Tea in a cake - Earl Grey Chiffon

This is one cake which grows on you. It may taste a little bland when u 1st bite into it, but after tasting in your mouth, it has a very subtle and lovely earl grey tea fragrance and you will start to take bite after bite. :P

However, I think if I were to make this a 2nd time, I'll probably steep some tea bags in the liquid so that it'll impart a stronger tea fragrant in the cake. Also I adjusted the recipe to a 4-egg recipe as I want a taller cake.

Recipe adapted from HHB. Thank you!

What you need

• 3 satchels of Earl Grey tea powder (I used Twinnings)
• 133g cake flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4nos egg yolks
• 50g caster sugar
• 65g vegetable oil
• 100ml water
• 4nos egg whites
• 53g caster sugar

What to do

• Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl with sugar, whisk till the mixture becomes turns pale.
• Add in the oil and water, whisking till the mixture is well combined. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the earl grey powder and mix well.
• In another bowl, whip egg whites it becomes frothy and foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue to whip till wet stiff peaks.
• Fold in 1/3 of the whipped egg white into the egg yolk batter till batter becomes uniform and continue to fold in the remaining whites.
• Pour batter into chiffon pan. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 45 mins or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Cool completely and then unmold the cake.

Sliced Cheese Cheesecake

I've bookmarked this recipe for sometime but did not get around to making it coz somehow, by impulse, I tend to pick up a block of cream cheese during grocery shopping. On my latest grocery shopping trip, I had managed to convince myself that I DO NOT need another block of cream cheese that will eventually be sitting in the fridge till almost expiry that only then will make me jump up and do something with it. *pat myself on my back*

Back to the cake.... Sliced cheese is what I will always have in my fridge (and I believe many household will have it too), and the recipe is so simple and straightforward, that I really have to try it.

Thank you Zu for posting this recipe. I followed the recipe to a T, except that I omitted the lemon juice and extended the baking time another 10mins as I read in the comments that the texture of this cake is kinda soft and mushy. The additional 10mins solved the problem. The cake turned out very well... Love it!

Here's the recipe:

What you need

• 5 slices of cheese
• 200ml of milk
• 70gm butter
• 4 egg yolks
• 70gm cake flour
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 65gm sugar
• 4 egg whites

What to do

• Place a greaseproof paper on the base of an 8-in pan and preheat oven to 170C.
• Break sliced cheese into smaller pieces and add to the milk in a small pot.
• Apply low heat to the milk and melt the cheese, making sure that there are no lumps.
• When cheese had melted, remove pot from fire, stir in the butter. Set aside.
• Whip egg whites in a clean bowl till foamy and add in the sugar. Continue to whip till stiff peaks form. Set aside.
• In another bowl, beat the egg yolks till light, pour in the milk/cheese/butter mixture and drop 1 tsp of vanilla extract into it. Stir till well blended.
• Sift in flour and fold into the mixture till batter is smooth.
• Fold in 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the batter, once well blended, fold in remaining egg whites. Be careful not to deflate the egg whites. Final batter will be watery.
• Pour batter into 8-in tin and bake, baine marie, at 170C for 20mins and lower the temperature to 140C and bake it for further 50mins.
• Cool cake and chill before serving.

Assorted buns

Chocolate wassants

It's been a long while since I last made breads. It's not that I don't like breads. In fact, the whole family loves it, but it's just the long process of making that turns me off sometimes. I do not get to stay at home for the whole day in the weekends. Weekdays is totally out of the question as I do not wish to stay up all nite waiting for the bread to proof, then bake, THEN cool down.

It certainly did not help when the weather's been so cranky lately. Just when I decided to make some buns, it started pouring. The day before was perfectly bright and sunny!

Used my KA to knead the dough and the poor machine was *coughing and whining* so much that I thought it could break down anytime. The entire process of kneading till the dough passed the pane test took a good 45mins! However, even tho' the weather was cooling, the dough did proof beautifully.

I did a chocolate filling for one half of the dough and made chocolate wassants and the other half, I filled it with canned tuna and slices of luncheon meat.

Tuna buns

So tt's good b'fast for my kiddos for the next few days!

Luncheon meat buns