Coconut Swiss Roll

My love for Swiss rolls has been mentioned quite a few times here on my blog, and the recipe has already made it to BON APPETIT.

This Coconut Swiss Roll is a variation of my basic Swiss roll, but it's a little bit different.

It has no sugar, no flour in the actual sponge nor in the cream. Hum, good news for those who are watching their sugar and carb... Well, I'm not a health mania but I still love this Swiss roll!

I used coconut flour in stead of plain flour and honey as a substitute for sugar.  (I've been using a lot of honey recently, aren't I? ;D) Although some of the ingredients are replaced, the method of making the sponge is the same as the basic Swiss roll sponge.

The sponge had less volume and was slightly more fragile than the basic Swiss roll but still had a nice texture with a beautiful flavour of coconut.

I rolled dairy free cream and my homemade coconut jam known as Kaya in the middle (I came across Kaya when I was in Malaysia and loved it so much that I often had roti kaya for dinner...).

So here we are..., ultimate Coconut Swiss Roll! I have to admit it was really good that I had more than half the cake to myself, but still there was no sugar, no flour, I didn't feel guilty at all! In fact I felt super satisfied! ;D

More Swiss Rolls?
Chestnuts Swiss Roll
Thank you cows... Swiss Roll
Grape jam Swiss roll
Blackberry and cream cheese Swiss roll Bush de Noel
My Birthday Swiss roll
Dad's Birthday Swiss roll

Avocado 'Cheese'cake

As I promised on my previous post, I'll share the recipe for the healthy 'cheese'cake that I made on Father's day.

So..., the secret ingredients were...'Avocado' and 'Yoghurt'. It might sound weird but believe me, it works.

First, you start with draining the water of the yoghurt a day before. Line a colander with kitchen towel and place it in a bowl. Pour the yoghurt on top of kitchen towel. Leave it in the fridge for overnight. Following day you'll see water in the bowl and end up with thickened yoghurt which is going to be the alternative to cream cheese.

Then, puree an avocado really smoothly, mix it with the yoghurt. I didn't want to add any sugar so I added honey instead, which is a great substitute for sugar!

Now, we're almost there! Add gelatin to set, pour the mixture into cups and chill for at least a few hours.

This fake cheesecake tasted so good that I ate three portions! It's a great healthy dessert for little people too. :D (Not for babies under 12 months though, because of honey....) I think this avocado dessert is going to appear a lot during summer. :D

These are the basic ingredients. Add whatever you like to spice it up!

Avocado 1

Yoghurt 500g

Honey 20g (It was sweet enough for me but adjust for your liking)

Gelatine leave 4

Father's Day cake & dessert

It was Father's Day yesterday. Did everyone remember to send a big love to your dad or dads? I made Rum & Fruit cake for my dad and dad-in-law, who were both away this Sunday but the cakes were safely sent to them;)

I started the preparation for the fruit cake a little in advance by soaking the mixed dried fruits in rum for a month. I also made a jar of honey and rum soaked walnuts to put in the cake. Both the fruits and nuts were added to a nice moist butter cake along with a fair amount of rum... I added quite a bit of rum in order to make the cake last longer because I was sending it to my dad in Japan which my dad received a day before Father's Day. Yay!

And there was another dad who I made a Father's day treat for..., yes... on behalf of Lana..., it's my hubby and the coolest dad for Lana, Andy! I made a special cheesecake for him (also me and Lana). But it's not a usual cheesecake. It was a sugar-free, flour-less cheesecake. See? I care about our 'daddy's health', so went for a healthy option. ;D

Not only did the cheesecake have no sugar nor flour, it actually had no cream cheese nor cream! However, it tasted like and as creamy as those high calorie ones! I was well impressed!

I'll share the secret ingredients and the recipe on my next post... (so watch this space! ;D)

With Lana's footprint. :) This is how I sent the cake to Japan.

お父さん、いつもありがとう。 

Melon Pan with banana yeast - 自家製酵母メロンパン

I've made melon pan so many times both at work and home that I've lost count of it, and eaten even more since I was a little kid. I love melon pan and perfecting my own melon pan is something that I've been trying for a long time.

And finally, I think that day has come! I made melon pan a few days ago, and it was the best melon pan I've ever made! What made me even more proud was that I used my own banana yeast. Baking classic Japanese breads with my own starter is another challenge that I've set myself. So, I'm very happy that not only did these melon pans taste one of the best ever but also came from my yeast (Thanks to my trusted guy, Mr Banana Yeast!)

I feel I'm one step closer to my dream... ;D

Two of my top tasters fighting for one...

Lana loves melon pan too. She decided she wasn't going to share with Andy and had her own one!

Maple Cheesecake

Since Andy started a new contract, I've been baking cake most of the Sundays for Andy to take it to the office on following Monday, which is great for me because...I get to bake more!
So far, people at the office have been giving me very nice comments (someone even ordered my ginger cake! ;D).

This week I made one of my classics with a little twist, Maple Cheesecake. I used maple biscuits as the base, and added maple syrup in the cheesecake filling. It's a bit different from the ordinary lemony cheesecake, but it tastes richer and deeper with the maple.

The cheesecake safely made it to Andy's work and about 11am I received a text from Andy, saying 'cheesecake is gone.'... Hopefully that was a good sugar supply for a Monday morning... :)

More cheesecake? ;D
Vanilla Cheesecake
Caramel Cheesecake with hazelnuts
The WOS Cheesecake

Butterscotch cake

I'm currently (or forever...) trying to tidy up the kitchen cupboards and I found a packet of butterscotch chips that needed to be used.

To start with I was going to put just a handful of them in my basic sponge cake to make a butterscotch cake. However, as I was putting them in the batter, I found myself going crazy... I put the whole lot in...! Oh well.., I love finishing things and after all it was a Butterscotch Cake, wasn't it?

I carefully folded the butterscotch chips into the sponge batter, thinking they would blend in the sponge nicely, but after the bake all the chips were sank on the bottom. As a result of that, it naturally became a layered cake... Crispy butterscotch on the bottom and light vanilla sponge on top. I glazed the cake with caramel sauce and vanilla sugar.

It smelt good, tasted even better. A simple sponge cake turned into a bit of a treat by accident. :) Someone from Andy's work gave me a really nice comment on the cake too. It was a great success in the end. ;D

Carrot cake with Homemade carrot jam

I don't know why, but I bought more than enough carrots for us to eat... So to rescue those carrots, I made a jam with them. It's a bit unusual but they don't taste like vegetable, but more like a marmalade without bitterness from the orange skin....

Now, the hard part of dealing with the carrots was done, I had to make a cake with it... Yes, it's the classic Carrot and Spice cake.;)

When I add jam in a cake, I normally use less butter and sugar because jam has already got sweetness and moisture. When it comes to a carrot cake, I like to add quite a bit of spice such as cinnamon, vanilla, mixed spice.... I love the smell of these spices coming out of the oven. :D

I added cinnamon butter cream icing and more carrot jam on top. The cake was nice and moist, and with every bite there was a satisfying amount of carrots in it, which is exactly what I expect from a Carrot Cake! Hummm, heavenly...

Another carrot cake from two (wow, time flies!) years ago!

Or here is another way to use up those carrots: Carrot Brownie.