Cookbook Recipes

Preparation time:
2 and a half hours
Makes around 18 slices of date and walnut loaf with the following recipe.

225g wholemeal flour
225g plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon of salt
50g caster sugar
75g margarine
175g finely chopped stoned dates
50g finely chopped walnuts
2 beaten eggs
150 ml skimmed milk
125 ml warmed black treacle

Heat oven to 180C, grease and line a 900-g loaf tin. Sift flours, backing powder, salt and spices into a large, warmed mixing bowl and the rub in the chopped margarine until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Stir in the sugar, dates and walnuts and add the beaten eggs and milk. Add the warmed treacle a spoonful at a time until the mixutre is soft and consistent.

Scrape the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth the top.

Bake it for 2 hours and when removed from the oven, leave it in tin for 5 minutes. Then turn it onto a wire rack, peel off the lining, leave it to cool and its ready to serve.

Durian is my favourite fruit. To many, like my husband, they wonder why. They find it smelly and soft and some durian is even bitter. But for durian lovers, they will surely love this durian cake recipe. Please try to choose sweet durians so that you don’t have to add sugar to the durian puree.

One 9″ vanilla sponge cake

Ingredients for cream:

1 cup of durian puree (Remove flesh from pulp and place in the blender and blend until smooth. Add sugar if it is not sweet enough.)

600ml whipping cream

Just whip the cream and when it is firm and can hold its shape, add the durian puree and mix well.

Cut the sponge cake into three horizontally. Spread cream in each layer and cover the whole cake with the delicious durian cream.

*During durian season when durians are abundant, cheap and good, I will use 2 1/2 cups of durian puree and between the layers of sponge cake, I will just spread about 1 cups of the durian puree so as to maximize the durian taste. I will use about 300 ml of whip cream, whip it and then mix with the remaining durian pureee and cream the sides and top of cake.

Make a basic 9″ chocolate sponge cake.

Ingredients:

1 can black pitted cherries
20 gm cornstarch
60ml (4tbsp) kirsch
600 ml whipping cream
100 gm chocolate rasp or curls to decorate

Method:

Strain the syrup from the pitted cherries. Boil the syrup with the cornstarch until thick. Set aside to cool. Add kirsch. Place the cherries back into the syrup to coat the cherries with the kirsch syrup.
Cut the cake into three horizontally.

Place a layer on a turn-table or a flat plate. Spoon some syrup onto the cake layer. Be careful not to put too much syrup as the sponge may turn soggy.

Whip the cream until firm and can hold its shape. This is important because if the cream is not whip till firm, it will be hard to cream the cake as the cream cannot hold its shape. If it is over-whipped, the cream will turn into butter. (Always chill the bowl and whisk attachment before whipping the cream.)

Spread a thin layer on top of the soaked sponge. Place 1/3 of the cherries on top of the cream.

Repeat with the layers of sponge, syrup and cream.

Top with the third cake round and spoon over some kirsch syrup. Please make sure the sponge is not too moist or it may become soggy.
Spread a thin layerof whipped cream around the sides and top of the cake. Press some chocolate curls on the sides of the cake and sprinkle some in the middle of the cake. Decorate the top of the cake by placing some cherries around the top of the cake.
The picture below is a cake I have made but instead of placing whipped cream around the sides and top of the cake, I put chocolate coating on it as my husband and I are chocolate lovers.

To make the chocolate coating, Chop 125gm of bittersweet chocolate and place in a stainless steel bowl. In a small saucepan, heat up 15gm butter with 90ml thickened cream. When it boils, pour over the chocolate. With a handheld whisk, stir until incorporated. Put the cake on a wire rack and place some baking paper under the wire rack to catch any chocolate dripping down the cake. Pour the chocolate coating onto the center of the cake and using a large spatula, spread all over the cake and creat a even coating. Transfer the cake to a serving platter and chill at least 4 hours.

To make a delicious cream cake, I have always feel that the sponge cake make the difference. Everything else can be right but if the sponge is too dry or hard, it spoils the whole cake.

To make the perfect sponge, you need the right recipe. You also need to know your oven well so that the cake is not too dry or too wet. Please also use the right cake pan. The folding in of flour and butter is very important so that the cake won’t be flat.

My journey in looking for ways to make the perfect sponge has been quite trying. I don’t really like premix as I don’t like the texture and flavour. The only brand of premix that I find satisfactory is Prima. I tried many sponge recipe and they are just not right. Some instructions are so vague that the cake just don’t turn out right.

The following sponge recipe is my favourite and quite easy to make. I have taken some pictures so that you can visualize the process better. Once you master the perfect sponge, you can check out my different cream cake recipes so that you can decorate and make different types of cake. They are delicious.
The following is the recipe for vanilla sponge cake. If you want a chocolate sponge cake, just reduce the quantity of plain flour by 50gm and replace with 50gm of cocoa powder.

Ingredients:

100g (4oz) butter melted
6 eggs, room temperature
225g (8oz) caster sugar
125g (5oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake pan. Line with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180C.
Put the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and whisk until thick enough to leave a trail on the surface when the whisk is lifted. Usually with an electric mixer, it takes about 5 - 7 mins.

Sift the flour. Gently fold half the flour into the egg mixture. When it is well incorporated, fold in the other half. Add the vanilla essence and fold into the mixture.

Place 1 cup of the batter into a bowl with the butter and using a handheld whisk, whisk the mixture to lighten the butter. After that, fold the butter mixture into the batter.
Turn the mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake for about 40 mins or until a toothpick is inserted in the middle will come out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Invert the cake onto a wire rack and remove greaseproof paper.

When removed from oven.

When cooled, it looks a little wrinkled.

Invert the cake so that now the top becomes bottom. Slice the cake horizontally to cream it.

*The pictures features a chocolate cake.

This version of cheesecake is slightly lighter considering that one one 250g pkt of cream cheese is used. You can have change the base of the cake too. Instead of using digestive biscuits, you can use muesli biscuits, chocolate chip biscuits, walnut biscuits etc. You can also top with sliced fruit, chopped nuts and drizzle chocolate on it. Since this is a no bake version and raw eggs are used, it is better to use grade A eggs and clean the eggs before using it.
Crust:

100g chocolate digestive biscuits, crushed (Put biscuits in a plastic bag and crushed with a rolling pin.)
50g melted butter
Filling:

225g cream cheese
100g castor sugar
2 eggs separated
100g plain chocolate, melted
2 tsp gelatine powder
150ml double cream, whipped
For decoration: 150ml double cream, chocolate curls, icing sugar

Method:

Mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter and pressed onto an 18cm springform tin. Chill until firm about 10-15mins.

To make filling, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, egg yolk and melted chocolate . Dissolve gelatine in 2 tbs of hot water and add to the cheesecake mixture. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold in with a metal spoon. Finally fold in the cream. Pour into tin and chill to set.

Unmould cheesecake onto a serving plate. Whip cream and pipe a border around the top edge of the cheesecake. Decorate the centre with chocolate curls and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Ingredients

Crust:

1 tbsp margerine or butter melted

1 cup crushed Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies
(about 20 cookies, crushed and then blended in food processer with butter).

Tip: Best way to crush cookies is to put them in a polythene bag and crushed with a rolling pin.
Filling:

4 pkts Philadelphia Cream cheese at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

12 - 15 Oreo Chocolate Sandwich cookies quartered

Method:

Crust: Mix crushed cookies and butter and press onto the bottom of 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 165 c for 10 mins.

(Line springform pan with greaseproof paper for easy removal of cake. Use the bottom of a straight-sided glass to evenly pressed cookie crumb mixture onto the bottom of pan.)

Filling: Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, mixing on low speed until blended. Gently stir in chopped cookies. (Do not blend the biscuit, just break into quarters) Pour over crust. Bake at 165 C, middle rack for 1 hour or until center is set.

Run knife around rim to loosen cake. Cool before removing from pan. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Garnish with COOL WHip topping or additional cookies.