Cakes for Tinny's house warming

Last weekend Tinny invited us to his house warming party. And as you expect... I brought some cakes!

Fudge-like chocolate & raspberry cake and Strawberry shortcake.

I guess I didn't need two cakes. But because I was little too excited to visit his new house and meet his girlfriend and the bump for the first time, I made two... (ok, I'm very indecisive too.)

Thanks again, Tinny and Alina, for inviting us. I looooooove your flat and can't wait to see your little man! Oh, and I hope you didn't mind having a few extra slices of the cake for dinner...! ;D

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Although I've lately been posting about more breads than cakes, I still do cakes too;)

I made these for our car sales guy and he specifically asked me to make 'very chocolate' cupcake.

So..., I made sure I did 'very' chocolate cake...

Melting chocolate and gently folding it in the cake batter is always a very therapeutic event. I love it! :)

Moist cake with plenty of milk chocolate on the top,

it's got to be a nice sugar supply for a Friday afternoon...

Ingredients:

Egg 5 (Egg white 4, Egg yolk 4, whole egg 1)

Sugar 125g

Butter 125g

Self raising flour 110g

Dark chocolate 125g

Coco powder 15g

Milk Chocolate chips for the topping

I also made these cupcakes for Lana's nursery teachers since she is moving up to the next class and today was her last day at the current class. (Awe, she is growing up too fast...)

☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎☺︎

Smile!

Orange & Chocolate pound cake

I made this Orange and Chocolate pound cake for Lana's nursery teachers who have been very nice to Lana (and me) since she started going there in April.

It's a variation of vanilla pound cake. The basic ingredient for a pound cake is equal amount of eggs, sugar, flour and butter (I usually weigh the eggs so that I know exactly how many grams of other ingredients I need), and you can vary it by adding chocolate, jams or flavourings whatever you fancy.

For this cake, I divided the batter into two potions and added orange juice to one, and chocolate to the other. For the butter cream, I added orange marmalade and also poured marmalade syrup over the cake before I sprinkled it with bits of dark chocolate and white chocolate.

I had a slice to taste it. It was lovely. Nice and moist, the refreshing flavour of orange went really well with the chocolate and the sweet butter cream.

The nursery teachers loved the cake too. They told me more cakes are welcome any time...;)

Two chocolate cakes

Some people might have already noticed that there are considerably small amounts of chocolate things on my blog... It's because neither of us eat it (unfortunately it gives us a great headache..;(...)

However, that doesn't stop me from using it for cakes and breads. In fact, I quite like working with it! I think chocolate gives cakes and breads just a touch of special indulgent feeling to them. :)

So so so..., at the weekend I made two different chocolate cakes.

One was an ultimate chocolate birthday cake for Brian, who as far as I know loves chocolate. The cake had cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate in it and drizzle of white chocolate, bits of milk chocolate and chocolate cake, and 'Happy Birthday' written with raspberry flavoured white chocolate (which kind of got pressed when I wrapped it...). Hope the cake filled the birthday boy's chocolate hole. ;)

The other one was white chocolate bundt cakelets for Andy to take to the office. Oh see, these mini bundt cake tins are so cute! When I saw it, I had to get it. ;D I added bits of chocolate cake from the cut of Brian's cake in the batter and filled the middle with chocolate sauce.

That was fun doing chocolate cakes, and these are the times that I wish I ate chocolate...

Bread, bread and more bread

Yesterday was all about bread in The WOS kitchen. I prepared the bread dough the day before and proved it in the fridge overnight so in the morning it was ready to be baked. I was up early to get started.

First off, "Chocolate twist". I had a pot of chocolate paste that was left from my "Billionaire's shortbread". So I used it to make those pretty looking pan au chocolat. ;D The smooth chocolate paste went very well with the sweet and soft bread.

Next up was "Raspberry mascarpone tear & share". We went to raspberry picking the other day and we had a lot in the fridge to use. So I thought "why not use them in my bread".
I made a quick raspberry mascarpone paste and put it inside the bread.
Hummm, it was so good that I couldn't keep it for long... ;)

And the last one, "Raspberry ball". I still had a bowl full of raspberries after making the tear & share, so I decided to make these cute pink balls.
I used the juice from the raspberry as the liquid of the dough, which gave the bread a really nice colour.
There was a nice bite with the pipes and a natural sweetness too!

So..., it was a really nice and tasty morning baking session and that reminded me how much I love making bread;) Yum yum yum.

Billionaire's shortbread

The order was "the biggest millionaire's shortbread I've ever made". So, I baked the shortbread in my big tart tin and poured caramel followed by a thin layer of white chocolate and velvety chocolate on top. I didn't even cut it, but I just delivered the whole thing.

The shortbread was nice and buttery, caramel was sweet and gooey, and the chocolate was smooth and silky.... this millionaire's shortbread was a little more indulgent than "millionaire" so I decided to call it "billionaire" instead. :D

Ok, so.., here is how to indulge yourself or someone...

Ingredients:

Shortbread

butter 200g

Icing sugar 100g

Flour 200g

Rice flour 100g

Caramel

Condensed milk 2tins (397gx2)

Butter 100g

brown sugar 100g

Chocolate

White chocolate 200g

Milk chocolate 200g

Dark chocolate 200g

Double cream 240g

1. Make the shortbread. Soften the butter. Cream butter and icing sugar together.

2. Sift flour and rice flour into 1. Bring the mixture together until it forms a dough. Wrap in a cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3.Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Press the dough on a tart tin (10 inch) and prick the dough with a fork. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until the top of the shortbread has become slightly golden. Let it cool.

4. Prepare the caramel. Combine all the ingredients for the caramel in a sauce pan. Place the pan on a low heat. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens and becomes light brown. Pour the mixture into the cooled shortbread. Let it cool.

5. Prepare the chocolate. Malt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Pour over the caramel.

6. Make the chocolate topping. Heat the cream in a sauce pan over a gentle heat. 

7. Add milk chocolate and dark chocolate into the pan. Keep stirring until the chocolate has dissolved and the mixture has become silky. Pour over the white chocolate.

8. Make some swirls with white chocolate. Leave to set.

Carrot brownie

I love it when a recipe I imagined in my head actually worked. And today was one of those successful times;)

My new recipe... Carrot Brownie! It sounds unusual but try it when you have lots of carrots and don't know what to do with them. I've used white chocolate just because I don't eat normal cacao chocolate, but I believe it would work just as good.

What is nice about this brownie is that you get a good nutrition from carrots while enjoying a soft and sweet piece of treat or two...

I'd forgotten about how versatile a brownie can be until now, but the success with this brownie made me want to experiment with more unique brownies... Well, wait and see how it goes...

Ingredients;

White chocolate 100g

Butter 25g

Egg 1

Brown  sugar 50g

Flour 65g

Cinnamon 1/2 tsp

Carrot (cooked and mashed) 170g

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

1.Preheat the oven to 180ºc.  Melt white chocolate and butter together.

2. Beat egg and brown sugar until it's fluffy. Mix Vanilla extract in.

3. Pour 1 into 2. Mix well.

4. Sift flour and cinnamon into 3. Fold in.

5. Mix mashed carrot into 4.

6. Pour the mixture into a cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 30 minutes.

Chocolate mountains & Strawberry rings!

It seems that people are getting more and more crazy about Valentine's day every year. A big heart , a little ball..., whatever their size and shape are,  chocolate is sure to be the most popular gift.  And So..., I'm too preparing for Valentine's day with my cakes.

I made two types. One is chocolate cake. Because the middle of the cake has risen a lot and looked like a mountain, I decided to name it "Chocolate mountain". :D The other cake is baked strawberry doughnut. No need to explain, I'm calling it "Strawberry ring". I personally love the colour combination of chocolate and pink. It feels really bitter and sweet, just like love... ah, cheesy me...

Those mountains and rings will be sent to those who deserve a bit of love and sweet tomorrow:)

I'm making a Valentine's day dinner dessert tomorrow too. Stay tuned!

Choco iPhone case

Yes... it's not a real chocolate... but who cares when it's cute and sweet...

There are so many unnecessary but funny stuff in Japan. This one is a chocolate iPhone case. It comes with a outside packages. I thought it smelled of chocolate, but it's just my mind got tricked by the precious fake chocolate.

I love these stupid things in Japan:)

5th Nov, our wedding day:)

On 5th November, we got married in Las Vegas. One of the most beautiful days of my life:)

After the ceremony, we went to the Las Vegas sign and cut the wedding cake that Andy's mum, dad and brother arranged for us. The cake had our name and pretty little flowers on it, and of course, the buttery cream was lovely.

We went to the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Paris hotel for a push dinner;)
Followed by the lovely starter and main, we had a nice surprise from the restaurant. They gave us a pretty chocolate mousse with congratulations on the plate. What a treat:)

For the dessert, we had their signature souffle..... when they came to the table, my mouth was wide open... the biggest souffle I've ever seen....
We shared pistachio, granmanie, pumpkin and caramel for eight of us. Amazing texture and flavour. I was so full but couldn't help having them more and more...

Massive thanks to our families who took part in this beautiful day:)

Sachertorte

Day 2 of the baking week..., please welcome Miss "Sachertorte"!

This super rich chocolate cake originally from Vienna, Austria is a must-try for chocolate lovers. The moist chocolate texture coated with a thick chocolate garnish looks professional, yet quite easy to make.

Ingredients;

Plain flour 45g

Cocoa powder 45g

Baking powder 1tsp

3 Egg

Sugar 90g

Butter 15g

---

Dark Chocolate 100g

Double cream 80g

Apricot jam 2tbsp

Water or Liquor of your choice 1tbsp

1. Sift Flour, Cocoa powder and Baking powder together. Melt the Butter in the microwave. Pre-heat the oven to 180º.

2. Beat the Egg and Sugar together until it becomes white-ish and foamy.

3. Add 1 into 2, and fold in gently.

4. Sprinkle the melted Butter into 3, and mix.

5. Pour the mixture in a cake tin.

6. Bake in the pre-heated oven (180º) for 30 minutes.

7. When the cake is baked, cool it down on a cake cooler.

8. Make the chocolate garnish. In a little pot, heat the Cream up (DO NOT boil it). Turn the heat off and add the chopped chocolate. Mix well, until the chocolate is fully melted.

9. In a small bowl, mix Apricot jam and Water/Liquor, and microwave it to warm it up.

10. Slice the cake in the middle. Spread the apricot jam mixture and chocolate garnish.

11. Put the top back on and pour the chocolate garnish, and cover the cake thoroughly.

12. Cool the cake in the fridge.