Food. Lifestyle. Love

Monday 27 October 2014

Recipe: Pumpkin roll with white chocolate cream cheese filling

It is the pumpkin season and I bought lots of pumpkins a month ago in the neighboring town. I made lots of delicious food from the pumpkins, and this baby is one of them. I've been wanting to make one since watching a video by Divas Can Cook a year ago and I was so happy with the result. The cake was moist, and the combination of the cake with the white chocolate cream cheese frosting was sooo good.





The roll didn't come out perfect, I think I rolled it too tightly when it was hot, but hey....it looks gorgeous! The cake looks like spider web designed and great for the coming Halloween :D






Pumpkin roll with white chocolate cream cheese filling 
*adapted from Divas Can Cook 

Pumpkin cake
3 egg yolks 
3 egg whites
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
a pinch of salt

Filling
200 g cream cheese (60%) (or you can use light cream cheese)
100 g white chocolate
1-2 tablespoons milk

Method:
1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 10' x 15' pan generously with butter and cover it with a parchment paper and grease it again with butter,
2. Beat egg yolks in a large bowl until pale yellow and thick. Combine sugar, flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, ginger powder and salt in a small bowl and mix the dry ingredients into the yolks. Fold in the pumpkin puree using a wooden spatula into the mixture.
3. Beat egg whites until soft peak form, and fold in the batter. 
4. Pour the batter in the pan and spread it into an even layer. Let it rest for 10 minutes and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
5. Once the cake is done, cover the cake with icing sugar and cover it with a kitchen towel and flip it slowly.
6. Take out the parchment paper slowly, and start to roll the cake (with the kitchen towel) tightly. Set aside until it cools.
7. To make the filling, combine white chocolate with milk in a medium porcelain bowl and put it in the microwave on High for a minute. Stir the chocolate and if it is not melting put it back in the microwave for 30 seconds or more until the chocolate melts. Let it cools to a room temperature and mix it with the cream cheese. 
8. After the cake has cooled down, spread the frosting on the cake evenly. Roll the cake and slowly peeling out the kitchen towel. Wrap the cake with an aluminum foil and plastic wrap and put it in a fridge overnight (this helps in developing the flavor). 
9. Dust the cake with icing sugar and slice it.




p.s: I recommend you to watch the video by the Divas Can Cook for you to have a better idea how to do it. Enjoy! :)

Owh, and Happy Deepavali and Maal Hijrah to all who are celebrating them :D
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Sunday 12 October 2014

Recipe: Quintuple chocolate cake

Last Eid al-Adha I made a chocolate cake to celebrate with the Malaysians here. When my friends asked me the name of the cake, I was dumbfounded. 'It's a chocolate cake' I replied. I find it really cheesy to name a food something out of the ordinary - e.g super duper marvelous chocolate cake, kek coklat buaian mimpi...well you get what I mean. Hence, I called it based on the number of chocolate I used to make it - five (quintuple)!  I blamed my scientific side for this.







The cake is made of chocolate sponge cake filled with chocolate hazelnut (a.k.a homemade Nutella) mousse, white chocolate mouse, dark chocolate mousse and covered with chocolate ganache. It may seem like the cake is inspired from the famous Chocolate Indulgence cake from the Malaysian chain cake store the Secret Recipe ; however, my friend 'A' is the one who really responsible behind this cake.





'A' is a French, and like any other French in my opinion is really particular with food and cooking. When I was baking with 'A,' I can see the huge difference in our style. I'm the campak-campak (this is a slang in Bahasa meaning you throw whatever you have) type of person and adjust the food based on my personal taste. My style is quick and I lack patience (but I do produce good food :D ).  'A' on the other hand really puts effort, time, energy and love when she's baking. I was impressed with her patience, and I can see why she said it takes her three hours just to bake a cake. 'A' taught me how to make mousse, which is easy to make but with a lot of care. She even gave me tips on baking that she learns from herself and family. As for that, this cake is inspired by my friend 'A' who is really dedicated in cooking/baking/whatever she is doing. I can't believe I spend more than seven hours to make and decorate this cake, which usually takes me the most two hours to make other cakes.


So yeah, if you like to make this cake remember that you need to put a lot of care (and love), but most importantly patience!






Quintuple chocolate cake
[click for printable version]
*for best result use good quality ingredients

Simple homemade Nutella
200 gm milk chocolate
200 gm ground hazelnut
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (if desired)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Mousses
400 ml cream - beat until soft peak forms
100 gm of homemade Nutella
100 gm white chocolate (plus 2 tablespoons milk)
100 gm dark chocolate

Chocolate sponge cake
200 gm butter
200 gm sugar
150 gm flour
50 gm cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs

Chocolate ganache
100 gm dark chocolate
100 gm milk chocolate
200 ml cream


Method:

To make homemade Nutella
1. Roast the ground hazelnut on a pan until brown, set aside to room temperature.
2. In a ceramic bowl, melt the milk chocolate in a microwave (about 1 minute or more), set aside.
3. In a food processor, put the roasted hazelnut and mix until it becomes a paste. You can add oil if you want as this helps with making it becoming a paste faster. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder and mix until the mixture becomes smooth. Scrap of the homemade Nutella and put 100 gm in a ceramic bowl and the rest in a glass jar (you can keep this up to a month or more in a fridge)

To make chocolate mousses
1. In a ceramic bowl add the white chocolate with milk and melt them in a microwave (putting milk helps in melting the white chocolate easily - tips that I learnt from 'A'), set aside. Repeat with the dark chocolate in another separate ceramic bowl.
2. Once all the chocolates have cooled down to a room temperature, divides the whipped cream into three parts (approx. 133 gm of whipped cream for each chocolate).  Put two tablespoons of the whipped cream into the melted chocolate at a time and stir until the mixture well combined (this helps in preventing the fat in the cream to curd instead of putting all the cream inside the melted chocolate) . Repeat until approx 133 gm of whipped cream is used per chocolate. Do the same thing for the rest of the chocolates.
3. Cover the mousses with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge until needed (you can do the mousses a day before to make them more stable)

To make chocolate sponge cake
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar on a high speed using a mixer until it becomes white and fluffy (about 10 minutes).  Add one egg at a time following with a tablespoon of the flour mixture. Repeat with the rest of the eggs. Fold in the rest of the flour with a wooden spatula, and divide the cake batter into four 6' cake pans that have been oiled and lined with baking paper.
3. Bake the cake for 30 minutes or more until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
4. Put the cake pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, invert the cake pan and take out the cake and let the cake cools down to a room temperature.

To make chocolate ganache
1. Mix everything in a ceramic bowl and melt the chocolate in a microwave, stir and set aside.

To assemble the cake
1. Level each layer of the cake with a serrated knife. Put one layer of the cake on a cake board and spread the milk chocolate hazelnut mousse, followed with another layer of the cake, white chocolate mousse, another layer of cake, dark chocolate mousse and the last layer of cake.
2. Crumb coat the cake with the leftover mouse (or chocolate ganache) and put it in the fridge for about two hours (or more) until the crumb coating is set. Cover the cake with chocolate ganache and leave it for an hour or more before serve.




Enjoy and Eid Mubarak again! :D

p,s: This cake gone in a minute during the gathering. The most well liked cake by the rest so far. Too bad I'm a vanilla person or I would I have enjoyed this cake more haha


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Monday 6 October 2014

Recipe: Kuih seri muka labu (glutinous rice with pumpkin custard layer)

Few months ago I wrote a recipe of my favorite kuih - kuih seri muka . Well, weeks ago I made a fusion version of my favorite kuih using pumpkin custard as the top layer (labu = pumpkin). The combination of sticky rice with pumpkin tastes great, and I was surprised how it turns out to be. It's like enjoying both of my favorite Malaysian and American desserts in one bite (I love the American pumpkin pie!).

Instead of using a microwave to cook the sticky rice I used a rice cooker, and I must say that I'm going to stick with using that from now on. It didn't create mess like what I had experienced before (it must be the springform pan...geez). Anyway, since now is the pumpkin season *yeay* why don't you just give this recipe a try. It's a great way to impress your family and friends ;)







Kuih seri muka labu
[click for printable version]

Bottom Layer (glutinous rice):
200 g glutinous rice (soaked for an hour, drained)
125 ml coconut milk + 125 ml water
1 tsp salt

Upper layer (pumpkin custard):
3 large eggs
500 gm pumpkin - roast until soften
1/2 cup coconut milk
5 tablespoons dark brown sugar (or to taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoons salt

Method:
1. Cook the rice in the rice cooker until set. Fluff up the rice using a fork and put it in a 24 cm springform pan which has been oiled and press the rice until compact, set aside.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the custard in a food processor and processed the mixture. Pour the custard layer on top of the rice layer and bake in the 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes or until the custard layer becomes brownish.
3. Let the kuih cools to a room temperature, and cut it using oiled knife.

p.s: This dessert tastes sooo good despite the look haha



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Sunday 5 October 2014

Recipe: Moussaka

Moussaka is one of my favorite dishes. It's like a cross between lasagna and ratatouille - all the delicious goodness layered together and tastes awesome!

So this is the 'unauthentic version of my moussaka, and...it's a great way to finish up all those leftover vegetables haha. 









Moussaka

Meat sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
250 gm minced beef
3 large tomatoes - roast for 30 minutes or until tender and peel of the skin
2 cloves garlic
half large sweet onion
1 tablespoon tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 large eggplants - thinly cut and drizzled with salt for 10 minutes and rinse
1/2 large green zucchini - thinly cut
1/2 large yellow zucchini - thinly cut
1 large potato - thinly cut
2 tablespoons olive oil
a pinch of saffron, turmeric powder salt and pepper
200 gm of cottage cheese (you can omit this if you want)

Egg custard 
3 eggs
6 tablespoons Greek yogurt
100 gm Gouda cheese (or your favorite cheese)
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

To make the meat sauce and potato filling
1. In a large pot on a medium heat put the olive oil and sauteed the garlic and onion until aromatic and put in the minced beef until browned. Put in the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Increase the heat and wait until the meat sauce thickens and turn off the heat and set aside.
2. Put the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and sauteed the potato with saffron, turmeric powder, salt and pepper until each side browned. Set aside

To make the egg custard
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

To assemble
1. Put the fried potato at the bottom layer of a casserole dish followed with meat sauce, cottage cheese, eggplants and zucchini. Repeat the layer and cover the filling with the egg custard. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes or until the custard browned. 







p.s: Moussaka tastes great the day after as the flavors developed.

Owh yeah, Eid Mubarak guys! Hope you guys have a great Eid al-Adha :)





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