Recipe: Teh tarik cake (milk tea cake)

It's been months since I last updated my blog. Pictures are still in the RAW format and I still haven't had the time to edit them. Recipes are written somewhere in the head, and I just need to blog to have them out again. Sometimes when you have too many things to do, or you just had busy days, all you want to do during the weekend is to lazying around. That is how I'm feeling at the moment, and yet I'm forcing myself to write this before this blog being untouched for a longer time.


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This cake was made during spring. It was the time when the weather was still chilly, and I was hoping the day is getting warmer and sunnier. A cup of warm tea brightened up my day, and a sip of it brings out the happy memory that I have had almost forgotten. Teh tarik - milk tea made out of black tea and condensed milk, is my personal favorite during the cold season. It reminds me of my childhood, and the warm and sunny Malaysia. Strong black tea with a hint of sweet and creamy condensed milk, that's how I like mine to be.


I tried to recapture the taste of the tea that I like so much into a cake, and had fun creating it...

When I think back, the joy of making this cake came from remembering the things and moments that not present here. I was relieving the past...and not feeling melancholic about it. 

Teh tarik cake (milk tea cake)
[click for printable version]

Ingredients:

Milk tea
8 bags extra strong black tea
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup condensed milk (adjust the sweetness based on your liking, the condensed milk in Europe is not as sweet as the one in Malaysia)

Cake
125 g butter
5 tablespoons sugar (add more if you like it to be sweeter)
3 eggs
150 ml milk tea
300 g flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt


Milk tea frosting
60 ml milk tea
400 g cream cheese
20 g butter
*add icing sugar if you want it to be sweeter


Directions:
1. Brew the tea bags with hot water for 30 minutes. Remove the tea bags and stir in the condensed milk.
2. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease four 6-inch pans. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, set aside
3. Beat the butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one followed by a tablespoon of the flour mixture to prevent the batter from curdling. Add half of the flour mixture, followed by the milk tea and the rest of the flour mixture. Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Put the cake pans onto the wire rack and take out the the cakes when the pans are cool.
4. While waiting for the cakes to cool, prepare the cream cheese frosting by adding all the ingredients into a small bowl and beat them slowly.
5. Assemble the cake by spreading the frosting onto each layer and cover the whole cake. Pour the remaining milk tea on the cake.

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Recipe: Orange drizzle cake

I have problem with eating fruits - I'm lazy to peel and cut them into pieces. In the end, I have to make them into smoothies or cakes. This is one of the perfect example. My hubby brought a huge bag of oranges (my definition of huge is actually a normal size bag for other people), and I was dumbfounded of what to do with them. I was hoping he will eat some if he were hungry, but I was wrong. The oranges lay at the same spot without being touched by both of us. So after several weeks, and I could clearly see the oranges almost turn bad, I push myself to peel them and make orange juices and tea cake. Well, more energy wasted there, but the taste and texture are definitely better than eating fresh fruits *smirk*



Anyway, this is a very simple cake and you cake substitute lemon or other citrus to make it.

Orange drizzle cake
[click for printable version]

Ingredients:
6 eggs
350 g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
360 g flour, sifted
2 teaspoon baking powder
150 g butter, melted
200 ml cream
Finely grated zest of 3 large oranges

Drizzle:
100 ml water
3 tablespoons sugar
Juice of 3 large oranges

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease a bundt pan.
2. In a large bow, beat the eggs, sugar, salt, flour and baking powder. Add the melted butter, cream and lemon zest to the mixture.
3. Pour the batter into a bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
4. Prepare the drizzle by combining all the ingredients into a small pot on high heat until the mixture boils. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes and set aside.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and pour the drizzle onto the cake (while it is still in the pan). Leave the cake to cool and invert the cake pan onto a plate.
6. Serve with tea or coffee

p.s: The only fruit that I don't mind to peel and eat it fresh is Durian! Weird, but that is my most favorite fruit in the world (no matter how disgusting my non-Malaysian friend might think :P)

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Recipe: Apple cake and caramel glaze

Apples have never been my favorite fruits. The crunchiness, the subtle sweetness with a touch of acidity are the reasons why I dislike apples, and yet what others love about them. I had plenty of apples that I bought from the market and given by my friend. I was hoping for my hubby to eat them once a day, but it didn't turn out that way. The apples were about to turn bad that I had to make several desserts to get rid of them. Turning the apples into dessert is the only way for me to eat them, and the best way for me to finish them up quickly.

I used Elstar apples for all my desserts as it is the most abundant cultivar in the Netherlands. One of my favorite apple dessert is this apple cake recipe from Paula Deen. I made few modification especially the amount of apples I put into it. The result was juicy and flavorful cake. My hubby gave some to his friends and they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Apple cake with toffee glaze
[click for printable version]

Apple cake
6 apples, peeled and diced
1 cup roasted pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla powder 
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 1/4 dark brown sugar (or more for sweeter cake)
1 1/4 cups corn oil
3 eggs

Caramel glaze
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Lightly greased a Bundt pan and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, vanilla powder, baking soda, salt, the spices, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the oil and brown sugar until combine. Beat the egg in the oil mixture one by one on a low speed. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix.
4. Fold in the diced apples and pecan into the mixture. Scrape of the cake batter into the Bundt pan and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
5. Allow the cake to fully cool in the pan, and put it out onto a plate.
6. Make the glaze by melting the butter and brown sugar in a small pot on a medium heat. Set aside and combine the caramel mixture with icing sugar. Pour the glaze onto the cooled cake.

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Recipe: Chocolate bundt cake with salted caramel chocolate ganache

It was late at night and I was craving to eat chocolate cake. Too much mental work made my body hunger for sweet stuff. I procrastinated and took some time to prepare bundt cake as I was lazy to make layer cake.

As I was covering the cake with chocolate ganache, I felt the presence of my husband near me. He looked at me in a weird way,  'are you going to eat that now?'  he asked concernedly. I stopped for a moment and resisted the temptation of having that one sinful bite. He has a point there, if I didn't cycle I would look like a whale by now. Reluctantly I waited the next day to gorge over the delicious cake. Besides, I think cake tastes better the next day  ;)

Chocolate bundt cake with salted caramel chocolate ganache

[click for printable version]

*I used a tea cup for the cup measurement

1 cup butter (approximately 215 g), softened 

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup cocoa powder (I used Valrhona cocoa powder)

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup Greek yogurt (or sour cream)

Salted caramel chocolate ganache

60 gm butter

50 gm dark brown sugar

45 ml cream

100 gm dark chocolate (I used Valrhona)

sea salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.  Grease the bundt pan with butter and dust it with flour.

2. Combine cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl, and in another bowl combine buttermilk and Greek yogurt together, set aside.

3. Cream the butter and sugar using a stand mixer on a high speed until creamy and fluffy (about 10 minutes). Add eggs one by one followed with a tablespoon of the flour mixture. Add half the flour mixture and mix until well combined followed with the buttermilk mixture and another half of the flour mixture. 

4. Pour the batter into the bundt pan and spread the batter smoothly. Bake in the oven for 50 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out smoothly. 

To make the salted caramel chocolate ganache

1. Melt the butter and brown sugar on a pot on a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, set aside.

2. Combine the cream and dark chocolate in a porcelain bowl and melt the chocolate in a microwave (about 1 minute and 30 seconds), set aside

3. Combine the caramel into the chocolate ganache mixture and sprinkle with sea salt.

4. Pour the ganache on the cooled cake.

*for delicious chocolate cake, use great quality chocolate and cocoa powder. Valrhona is one of the bests but you can also use Callebaut etc

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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 

[click for printable version]

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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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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Recipe: Clementine cake - gluten free and dairy free

You know that feeling when you finished watching a movie and you just have to try/eat/do/travel because the movie is affecting you so much. Well, that happens to me a lot.....especially when food is involved. The most recent 'I-have-to-make-this' feeling was when I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty months ago when I was still in Malaysia. Too bad I can't find clementines in the country thus the planned was postponed for a while.


It was not until recently when I went pumpkin hunting that I had the chance to buy clementines and bake similar cake in the movie *weee* The cake was based from this recipe with slight modification. I was pretty doubtful before making the cake as the recipe didn't call for butter or oil, but changed my mind once I bite the cake. It was so moist! And yeah, tastes great too! The moist comes from the clementine puree and the eggs.


To make the cake more healthy use natural sweetener instead. You can use maple syrup and dried dates instead of processed sugar and the taste will still be amazing!

Clementine cake
[click here for printable version]

5 clementines
150 g dark brown sugar
200 g ground almond
100 g coconut flakes
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice powder
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons icing sugar (or more for glazing)

1. Put clementines in a large pot and cover with water. Boil clementines for 2 hours or until soften and set aside until they cool down to room temperature and puree them using a blender. Use 3/4 of the total puree for cake, and the rest for glazing.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Greased your desired pan (I used a Bundt pan). Combine brown sugar, ground almond, coconut flakes, baking powder, spices and vanilla powder in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dried mixture, and put 3/4 of the clementine puree and eggs and fold the mixture gently. Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
3. To make the glaze, mix the rest of the clementine puree with icing sugar (I like to make mine less sweet, thus it becomes more runny) and pour on the cooled cake.

This cake goes really well with tea and coffee. Enjoy!

p.s: If you can't find clementine, you can use tangerine instead. Take out the seeds and boil the skin and flesh until soften. The good thing about clementine is that it is seedless.

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Recipe: Berry poke cupcakes

A while ago my friends I and C came to me and said "if you don't make cake for us, we will put your name on the ice bucket challenge." I was dumbfounded for a while, and the three of us laugh hysterically. Those two are among the perkiest people in the department, and I knew they didn't really mean what they said. However, I did bake cake for them and others in the department as I love baking, and it was fun succumbing to their crazy 'threat' ;)

This cake is a modified version of the Victoria's sponge cake, and it is one of my favorite! To have fluffy cake, use cake flour instead of normal flour, and whenever you mix eggs one by one in the batter, always put a tablespoon of the dry ingredients to prevent the eggs from curdling.

Berry poke cupcakes 
(make 2 9' cake or 18 large cupcakes)
[click for printable version]

Cake
300 gm cake flour
300 gm unsalted butter
300 gm castor sugar
6 eggs (or 300 gm eggs)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla powder

Blueberry compote
200 gm blueberries
4 tablespoons castor sugar
1 cup water

400 ml whipping cream - whipped until fluffy
250 gm fresh berries of your choice (I used strawberries)

Method:

To make the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Mix baking powder, vanilla powder and cake flour in a small bowl, set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy and fluffy (about 10 minutes). Beat eggs one by one into the butter mixture with one tablespoon of dry ingredients for each egg to avoid the batter from curdling.
3. Fold the rest of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture with wooden spoon, and pour the batter in the cake pans or cupcake liners. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

To make blueberry compote:
1. Mix all the ingredients in a large pot on a high heat until boiling. Reduce the heat until the compote becomes thick

To assemble:
Poke the cake/cupcakes several times with a fork. Pour the blueberry compote on top of the cake followed by the whipping cream. Decorate with fresh fruits

I'm glad you guys love the cake! :D And happy belated birthday to I (I baked the same cake for her) ;)

p.s: Fun facts - in the Netherlands, when it is your birthday you are the one bringing the cake to the office and people will shake your hand and congratulate you. In Malaysia on the other hand, your close friends bring the cake for you to celebrate your birthday. So I (if you read this post), you should be prepared for my cake next year hehe

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Recipe: Triple Strawberry Cake & Selamat Hari Raya! Eid Mubarak!

It was breaking fast together with the Malaysians at Wageningen last week. The host prepared delicious chicken biryani rice and kuih, and the rest brought other foods and drinks. Knowing there will be lots of food (if it is Malaysian get-together, there WILL be plenty of foods), I decided to bake strawberry cake for dessert. It is not heavy and filling like chocolate cake, thus it is perfect for such event.

I was full from gorging over the delicious biryani, but I had to try a small slice of the cake that I made. It was awesome! Not that sweet and moist, and I had to take another small slice of the cake haha.

This cake will be perfect for Hari Raya open house- in Malaysia the Muslims invited their family and friends for small (or big) feast to celebrate Eid-fitr (a celebration that marks the end of Ramadan).

Triple Strawberry Cake
[click for printable version]

Strawberry Cake (white cake recipe adapted from add a pinch)
1 ½  cup butter, softened
12 tablespoons castor sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup whole milk, room temperature
½ cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped strawberries

Strawberry sauce
4 cups water
2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberried

Strawberry cream cheese frosting
400 gm cream cheese (I used 60% fat content)
60 gm icing sugar
5 tablespoons strawberry sauce

Method:

For cake
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line four 6-inch cake pans.2. In a large bowl cream butter until light and fluffy with a hand mixer. Slowly add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding another.
3. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, buttermilk and vanilla beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Stir until well combined and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and mixed well.
4. Divide into 4 cake pans evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool slightly in cake pans for about 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

For sauce
1. Combine everything in a large pot on high heat. Once the water boil, turn the heat to medium-low. Mash the strawberry using potato masher. Simmer the sauce until thickens (approximately 15 minutes or more)

For cream cheese frosting
1. Put everything in a large bowl and mix well.

To assemble: Level the cake using serrated knife or cake cutter, put strawberry sauce on top of the cake and strawberry cream cheese frosting. Repeat for every layer. Cover and crumb coat the cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting for an hour, and cover the cake with the rest of the frosting. Decorate with slices of fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce.

Eid Mubarak in advance guys! Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all :D

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Recipe: Triple Lemon Cake

After watching Games of Throne, I've been craving to eat lemon cake, and I blame Sansa Stark for that. Since then, I have baked several lemon cakes using different recipes, and I like each one of it. My husband on the other hand prefers lemon cake with a dry texture. 'That is how lemon cake is supposed to be,' he said. It's funny how he becomes such a picky eater and good food critic after we got married (lalala~)

Most of the recipes that I found are for making tea cakes - which generally dry and dense. However, you can play around with the ingredients to get your desired texture. For moist cake, use oil instead of butter. You can even add more liquid (such as buttermilk, milk etc) for that. Fluffy textures requires cake flour and beating of the egg whites until soft peak and gently fold it in the cake batter.

I also reduced the amount of lemon zest in the cake batter from the original recipe as I want my cake to have nice balance of lemon taste when combined with lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting. Nevertheless, I used approximately five lemons for making this triple lemon cake.

The result of this cake was awesome! Very lemony and it feels so refreshing. My husband didn''t complain this time and he said it has the 'right'texture haha

Triple Lemon Cake

[Click for printable version]

Lemon cake (adapted from Food Network)

125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
12 tablespoons castor sugar
4 eggs white, at room temperature
Grated lemon zest of 3 large lemons
350 g flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Freshly squeezed lemon juice of 1 1/2 lemons
200 g yogurt (I used Turkish yogurt)

Lemon curd cake filling (adapted from Fine cooking)
72 g unsalted butter
5 tablespoons castor sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs. lightly packed finely grated lemon zest
Pinch salt
4 large egg yolks

Lemon cream cheese frosting

250 g cream cheese (I used Turkish cream cheese)

100 g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons cream
100 g icing sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line four 6-inch cake pans
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and  sugar in the until light and fluffy add  the lemon zest and mix.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and  baking soda in a bowl. In another bowl, combine  lemon juice, and yogurt. Add the flour and yogurt mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
4. Beat the white eggs in separate bowl until soft peak form. Gently fold in the egg whites with the cake batter using wooden spoon. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out smooth. 

For filling:

1. Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon juice, zest, and salt. Whisk in the yolks until smooth.

2. Return the pot to medium-low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens. To check if the curd is thick enough, dip a wooden spoon into it and draw a your finger across the the back of the spoon; your finger should leave a path. Don't let the mixture boil. 

3. Immediately force the curd through a fine sieve into a bowl, using a wooden spoon. Let cool at room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.

For frosting:

1. Mix everything in a large bowl and mix until frosting smooth.

To assemble: Layer the cake with curd filling and covered with the lemon cream cheese frosting

p.s: Prayers to all passengers and crews on flight MH17. Hope the loves one for those on board stay strong.

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Recipe: Vegetarian lemon tea cake with berry sauce

The unstable weather in Wageningen drives me crazy sometimes. Davis has unpredictable weather too, but only in few seasons (and not all four of them). I can experience all hot, cold, sunny, cloudy, windy and rainy weather in one day here in Wageningen. Looking at the weather forecast website is an hourly routine, and it is my new best friend. Good thing I have bought new rain jacket so I can bike to the campus without being irritated when it suddenly rain (maybe haha).

On a good note, the crazy weather is the only thing that I don't like about Wageningen so far, the rest is awesome! People are friendly - strangers greet me whenever I pass by them, sometimes they even greet me in Bahasa which I find adorable.The nature is so pretty, and this place is calm and peaceful. Fresh produce is a lot, and you can even buy it for cheap.

Owh talking about local produce, I was going gaga over the fruits sold at the market. Lots of summer fruits and I can't help buying many varieties. We bought 2 kg of fresh cherries last week, and was planning to make cherry pie but had to change my plan as 'dear' hubby ate 1.8 kg of them (literally!) *speechless* -_-!!! We didn't buy any cherries this week though but I managed to grab few berries for my own use.

I baked vegetarian lemon tea cake as I wanted something refreshing, and lemon goes well with blueberries, or even with other berries. I have a lot of Greek yogurt left so I used that to make delicious and moist vegetarian cake. The recipe below is something that I created myself, it might not be perfect but I find the cake to be not that sweet (just the way I like it), has light flavor, moist and taste delicious. A perfect tea cake to serve to quests plus easy to prepare :D

Vegetarian Lemon Tea Cake with Berry Sauce (Click to print the recipe)

Vegetarian Lemon Tea Cake 

125 gm unsalted butter
4 tablespoon castor sugar (you can add more if you want)
200 ml Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup flour (cake flour is better)
2 teaspoon baking powder
100 ml corn oil
Finely grated  zest of 1 lemon (you can add/reduce this if you want)


Berry Sauce (Serving: Two people)

7 large strawberries, cut into quarters
15 pieces blueberries
1/2 tablespoon sugar (or more)
1 cup water
A dash of salt
A dash of nutmeg

For serving: 1 cup whipping cream - beat until fluffy (I don't like to put sugar in my whipping cream, you can do that if you want it to be sweeter)


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add Greek yogurt and vanilla extract and mix until combine. Put flour, baking powder in the mixture and mix, add oil and lemon zest and continue beating for one more minute until everything is combined. Pour the batter in 8' x 8' square pan and bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool off the cake to room temperature.
3. To make the sauce: Combine everything in a medium pot on a medium to high heat, mash the berries using potato masher and cook until the sauce is thicken (you can add or reduce the water if you want, and you can also add corn flour to thicken up the sauce).
4. To serve: Cut the cake into square pieces, serves with berry sauce and whipped cream and garnish with fresh berries. This cake is delicious serving warm or cold.

p.s: Sugar in Europe is less sweet than the one in Malaysia, so I advice you to reduce the amount of sugar if you follow this recipe and adding more little by little if you want it to be sweeter. 

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My birthday cake

'I thought you are done with baking' said my husband sarcastically as he saw me baking my birthday cake. I told him that I'm not going to bake anymore last week (and maybe several weeks before too haha) as we want to clear out the ingredients before we leave Malaysia, but the idea of me not having a birthday cake baked by me is kind of sad when I have baked for others for their special days.

So today, dear hubby, is the last day I'm baking before we are leaving to the Netherlands, officially!! (as if you are ever reading my blog)

We had a large pint of Greek yogurt thus I decided to make my favorite vegetarian cake with a twist - pandan flavor! I bought few pandan leaves couple of days ago and made pandan paste out of it. I combine it with my favorite vegetarian cake recipe and voila, delicious and moist vegetarian pandan cake. I decorated the cake with cream cheese frosting and made salted caramel cream cheese filling for between the layers. And yeah, I obviously had to decorate the cake purple - my favorite color!

Side view of my birthday cake - 6' tall pandan cake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting decorated in purple ruffles.

The taste was awesome! Just the way I like it - moist, not too sweet and refreshing pandan smell. I think I will miss baking this cake in Netherlands. The chance of finding fresh pandan leaves is slim, plus I don't like the idea of using the yucky and unnatural pandan flavoring.

Top and side view of the cake. Isn't it pretty? :)

For those who are not familiar with pandan, I would say that it has nice and subtle fragrance of rose. It gives out light and refreshing taste, and tastes well when you complement it with palm sugar :) I think most (if not all) of the Southeast Asian countries use it in their cuisines.

So yeah, happy birthday (more like belated) to me and hope I can make more delicious and pretty cakes in the future :D

Natural green color of the pandan makes this cake looks so yummy!

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