Cakes

Check out the following recipes in this webpage dedicated to cakes!

- Berries coffee cake

- Easy berries cake

- Bundt cake

- Pandan Swiss roll cake

- Pound cake

- Pandan cupcakes

Bundt-an (Pandan) Cake

My recent trip home inspired me to make this cake with pandan extract. Pandan is also known as screwpine plant. The juices from the leaves are extracted to use as flavoring in many Southeast Asian cooking. My friend who visited Malaysia loved it so much that he used the essence in his homemade beer. Keep in mind that a few teaspoons go a loooong way because it's potent.

The title of the recipe is a clever wordplay developed by my buddy JB, to reflect the bundt shape.

Ingredients:

0.5 lb melted butter, 0.5 cup vegetable shortening, 3 cups sugar, 5 room temperature eggs, 3 cups all purpose flour plus a handful for pan, 0.5 tsp salt, 0.5 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp pandan essence (I used Star brand) and 2 drops green food coloring

Procedures:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and shortening with a mixer

3. Add sugar, a little at a time while mixing

4. Add and beat an egg in the mixture, one at a time

5. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl

6. Mix in 1 cup of flour mixture and 0.25 cup of milk, alternating until done

7. Blend pandan essence and green food coloring until batter is smooth

8. Grease and flour the bundt pan, making sure all inner surface is well coated

9. Pour in the cake batter in the bundt pan

10. Bake for 1.5 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean

11. Let it cool before serving

Pandan Swiss Roll Cake

I like eating Swiss roll cake. There are many recipe out there but my recipe produces a sweet smelling, light Swiss roll. The key to this recipe is always gently handle the batter because of all the air whipped into it. The air in the batter gives the lightness of the cake.

Ingredients:

5 eggs, 6 tbs all purpose flour plus some for dusting, 6 tbs corn starch, 6 tbs sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp pandan extract, 3 drops of green food coloring, whipped cream, 3 tbs maple syrup and 1 tbs powdered sugar

Procedures:

1. Grease the base and sides of a baking sheet. Line with parchment paper and butter the base and sides. Dust with some flour and remove excess flour

2. Preheat oven to 375 degF

3. In a small bowl, sift flour and corn starch. Set it aside

4. Separate the egg yolks and whites to 2 separate mixing bowls

5. Beat egg yolks and 3 tbs sugar until smooth, looks pale yellow and volume increases twice of its original volume (approximately 5 mins). Add vanilla extract, pandan extract and food coloring. Beat until well incorporate. Set the mixture aside

6. Beat egg whites until volume increases twice of its original volume and creates soft peaks (approximately 5 mins). Add the rest of sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed

7. Divide egg whites mixture to 3 parts and flour mixture to 2 parts

Tips:

1. Place bundt pan on baking sheet for easy handling

2. For decor, sprinkle some powder sugar on the cake before serving

Wet and dry ingredients

8. Gently fold one part of egg whites mixture into the yolks mixture until well blended, then one part flour mixture until no lumps, then repeat until finishing off with the egg whites mixture

Batter in pan

Batter

9. Pour batter onto the lined baking sheet. Gently spread the batter

10. Bake for 8 to 9 mins until cake is firm (it does not brown because of the green coloring)

11. Remove the pan from oven. Remove the cake with the parchment paper and let it cool completely

Bundt-an cake. Rose an inch or so!

Pound Cake

I was thinking of ways to finish a bottle of blueberry sauce I received from a friend of mine. After browsing through recipes, I stumbled on a recipe for pound cake. Below is my version of yummy pound cake.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour, 0.5 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp salt, 2 sticks of salted butter (1 cup), 1.5 cups sugar, 3 large eggs at room temp for 30 mins, 0.5 cup milk and 1 tsp vanilla

1 regular (9x5x3in) loaf pan, buttered and dusted with flour

Procedures:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Set rack to the middle with no interference on the top

2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl

3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with a handheld electric mixer at medium speed for 5 mins or until mixture is light and fluffy

4. Add and beat 1 egg at a time

5. Reduce to low speed. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until well incorporated

6. Mix in vanilla

7. Spoon the batter into prepared loaf pan

8. Bake for 1 hour or until cake turns golden and inserted skewer in the center comes out clean

9. Cool cake for 30 mins. Gently loosen the edges of the cake with a flat spatula and invert onto cooling rack. Cool completely

10. Serve with your favorite fruit sauce, fresh fruits and/or whipped cream

Cooling sponge cake

12. Dust powder sugar on a clean sheet of parchment paper. Flip the cake and peel off used parchment paper

13. Spread maple syrup all over the top of the cake

14. Spread whipped cream as much as one desires

15. Tightly roll the cake, starting from the side closest to you with the help of the parchment paper. Place the roll with its seam on the bottom

16. Serve with your fav hot drink!

Pandan Swiss roll cake

Note: You can substitute maple syrup with simple sugar syrup and whipped cream with your fav jam or jelly.

Berries Coffee Cake

My earliest memory of coffee cake came from standing in line to order my Starbucks coffee. It's a simple recipe to follow.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour, 0.5 cup sugar, 0.25 cup butter, softened, 0.75 cup milk, 1 egg, 2.5 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp salt, and 2 cups frozen berries

Procedures:

1. Grease a 8x8 inch or 9 inch diameter cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper

2. Preheat oven to 375 degF

3. Slice berries to bite sizes

4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar till light. Mix the rest of the ingredients except the berries

5. Gently fold in berries and pour batter into prepared pan

6. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

7. Cool cake. Serve a slice of yummy cake with a dollop of whipped cream

Tip: You can opt to top the cake with spiced oatmeal topping. Mix 1 tbs brown sugar, 2 tbs softened butter, 0.25 cup oatmeal, and dashes of ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon to taste in a separate bowl. Sprinkle topping evenly after step (5) before baking

Slice of pound cake with homemade blueberry sauce and whipped cream

Pandan Cupcakes

I tried a few recipes and found this combination helped to create my desired lightness in the cupcakes. You can use this recipe as the basis of cupcakes by substituting the pandan extract.

Ingredients (Yields 14 cupcakes):

1 cup sifted white sugar, 0.5 cup softened butter at room temperature, 2 eggs at room temperature, 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 1.75 tsps baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp pandan extract, 1 drop green food coloring and 0.75 cup milk at room temperature

Procedures:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degF. Line muffin pans with paper liners

2. In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter for 10 mins. Beat one egg at a time for 5 mins. Stir in food coloring and extracts

3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Divide flour mixture into 3 parts. Blend one part in batter, then half of the milk and repeat till all ingredients are mixed and batter is smooth

4. Pour two tablespoons of batter in each lined muffin cup. Bake for 20 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when gently poked

5. Cool for 10 mins, remove cupcakes from pans and continue to cool completely. Serve with powdered sugar dusting, coconut flakes, frosting of your choice or plain by themselves!

Easy Berries Cake

I devised this buttery berry recipe while self quarantining during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. It has ingredients that are commonly found in your kitchen. It also helps that I usually have frozen berries on hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour, 0.25 tsp baking powder, 0.25 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar, 0.5 cup butter- melted, 1 cup milk, a couple drops of vanilla extract and 1 cup frozen berries

Optional: 1 tbs brown sugar

Procedures:

1. Grease a 8x8 inch or 9 inch diameter cake pan

2. Preheat oven to 350 degF

3. Mix dry ingredients. Add milk and blend till no lumps. Add melted butter and vanilla extract

4. Pour the batter in the greased pan. Distribute the frozen berries on the top of the cake batter. Optional step - sprinkle brown sugar on the top

5. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when pierced in the middle of the cake. When I took my cake out of the oven at the 45th minute, the cake was bubbly at the edges due to the moisture from milk and butter- don't worry. The cake is already cooked and the moisture will be reabsorb when the cake cools down

6. Let the cake cool before serving