that is not covered with pastry.

Now, it is clear to me that I’m making a pie. This apple pie is simpler than what I have made before, the FRENCH APPLE TART, though I am using the same sweet pastry recipe I just doubled the quantity of ingredients so that I can make the “pastry crust”, which it turned out to be thicker than I thought. The base pastry shell was perfect but the covering pastry or pastry crust was a little bit thick because it was ripped and I tried to patch the cracks as a result, it thickened. To make things worst, these patched cracks had become rough; instead, it should be smooth. My quick remedy is to sprinkle some nuts on it so it wouldn’t be visible. I found a pack of crushed almonds in my pantry and sprinkled it on top of the crust. I’m so pleased to see the cracks have magically invisible and it added a different texture and flavor to it.

Unlike the French Apple tart, I didn’t make a pastry cream; instead, the apples were boiled with sugar for a few minutes and drained. The filling is just as simple as that.

Another alteration I made was instead of using butter or margarine, I used shortening which is vegetable based so we wont end up feeling guilty of cholesterol after having a slice or two. It worked quite well, in fact it tastes lighter, yet the crust is still crunchy and crumbly. From now on, I’ll use shortening instead of butter or margarine. It works just the same, its just the absence of richer taste that the butter has, but I don’t mind to opt for a healthier one.

Ingredients:

Filling:

6 Green Apples
½ cup sugar
500 ml water
1 Cinnamon stick
2 tsp.Cinnamon powder

Sweet Pastry Dough:
1 Cup and 2 Tbsp. shortening
1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
2 egg
5 Cups All Purpose Flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla essence

1 egg for eggwash

Make the Sweet Pastry Dough:
In a mixing bowl, mix shortening and icing sugar until creamy, add eggs and mix for another minute until soft and creamy.

Add flour and baking powder. Continue beating.

Add vanilla essence

Bring the mixture altogether to form a dough and mix with the hand. Form the dough into a ball, Cover with Cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Prepare the filling:

Core apples and slice thinly, using a mandolin is very convenient and fast. Place in a sauce pan, add sugar and water, add the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil and simmer for about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander to get rid of excess water. Cool to room temperature.

Assemble the Pie:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C.

In a flat working surface, divide the dough into two, one is 2/3 and the other 1/3. the bigger one is for the base shell and the other is for the covering crust. Roll out the dough, which has rested for an hour in the fridge, with a rolling pin. Flatten the dough forming a circle place it onto the pie pan. Press the sides of the dough to form the patterns of the pan.

Arrange the apples which have cooled down to the base of the pastry evenly and sprinkle cinnamon powder. Avoid empty spaces in between and press them a little bit after each addition to make it compact.

To complete the pie, cover with the covering crust, and brush with the egg wash. Sprinkle crushed almonds on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Yet Another Chocolate Cake

I have learned another technique of decorating a cake, it's called stenciling; its basically using a pattern of design laid on top of the cake and sprinkle icing sugar on it and remove the pattern to reveal the design. I used paper doily for this design. The cake is the same as the French Chocolate Cake I have posted last Father's Day. A friend have tasted it and came back with her ingredients so I can teach her how to do it, I was more than glad to share. Instead of the lattice pattern of the French Chocolate Cake, I used a different design.

Croissant

I’ve been itching to make croissant since a very long time and I finally made a dip to commit myself to make it and eventually dedicated to succeed in making one which was quite a challenge for me. I didn’t make it perfect, but its edible so-to-speak, anyway, hubby and I were the only judge and we evaluated the result. It wasn’t flaky enough and the layers of dough are a little bit thick as it should be. It took time to cook that what was stated in the recipe, the recipe says 15-20 minutes at 190 degrees C to brown but it took 45 minutes to brown. My croissants didn’t fluff much.

I’m not giving up just yet, I’m going to make it again.

I’m trying to figure out where did I went wrong in the process and possible factors and concluded the ff:

a) The recipe didn’t say what particular kind of flour to use, I used Bread flour type “00” Maybe there is not enough gluten in the flour causing the dough not so elastic.

To correct: use flour with high gluten content.

b) The flattened butter was a little bit thick and there was not enough space to spread it thinly, so during the folding process, some of the butter got out of the dough folds at the sides.

To correct: Allow a space at least about 2 inch at the sides to seal the dough when the butter is folded in.

My source of the recipe is from video jug;The video looks very easy to do, all you need is patience. The text version of the recipe I just paste it below; for easy reference.

CROISSANTS

You will need:

· 500 g flour

· 15 g active dry yeast

· 90 g sugar

· 15 g salt

· 300 ml warm milk

· 340 g butter , room temperature

· 1 egg, beaten with 2 Tbsp water

· some extra flour

· 1 rolling pin

· 1 knife

· 1 baking tray lined with parchment

· 1 mixer with hook attachment

· 1 mixing bowl

· 1 tea towel

· 1 plastic bag

· 1 brush

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Step 2:

Begin the dough

Put the flour into the mixer. Add the salt, sugar, milk and yeast. Mix it on low for 8-10 minutes until it has a smooth elastic consistency. Dust the dough and a large bowl with flour. Remove the dough from the mixer and transfer it into a bowl. Cover it with the towel and let it rise until it doubles in size. This should roughly, take 1.5 to 2 hours.

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Step 3:

Prepare the butter

Put a sheet of cling film onto your working surface. Place the butter on top and cover it with a second sheet of cling film. Flatten it with your hands, roll it into a rectangle of about 20 X 25 cm with your rolling pin and place it into the fridge to chill.

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Step 4:

Roll out dough

After the dough has doubled in size, sprinkle it with a little bit of flour. Punch out the air with your knuckles and place it onto a floured work surface. Dust the dough with flour and roll it out into a large rectangle that is big enough to hold the sheet of chilled butter. Move the dough around in the flour. You may have to dust the table again, if you need to.

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Step 5:

Fold in butter

Unwrap the chilled butter and place it onto the upper part of dough. Fold the dough around the butter to enclose it completely. Lift the dough and sprinkle the table with flour. Turn the dough around and roll it into another long rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds, brushing off the excess flour as you go. This completes the first turn. Now wrap it in cling film and place it into the fridge for a minimum of 25 to 30 minutes.

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Step 6:

Turn the dough

At the end of the 30 minutes sprinkle your working surface with flour. Unwrap the dough and place it onto the work surface. Make sure that the dough has the seam vertically placed. Dust it with a sprinkling of flour and roll it out into another rectangle. Fold, brush and wrap, exactly as before. This now completes the second turn.

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Step 7:

Chill and turn again

Place it back into the fridge for another 30 minutes. Once removed, roll and fold for the third and final turn. Make sure that the dough is well wrapped before placing into the fridge once more to chill overnight.

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Step 8:

Shape the croissants

One chilled, cut the unwrapped dough into half, on a floured surface. Dust the dough with some flour and roll one half of the dough into a rectangle. Reflour the surface when necessary and continue to roll until the dough is roughly less than half a centimetre thick. Turn the rectangle around. Flour the surface and trim the edges of the dough neatly. Cut it into triangle shapes. Take the bottom of the triangle at its widest part and using your hands, tightly roll it up into a croissant shape. You can freeze the other half of the dough for use another time, or repeat the process and make more croissants.

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Step 9:

Allow to rise

Place the croissants onto a prelined baking tray. Cover them with a clean plastic bag and leave to double in size.

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Step 10:

Preheat the oven

Set the oven to 190ºC (375ºF/ gas mark 5).

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Step 11:

Wash and bake

Once the croissants have risen remove the plastic bag. Very gently brush them all over with the egg wash. Place them into the centre of the oven. Bake them for roughly 15 minutes. When they are a deep golden brown remove them from the oven.

French Chocolate Cake - A father's day special

When baby was still a week old.

Taken today on Father's Day. Leila is 3 months

French Chocolate Cake

I’ve been marking this recipe from my one of the cake recipe books I had, waiting for an occasion. I think father’s day is just perfect for it. French Father of my baby and a French Cake, and its his first time Dad, so it calls for a little celebration. Or a little indulgence.

A decadent heavily dense chocolate cake with the Father’s favorite whisky Jack Daniel. Especially made for my French Hubby, this French cake has the same consistency as the Cheese cake, in fact the procedure is quite similar to that of Cheese Cake. The bitterness of the whisky is just perfect accompaniment for coffee. I made it on the night before Father’s Day; left it in the oven to cool until morning and had it with the morning coffee served with whipped cream. Then, had it as afternoon coffee which was even better after it is chilled well and served with lots of whipped cream! Whew! I feel so guilty afterwards of all the calorie intake, but hey, Father’s day is not everyday huh! Nice alibi…(winks)

Note: Must be served chilled for at least 1 hour.

Ingredients:

250 g. Dark chocolate, chopped

225 g. butter, cut into pieces

½ cup sugar

30 ml whisky

3 eggs

2 Tablespoons all purpose plain flour

Icing sugar for dusting

Whipped cream

Procedure:

1.) Line a 23-cm round baking tin with a baking paper. Generously grease the baking paper and the sides of the pan to avoid the cake from sticking into it.

2.) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. or gas 4.

3.) Place chocolate in a small sauce pan and put it over a bigger pan with simmering water or assemble a DOUBLE BOILER. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has completely melted. Add butter and sugar and stir until all the butter has melted. Let it cool down a little bit for 5 minutes. Add the whisky.

4.) In a mixing bowl, beat eggs lightly with an electric mixer. Beat in the flour and slowly beat in the chocolate mixture. Continue mixing until everything is thoroughly combined.

5.) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

6.) Place the tin a big roasting tin (must be bigger than the cake tin) and pour boiling water into the roasting tin as a water bath for the cake. Water must come at least ½ of the thickness of the cake tin.

7.) Bake for 20 – 30 minutes until the cake has set but still soft in the middle.

8.) Switch the oven off and let the cake cool inside the oven to avoid the middle of the cake from collapsing. At least 3 hours. This is best made at night and leave the cake inside the oven until morning. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

9.) Run a knife on the sides of the tin so it would be easier to detach. Using a cake tray or plate, invert the pan and tap the center so the bottom of the cake becomes the top. Remove the baking paper.

10.) Cut 6 strips of baking paper about 2.5 cm wide and place randomly over the cake to resemble a lattice design. Dust with icing sugar and carefully remove the paper.

With paper strips randomly placed to make a lattice -style pattern

The strips of paper has been removed after dusting icing sugar

11.) Cut into slices and serve.

French Apple Tarte - Tarte Aux Pommes -

Apple Tarte

It’s my first successful tarte ever! I finally had perfected the sweet pastry crust where usually I go wrong. I had a number of mistakes with the temperature and the pastry recipe itself. I had overly sweet crust, burnt crust, or tough crust as hard as stone! So I did not make tarte for ages after those attempts. Now, I’m challenging myself to do it, and this time I couldn’t be prouder with the success. Finally! It turned out great. But the pastry crust is just one story.


I got the recipe of Tarte Aux Pommes - French Apple Tart from TEA CONCEPTS.

The first time I read it, I have no idea what is a pastry cream. So then, it took me a little digging up of what it is and found out that it is like a custard with creamy spreadable consistency. A little bit thicker than custard. I can’t find a certain recipe for pastry cream, so I made my own custard and just mixed it with a little cornstarch to make it thicker. With my French hubby as my reference and a little bit of research about pastry cream, I had an idea what to do because, I’ve been making custard since before. It worked quite well. Something new I learned from this recipe.




I have a few deviation of the original recipe as per my preference. I preferred to use margarine than butter for the sweet pastry dough, increased ½ cup the amount of flour, and used icing sugar instead of normal refined sugar. I preferred icing sugar because the sweetness is not overpowering and it has this subtle sweetness that just melts in your mouth, (as long as you don’t put too much) and as far as I have experienced icing sugar helps make dough more crumbly. Another alteration is I pre-baked the crust and sprinkled with cinnamon powder instead of sugar.

Here’s my version of the recipe with my alterations.

Apple Tarte

Ingredients:
4 green apples
1 cup Pastry cream (cooled)
Sweet pastry dough
Cinnamon powder
Pastry Cream:
3 eggs
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch (mixed with 2 Tbsp. milk)
2 tsp. vanilla essence

Sweet Pastry Dough
½ Cup and 1 Tbsp. margarine
½ cup icing sugar (sifted)
1 egg
2 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla essence

Procedure:

Make the Pastry Cream:
1. In a bowl, beat eggs and sugar lightly until well mixed.
2. Heat 1 cup of milk in a sauce pan until just before it comes to a boil.
3. Gradually add the warm milk to the egg mixture whilst beating continuously.
4. Place the mixture back to the pan return to the heat (very low heat) and continue mixing, taking care not to bring the mixture to a boil to avoid curdling. (if it boils, it will make the eggs scramble)
5. Add cornstarch mixture (1 tsp. cornstarch and 2 Tbsp. milk)
6. Continue mixing over low heat until the mixture becomes thick.
7. Set aside to cool, and chill in the refrigerator.

Make the Sweet Pastry Dough:
1. In a mixing bowl, mix margarine and icing sugar until creamy, add eggs and mix for another minute until soft and creamy.
2. Add flour and baking powder. Continue beating.
3. Add vanilla essence
4. Bring the mixture altogether to form a dough and mix with the hand.. Form the dough into a ball, Cover with Clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Peel apples in half and remove the core.
Slice apples lengthwise as thinly as possible and set aside
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and knead for a few minutes on a lightly floured surface.
Flatten the dough into 5mm thick.
Roll out dough with a rolling pin onto a pie pan.
Press the dough to form the pattern of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven to cool down, chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove from freezer.
Spread the cooled pastry cream over the base of the pastry shell.
Arrange the sliced apples on top of the pastry cream.
Glaze with melted butter
Sprinkle cinnamon powder on top.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes until the apples are caramelized and crust turns golden.
Turn off heat and allow to cool down before removing the tarte from the pan.
Use a dinner plate to flip over and another dinner plate to flip over again so that the tart shows its top.