Chocolate Marble Cake 2

It's mum's birthday today!

It's been a long time since I last baked a cake. The fear of butter and sugar was enough to deter me from doing it more often. I should just say grace over the cake, sanctify it, cast out all the unwanted calories and believe that only the goodness and nutrients enter our bodies as we enjoy it.

I didn't succeed when I attempted All That Matter's Orange Chocolate Marble Cake recipe the last time and ended up with a modified version. Firstly, I did not use evaporated milk. Secondly, I used brown sugar to beat with the egg whites and it did not turn into the soft peak that ATM's recipe requires. Lastly, I did not use the orange zest.

Today, I tried to follow ATM's recipe closely, but without the orange zest.

One mistake I made today was that I forgot to wash the electric hand mixer clean before I beat the egg whites and sugar. After beating for a while, it could not turn into soft peak. Realising the mistake, I had no choice but to discard the mixture (because I really don't know what to do with it), wash the mixer and the mixing bowl, wipe-dry them, take out the measuring scale to measure more sugar, crack more eggs for the egg whites and re-do this step. Thankfully, it worked this time.

This is for mum's birthday...


Mum said that this cake is nice. It's not too oily and thus, not so "scary". She doesn't fancy oily cakes and cakes with too much cream. It tastes really nice when it's slightly warm.

Do check out ATM's blog. Rei has also made reference to the marble cake recipe at Aunty Yochana's Cake Delight. It is a pretty tri-colour marble cake. I may give it a try.

I really admire Rei's skill in making those mahjong tiles. They really look like the real thing. Amazing. See her mahjong tiles here....

Orange Chiffon Cake

It's Vesak Day today and Mother's Day tomorrow. Blessed Mother's Day to all the mummies!

Took the opportunity to try out Florence's orange chiffon cake recipe last night for today's breakfast and snack. It's soft, fluffy, moist and nice. Mum said the sweetness is just nice, not too sweet.

Ingredients

115g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

85ml warm orange juice (I used freshly-squeezed orange juice)
finely grated zest of 1.5 large orange

5 egg yolks + 30g castor sugar + 1/4 tsp salt
5 egg whites + 50g castor sugar + 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

60ml corn oil
1/2 tsp vanilla essence or 2 tsp rum

Method

1. Sieve flour and baking powder

2. Use hand whisk to whisk egg yolk until creamy and light in colour. Add in corn oil, then warm orange juice and vanilla essence (or rum)

3. Add in flour mixture into yolk mixture lightly. Add in orange zest.

4. Beat egg white with electric beater until big bubbles formed. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and beat unitl it is white in colour. Add in 50g sugar 3 times and beat until stiff peak.

5. Pour 1/2 egg white into flour mixture in (3) and blend well.

6. Pour the flour mixture into the rest of egg white and blend well.

7. Bake at 175C for 45 minutes or until cooked.

8. Invert the cooked cake during cooling process.

Low-Fat Orange Yogurt Cake

Yesterday was my first time using yogurt to bake cake and it turned out yummy. Try it! The recipe is at Happy Home Baking.


Ingredients

250g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
70g butter, soften at room temperature
zest of 1 orange
160g sugar (original recipe calls for 200g of sugar)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp orange juice

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 degC. Grease or line a 8" by 4" loaf pan.

2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, mix together yogurt, vanilla essence and orange juice.

4. With an electric mixer, beat butter and orange zest for 1 minute.

5. Add in eggs gradually, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beat constantly for about 2 minutes.

6. On low speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture.

7. On medium-high speed, beat in 1/2 of the yogurt mixture.

8. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour mixture.

9. On high speed, beat in the remaining yogurt mixture.

10. On low speed, beat in the rest of the flour mixture.

11. Scrape into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

I made half the portion of the recipe and baked for about 25-30 minutes. Yielded 3 large cupcakes for mum and I.

Chocolate Marble Cake

Mum bought a $2.15 "marble cake" last weekend. How could it be so cheap? The ingredients were flour, eggs, oil and many other flavourings and colourings. And the marble look was on the surface of the cake only. Sigh, told mum that she should have just let me know that she wanted to eat some cakes and I would have gladly make some for her. But she seems to enjoy eating that $2.15 cake because it was so cheap...

The homemade one, though costs slightly more, is definitely healthier than the one that uses a lot of flavourings and colourings.

I came across a marble cake recipe at All That Matters and adjusted it to use whatever ingredients I have in my cabinet, ie top flour and brown sugar.

It's a learning experience for me. I realised that I could not whisk the egg white and brown sugar to a soft peak as required by the original recipe.

So here is my recipe:

Ingredients

200g butter
160g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 tbsp of low fat milk
200g top flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp low fat milk
(mix thoroughly)

Method

1. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla essence until light and creamy

2. Add in one egg at a time and beat until creamy. Add in milk.

3. Fold in flour and baking powder

4. Spoon half of the mixture into a separate bowl. Add in cocoa mixture and stir well.

5. Drop alternate spoonfuls of mixtures into a pan. Use a chopstick to pull backwards and forward through the mixture.

6. Bake cake for 40 minutes in oven of 170 degree Celsius or when the skewer comes out clean. Turn the cake onto the wire rack to cool.