Chocolate Sponge Cake

The photo posted on Sweet Crumbs attracted me to try out this recipe ^.^, go take a look.

Weird huh... why this has became small tiny cupcake? hahaaa.. cause daughter wanted to help, so, I let her scoop the batter into the cupcake instead of pouring all the batter into 8"-pan :)

The texture and taste of the sponge cake was just nice, is a keeper. Not too sweet is the reason why I would note down the recipe here for future reference ^.^

Ingredients:
(A) Egg Yolk Mixture
- 3 egg yolks
- 50g sugar
- 120g self-raising flour *
- 1/2t baking powder *
- 1/2t baking soda *
- 50g canola oil
- 1t vanilla essence
mix together * and sift.

(B) Cocoa Mixture
- 30g cocoa powder
- 120g warm water
stir till smooth.

(C) Egg White Mixture
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4t cream of tartar
- 60g sugar

Method:
1. Mix (A) manually till well blended.
2. Add (B) mixture into (A) till well blended.
3. In another bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed for 1 min. Gradually add 60g sugar and beat till fluffy.
4. Fold (C) mixture in 3 batches into batter gently.
5. Pour batter in 8" square or round pan and bake at preheated oven @ 175C for 40-45mins.

Kueh Lapisan - 九层糕

Promised my grandma-in-law to try out this kueh lapisan long time ago and finally made it this round.

With my creativity, I've added some corn-puree to the last layer :)
With or without the corn-puree, I feel that the texture of the kueh was not as soft/light as what we usually bought in the market.

Those that bought in the market normally covered with oily-surface, however taste wise not as good as mine. Maybe I need to adjust the amount of water called in the recipe accordingly. Recipe calls for 280ml-375ml warm water, but I only added 260ml.

Ok, talking about the photo, hahahaa.. my daughter complained that how come her head was "chopped-off".. I said my focus should be on the kueh and not her but still, I let her squeezed in. She accepted the explanation happily ^.^

Chocolate Hazelnuts Melts Muffin

Well, this batch of cupcakes was prepared by my maid, ah-sih. She was so happy with the result ^.^ Original recipe from a book from library, Muffin Magic. This book introduced a very simple way of preparing muffin and even your kid can do it with minimum help from adult ^.^


Both my husband and brother also commented GooOOOD! But to me, I feel a bit too sweet. Suggested to my maid maybe we can try replace Nutella filling with melted-dark-chocolate or reduced the sugar ^.^

Ingredients:
- 100g or 1C toasted hazelnuts (chopped), plus extra (whole hazelnuts) to decorate
- 200g or 1 1/3C plain flour
- 1T baking powder (I reduced to 2t)
- 3T cocoa powder
- 150g sugar (should reduce to 120g, else too sweet)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 200ml buttermilk
- 2T milk
- 85g butter, melted
- 4T Nutella or other chocolate and hazelnut spread (for filling)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Combine nuts with flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar and sift into large bowl. (Don't worry if all the nuts don't go through, just sprinkle them over the top.)
3. In separate bowl, combine egg, buttermilk and milk. Then stir in butter.
4. Pour WET mixture into dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Spoon small dollops of mixture into prepared muffin cup. Using back of the teaspoon to make a slight indent in the mixture and spoon 1t Nutella into the centre of each muffin. Top with the remaining mixture and press a few whole hazelnuts into the top.
6. Bake for 20mins till risen and firm to touch.