Choo Choo Train Mini Strawberry Chiffon Cakes

My son rarely requests for bakes from me (usually is my daughter). So when he asked me to make a choo choo train cake for him, it was difficult for me to say no, even though I knew it was going to be a lot of work. However, it turned out to be one of my happiest bakes, because my two kids wiped out the entire choo choo train cake in less than 5 mins! As frustrating as it is, how the cake looks matters for little kids! :D And all the work feels worth it when you see their excited smiles and them happily munching down what you made for them :) Oh the simple joys and frustrations of being a mum...

Anyway, I fashioned the choo choo train after his homework, except that I placed the chimney in front instead as I thought it looked weird on top :p

Do the train cakes look like his homework? 

I made the train out of two cakes, one strawberry chiffon cake baked in a 6-inch square tin with removable base, and one chiffon cake with charcoal powder baked in a 9-inch square tray. 

Ingredients (one 6-inch square cake and one 9-inch layer cake)
5 egg yolks
33g sugar
65g vegetable oil
68 ml pureed strawberries in berries juice
100g cake flour
Strawberry paste
Charcoal powder

7 egg whites
75g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Wrap the removable base of the 6-inch square tin with baking paper, sticking it down with meringue. *This is important so that the base of the cake does not get sunken in when inverted during cooling. Line baking paper at the bottom and sides for the 9-inch square tray.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil and strawberry puree.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Scoop 13 tsp into another bowl and add charcoal powder for the black layer cake. Add 7 ml strawberry paste into the remaining batter for the red train. Mix well (left picture in collage).

5. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
6. Scoop over 26 tbsp meringue into the black batter for the black cake. Gently fold in the meringue (top right picture in collage).
7. Pour the black chiffon batter into a 9-inch square tray lined at the bottom and sides. Spread and level the batter with the spatula. Tap the tray on the counter top 3x to get rid of air bubbles in the batter.
8. Fold the rest of the meringue into the red batter in 2 additions (middle right picture in collage).
9. Pour the red strawberry batter into a 6-inch square tin, leaving 1.5 cm from the top. Tap the tray on the counter top 3x to get rid of air bubbles in the batter.
10. Bake the 6-inch square tin for 15 min at 160°C then 40 min at 150°C or when skewer comes clean, and the 9-inch tray cake for 15 min at 160°C.
11. For the 6-inch tin, allow the cake to shrink till below the top of the tin (around 5 min), then invert the tin to cool.
12. For the 9-inch layer cake, flip over the cake onto a clean baking sheet and allow to cool completely.
13. Unmould when the 6-inch square cake is cool, using hand to gently pull the cake from the sides before pushing up the removable base. Then peel off the baking paper.

After this, I cut the red strawberry cake into 1 big rectangular block and 1 small rectangular block, and 3 cubes (see below) for each of the train carriages. I used a round cutter to cut out the chimney for the train. For the black cake, I used a sharp knife to cut out rectangles for the windows, and used a straw and round cutter to cut out the wheels for the train. Lastly, I melted some white chocolate and brushed it on the cakes to glue the black and red cakes together (bottom right picture in collage above).

Here's my choo choo train! Does it look like it's ready to move? :D

Here's a slice of leftover cake from the square strawberry chiffon cake. I loved the soft, melty but springy texture!

And here are my happy kids enjoying the cake! I'm a happy mum! :D 

With lots of love,

Susanne :D

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Water Chestnut Osmanthus Wolfberry Cake (马蹄桂花枸杞子糕)

*Cough* *cough* *sniffle* *sniffle*. Everyone in my family is taking turns to be heaty and come down with a bad cold. I thought it might be a good idea to make this cooling cake for everyone, including myself. Refreshing, soft and slightly chewy water chestnut cake with osmanthus flowers infused and wolfberries scattered in:

Osmanthus flowers are known to provide antioxidants, help to expel phlegm and relief cough. Wolfberries are rich in antioxidants and water chestnuts help to reduce heatiness. Sounds medicinal but it's really good to have this on really warm days as a cool and refreshing dessert too :). It's really simple to make this as only boiling, steaming, and stirring and pouring are involved but you may or may not find it easy to get hold of water chestnut powder/ flour, depending on where you live.

In Singapore, we can get this from large TCM shops like Yue Hwa. Some supermarkets may sell too, like Sheng Shiong near where I live. Look for it under the jelly/ agar agar section and not the flour section.

I added more water than recommended on the water chestnut flour packaging so the resulting cake is more like Nyonya kueh texture. Hubby said this texture is good and the kids loved this even though I think it's quite an adult-palate dessert. I used to make water chestnut cake with less water and some chopped water chestnuts in it. The kids did not like it as much as this. Hubby preferred plain osmanthus and wolfberry water chestnut cake as the osmanthus flavor is stronger whereas the kids liked both layered with coconut milk and the plain osmanthus. Like the kids, I like both for the throat-soothing refreshing taste :).

The recipe is adapted from Munch Ministry. Quantity is enough to fill 4 silicone heart mould (about 90-100ml each) and 2 mini loaf pans.

Ingredients:
Osmanthus and wolfberry water chestnut cake
A)
50g water chestnut powder/ flour
110g cool water
B)
260g water
10g brown sugar
40g white sugar (You may replace with rock sugar but I didn't have any at the moment.)
1 tbs dried osmanthus flowers
1.5 tbs dried wolfberries

Coconut milk water chestnut cake
A)
50g water chestnut powder/ flour
110g cool water
B)
150g water
90g coconut milk
50g white sugar

Steps:
1. Grease pans/bowls that you are pouring the water chestnut mixture im for steaming.  If you are using silicone moulds, you don't have to grease. Prepare wok/ steamer for steaming.
2. Prepare the osmanthus wolfberry water chestnut cake mixture. Rinse wolfberries and soak in 260g of cool water for 15 minutes. Scoop out the wolfberries and gently pat dry with paper towel. Reserve the water used for soaking the wolfberries.
3. Mix well ingredients in A) and sieve to remove any large undissolved bits of water chestnut flour. What you get is a suspension that will have to be stirred just before combining with B).
4. Boil water that was used to soak the wolfberries with brown and white sugar. When the water boils, throw in osmanthus flowers, cover the saucepan and turn off the heat. Let the flowers steep for 2 minutes. You may wish to strain away the flowers if you don't like chewing on it. If you choose to strain, bring the mixture to boil again before taking it off the heat.
5. Slowly pour in A) while stirring continuously. If you are making plain osmanthus wolfberry water chestnut cake, you may add in pre-soaked wolfberries to the water chestnut mixture before pouring into mould for steaming. Steam for 30 minutes if you are not making the coconut milk mixture. I scooped about 12 tbs into a mini loaf pan to steam. If you are making layered cake, place some wolfberries into the mould. I lined wolfberries such that they follow the heart shape of the mould. Cover the wolfberries with water chestnut mixture. Mine was about 2 tablespoons for each heart. Steam for 10 minutes on medium high heat.
6. In the meantime while the osmanthus water chestnut layer is being steamed, prepare the coconut milk water chestnut mixture. Mix together ingredients in A) and sieve to remove any undissolved lumps of watee chestnut powder.
7. In a small saucepan, boil water, coconut milk and sugar. Once it boils, remove from heat and slowly pour in A) while stirring continuously. You may pour this mixture into a mould to steam for 30 minutes (about 12 tbs worth) if you would like plain coconut milk water chestnut cake.
8. Carefully remove the lid of your steamer/wok to prevent water from dripping onto your cake. Spoon 2 tbs into each heart mould and steam for another 10 minutes.
9. Repeat layering the layered cake with another layer of osmanthus and wolfberries, and coconut milk water chestnut mixture.

** You may reduce amount of water in the mixture if you prefer a firmer cake, but take note that the cake will harden when chilled in the fridge. Steam for another 10 minutes if you find that the cake mixture still flows when you tilt the mould. The center may still be a bit wobbly when you are done with steaming. Don't worry, it will set when you refrigerate it.

10. Cool the cakes in the mould at room temperature before refrigerating them for an hour. Remove carefully from the mould. Run a toothpick around the edges to release the cakes.

The cakes are best eaten chilled but due to our coughs, I let them sit at room temperature for a while before serving.  Some people prefer the pan-fried version of water chestnut cakes but I personally prefer the more refreshing steamed-chilled version.

Yums!

Praying that all of us recover soon!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Guinea Pig Liu Sha Bao (Salted Egg Custard Steamed Buns)

"Mama, can you make guinea pig liu sha bao?"

My elder kid requested for liu sha baos made into the shape of his favorite animal, so I made them :). Here's a basket of guinea pig liu sha baos!

Are we too cute to be eaten??

Check out the soft fluffy bun with runny yummy custard! 

Check out the cute pink feet!

This is quite a time consuming "bake" but worth it as my elder kid commented that the baos look like real guinea pigs and both kids had so much fun eating them :). They sampled freshly steamed ones before dinner and asked for more after dinner!

An important thing to take note when making cute baos (or bread for that matter) is to be careful not to over proof the dough. Overproofed baos and bread have a strong alcohol aftertaste that is not yummy at all. I usually avoid this by working fast and reducing the time for first proof. But sometimes this may not be sufficient to prevent overproofing. Wendyinkk suggested placing resting dough in the fridge cling wrapped to slow down the yeast activity. I did that for this bao making session.

This "bake" is more sucessful than my previous liu sha bao attempt as the custard is lava-like and none of the baos exploded. I may attempt the recipe without custard powder to see if it will make the filling even runnier in the future.

I decided to use the same recipe for the salted egg custard filling as my previous attempt from Bake for Happy Kids. The bao skin recipe is same as my previous bao posts.

Ingredients (makes about 9 buns): 

Salted egg custard filling

2 salted duck eggs, cooked and shelled. Use only the yolks.
40g unsalted butter, softened
30g icing sugar
20g custard powder
30g dry milk powder
3g cornflour
23g coconut milk

Bao skin
150g Hong Kong bao flour (plus extra for dusting)
28g cornflour
26g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1/6 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1/2 tsp of water
1 tsp dry yeast
95g water
11g vegetable shortening
Some extra water if necessary

1/8 tsp charcoal powder dissolved in a bit of water to make a paste
1g cocoa powder dissolved in a bit of water to make a paste
12g Milo powder dissolved in a bit of water to make a paste
Pinches of powdered pink food coloring (you may use gel type)

Steps:
1. Prepare the salted egg custard. Mash egg yolks into fine crumbs. Use a wooden spoon and beat the butter and sugar until combined. Add remaining ingredients until well combined. I sieved the mixture to make the custard smoother.
2. Refrigerate the custard until firm. Scoop out 18g portions, cling wrap each ball and freeze overnight.

3. Prepare the bao skin. Mix well bao flour, cornflour, sugar, salt and yeast. Add water and use a wooden spoon to mix well until a dough is formed. Pour the dough onto a non-stick mat or lightly floured work surface and knead until the dough comes together. About 5 minutes.
4. Gradually add the baking powder a bit at a time, taking care to stir the mixture before adding into the dough. Knead until the baking powder is absorbed into the dough. Knead in vegetable shortening gradually until it is absorbed into the dough. Continue kneading for another 15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test. Add water/ flour during the kneading if the dough feels too dry/ wet.
5. Try to work quickly from here. Take about 10g of dough and add charcoal paste to it. Knead until the coloring is even. Take about 10g of dough and add cocoa paste to it. Knead until it is evenly brown colored. Take about 30g of dough and set aside. Take another 30g of dough and color it pink. Add milo paste to the remaining dough and knead until evenly colored. Divide the milo dough into 9 equal portions or 30-35g each (mine were 31-32g each). Cover any resting balls of dough with cling wrap and refrigerate it. Leave the Milo dough to proof for at least 15 minutes at room temperature before expeling trapped gas and shaping it. **(The original basic bao recipe requires 30 minutes of proofing (or until doubled in size) before dividing the dough and shaping/filling it.)

6. I made the baos in batches of three to have better control of proofing and steaming times. Note that the first batch may turn out with a softer bite and less fluffy as there is a shorter proofing time after kneading the dough. LIGHTLY dust your work surface with flour and fingers so that the dough doesn't stick when you are shaping. I find that if the dough pulls off from a surface during shaping, the final effect will be baos with rough skins. If the ball of dough has expanded due to long waiting times, knead it a few times to expel the trapped gas before shaping. I only used a bench scraper, toothpick and my fingers to shape the guinea pig features. Flatten each ball of milo dough with your hand/ small rolling pin, making the edges thinner than the center. Place a ball of frozen custard in the middle, wrap it up and pinch seal.

Place the seal side down on a small piece of baking sheet in a steaming basket/ plate for steaming. Attach the feet (optional), face patch, nose, eyes and ears.

Keep assembled baos in the fridge until the full batch of three baos are ready for second proofing.

Proofing guinea pigs and waiting to be steamed! Mama got lazy so some of us don't have cute feet.

7. Let the buns proof for 45 minutes at room temperature. It is not necessary to cover the buns in hot and humid Singapore as condensation will form on the bao skins in no time because the fillings are frozen when wrapped. Prepare the wok/ steamer for steaming towards end of proofing time.

8. Steam for 8 minutes, turn off the heat and let the baos sit in there for another 3 minutes before opening the cover.  Do not over steam or the baos will explode. Be careful not to let the water drip onto the buns when you remove the lid. Serve immediately or let it cool completely, store in an air tight container and freeze it. Re-steam for 15 minutes before consuming and it will be almost as good as freshly steamed.

Some may think this looks a tad cruel with the guinea pig oozing yellow blood :p

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

 

Update: I have finally gotten the right recipe for the best combination of aoft fluffy bao skin and very runny liu sha filling (not just lava-like for these guinea pigs)!  Please refer to this post!


With love,
Phay Shing

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Rainbow Tangzhong Bread

I made this rainbow bread for my daughter's friends to bring some cheer to them because many of them were unwell. This was made using the Tangzhong bread recipe that makes and keeps bread really soft and fluffy like those found in bakery! The green stripe is coloured with pandan paste so the bread smells and tastes really lovely with pandan flavour. My daughter loved it too :) 

Tangzhong (also known as a 'water roux') is a method which originated from the Japanese used in breadmaking to create softer and fluffier breads without the addition of bread improver. However, it was popularised throughout south-east Asia in the 1990s by a Chinese woman called Yvonne Chen who wrote a book called The 65° Bread Doctor. This method also allows bread to stay fresh longer without the need for artificial preservatives. To make the tangzhong, you basically mix together one part flour with five parts liquid (by weight) to make a smooth paste. The mixture is then heated in a saucepan until it reaches exactly 65°C, removed, covered and left to cool to room temperature when it will be ready for use. The tangzhong can be kept in the fridge for a 2-3 days. The amount of tangzhong used should be about 35% of the weight of the main flour. Tangzhong bread is now fairly common among home bakers :).

I used my breadmaker to do most of the kneading as the dough is rather sticky. After proofing, the dough is then punched down and the colours kneaded in by hand. I put it back into the breadmaker to proof and bake. The recipe is adapted from 350 Degree Oven for Japanese Azuki Milk Bread using Tangzhong. I made the azuki milk bread previously and it was delicious!

Ingredients of tangzhong (湯種):
25g bread flour (1/6 cup)
125 ml water (1/2 cup, could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)

Ingredients of bread:
350g bread flour
55g caster sugar
5g salt
56g egg (equals to 1 large egg)
7g milk powder (to increase fragrance, optional)
125 ml milk
120g tangzhong
5-6g instant yeast
30g butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

1. Tangzhong: Put the bread flour and water in a small saucepan, stir and heat over medium heat. Continue to stir while heating until the tangzhong thickens and swirl lines appear. Then remove from the heat and continue to stir for another 30 sec. Let the tangzhong cool to room temperature.

2. Put the ingredients into the breadmaker pan according to the sequence below:

- Add the wet ingredients first: milk, egg.

- Add the dry ingredients next: bread flour, sugar at the side, yeast in the middle (dig a small hole).

- Select dough function on bm. When the mixture is being combined (around 2-5 min later), add in the salt and the softened butter.
3. After the breadmaker is finished with the dough function, let the dough proof in the breadmaker for 40 min.

4. Transfer the dough out onto a lightly floured table and punch it down. *Do not forget to remove the paddle if you are using the breadmaker to bake the bread.

5. Measure out 80g of dough for each of the colours (red, yellow, green and blue) and 100g of plain dough for the top. Leave the rest of the plain dough for the base below the rainbow.
6. Add a few drops of pandan paste and liquid food colouring and knead them into each 80g dough (I used my hand to knead it though you could also use the dough attachment on the handmixer).

7. Use a roller to roll each colour dough into a sheet or layer including the 100g plain dough.
8. Place the big plain dough at the base in the bm, followed by the blue, green, yellow and red dough layers. Lastly, cover with the plain dough layer.

 9. Cover the dough lightly with a clingwrap and let it proof for another 40 min until doubled. 

10. Use the bake function of the bm to bake the bread.  

11. After it is done, remove the bread tin from the bm and let it cool for 5 min.

12. Remove the loaf and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

It was the greatest joy seeing the little kids enjoying their rainbow tangzhong bread!

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

With love,

Susanne

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Rainbow Choux Pastry Roses

I had some leftover Choux pastry from my previous Choo-choo train bake and I decided to have fun with the filling. Here's my simple and colorful Choux pastry roses, all colored with natural ingredients!

It's a pity I didn't have orange sweet potato or pumpkin at the moment to make an orange colored rose, and the hot pink sweet potato turned a little more purple after mixing in with the pastry cream. But it's still a delectable plate of pastry with all the variety of flavors.

Refer to my previous post for the recipe for Choux pastry and pastry cream. For the roses, simply drop heaped teaspoonfuls of batter onto the baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes followed by 220 degrees Celsius for another 10-15 minutes. Pierce the sides of the puffs to release the steam when cooling on cooling rack.

To assemble the roses, carefully cut about one quarter of the top off and fill with filling. Cut the top into a spiral shape carefully with kitchen scissors and place it on top of the filling.

My platter has the following flavors:
Pale yellow: plain pastry cream
Bright yellow: pastry cream with lemon zest
Pinkish purple: purple sweet potato puree with lemon juice and pastry cream
Dark purple: purple sweet potato puree with a bit of pastry cream
Green: pastry cream with Matcha powder beaten in
Brown: pastry cream with cocoa powder beaten in (you may want to add more cocoa than I did for a darker brown shade and richer chocolate flavor. My family does not consume much chocolate.)
Black: pastry cream with black sesame paste beaten in.

I didn't measure the amount of flavorings added as I was doing this in a hurry (again!). Just add according to your taste :).

I almost forgot to take photo again! Yums!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Pastel Rainbow Chiffon Cake

The recipe for this Rainbow Chiffon Cake is now in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes and makes the cover! Very happy that my Rainbow Chiffon has now been popularized all over Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and many other countries though the cookbook! 

My Rainbow Chiffon Cake has also been featured in Motherhood magazine Feb 2016 issue (below) and Smartparents.sg (formerly Mother & Baby) (Mar 2016). Even Polar has started to introduce this into their range (June 2016). Why don't you try it too? :)

At the time I made this cake (in 2014), it was thought not possible to make 6 neat rainbow layers in a chiffon cake!

Presenting my first Rainbow chiffon cake with 6 colours!

This Rainbow chiffon was made for one of my besties from MGS for her daughter's "manyue"-cum-Daddy's birthday.

Hope you will enjoy it too! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes: step-by-step pictures for each step, available in all major bookstores, and on Amazon, Book Depository and Kinokuniya online. The cookbook made Straits times best seller's list in Feb 2016!

Motherhood magazine (Feb 2016)

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Choo-Choo Train Choux Pastry with Pastry Cream & Apple Pie Filling

"Mama, let's make a surprise for Papa for Father's Day. Can you make apple pie for Papa?"

This bake started with a request by my elder kid and I have been wanting to attempt baking Choux (pronounced as "shoo") pastry for the longest time ever since my neighbor offered me some homemade ones. Hubby loves apple pies and apple pie filling on its own too so I thought this bake would be perfect. A light and airy pastry to compliment the rich pastry cream and sweet but tart apple pie filling.

It's my first attempt at making Choux pastry so there's room for improvement. Presenting my Choo-choo train choux pastry with carriages full of pastry cream and apple pie filling!

You may never look at a cream puff the same way again :p. There are endless possibilities for shaping Choux pastry and the most common one (other than spooning or piping a lump of pastry onto baking sheet) is the swan. It's easy to find tutorials from the internet for making Choux pastry swans but there are hardly any other fancy forms. I have seen pastry baskets, donuts, a turtle and even a dragonfly but that's about as fancy as it gets. And so I wonder why didn't somebody make a Choux pastry train :p.

I apologise for not taking more photos as I made this in a hurry. It would be easier to explain how the shaping and assembly of the train was done in pictures.

I adapted the recipe for Choux pastry from Deliaonline, the recipe for pastry cream from allrecipes and the recipe for apple pie filling from allrecipes too. I wasn't too satisfied with the pastry cream recipe I used for my fruit tart as the flour content was quite high so I decided to try another recipe and this tasted really good!

Recipe for Choux pastry
Ingredients:
50g unsalted butter, cut to small pieces
150ml water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

10g bread flour (You may replace with plain flour. I substituted some plain flour with bread flour as Deliaonline suggested using strong plain flour for a crispier pastry.)
50g plain flour

2 eggs (60g each)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line 2 baking trays with baking sheet. **(I baked the small and big train parts together,  resulting in the small parts on the verge of getting burnt and the bigger parts a little underbaked. It's better to bake big and small parts separately.)
2. Sift together the flours and set aside.
3. Combine the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once it boils, take it off the heat, pour the flour in all at once while stirring with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring until a ball of soft dough is formed.
4. Gradually add in beaten eggs (about 1-2 tablespoons at a time) while you continue beating/stirring with the wooden spoon, making sure that the egg is well incorporated into the batter before adding more egg.
5. Transfer about 5-6 tbs of batter into a pastry bag fitted with a wilton #5 tip and about 6-7 tbs into another bag fitted with a 5mm round tip.
6. On one tray, pipe 16 train wheels, 4 straight lines (for the locomotive) and a chimney with the wilton #5 tip. To do so, you may find a template under the baking sheet helpful. In order to pipe a wheel, pipe circles that are about 1.5cm in diameter. Pipe another layer of pastry on top of the first circle, such that you get 2 circle stacked on top of each other. Pipe some pastry cream in the center of the circle, but not too much such that you can still get a well defined wheel and not a round blob of pastry. You may want to pipe slightly bigger back wheels for the locomotive. Leave about 2cm between the piped features. Next, pipe 4 lines that are about 2.5cm in length. Finally, pipe the chimney by piping a tapered line with the starting end about 1cm wide and finishing off with a thin line the width of the piping tip. The length should be about 3cm. The tapered end will have to be stuck into the train body, leaving the wider end sticking out.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
8. In the mean time, pipe the train body on another tray. Use the 5mm tip to pipe three 3x5cm rectangles (for the carriages), one 3x6cm rectangle (base of locomotive) and a thick line that is 2cm wide and 6cm long (upper part of locomotive). Let the batter pile around the tip to create a thick line. Drop heaped teaspoonfuls of batter onto the baking sheet for the leftover batter to make ordinary Choux pastry puffs.
9. Bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius then increase temperature to 220 degrees Celsius and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Pierce the side of the puffs to release trapped steam. Cool on cooling rack. Store in air tight container when completely cooled if not assembling on the same day. You may toast it for a few minutes to get it crispy again just before serving. It's best to fill choux pastry just before serving to prevent it from turning soggy.

Recipe for pastry cream
Ingredients:
235ml (242g) milk
23g caster sugar
1 yolk
1/2 egg
15g cornstarch
32g sugar
15g unsalted butter
3ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Bring milk and 23g of sugar to boil in a saucepan.
2. Whisk egg and egg yolk together. Add remaining sugar and cornstarch and whisk together until smooth. Drizzle boiling milk in thin stream whisking constantly. Pour mixture back to saucepan and slowly bring to boil stirring constantly.
3. When mixture boils and thickens,  remove from heat and add in vanilla and butter. Mix until butter is completely blended in. Strain if necessary while still warm if there are lumps. Transfer to a container and cling wrap the pastry cream with the wrap touching the surface. Refrigerate until needed.

Recipe for apple pie filling
I made more than enough to fill the train as this recipe is supposed to freeze well. Hubby can have apple pie filling whenever he wants that way :). I used 4 green apples and a lot less sugar than the original recipe. The result is just nicely sweet and tart at the same time.

Ingredients:
409g chopped green apple
9g lemon juice
27g cornflour
121g caster sugar
427g water
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice powder

Steps:
1. Toss apples and lemon juice together. Set aside.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in to a pot to boil at medium heat, stirring constantly for two minutes.
3. Add apples and return to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until apples are tender. 8-10 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes. Can freeze well for up to a year when kept in air tight container/ freezer bag.

Assembling the Choo-choo train
1. Melt some compound white chocolate and use it to stick the wheels to the carriages and base of the locomotive.
2. Cut the 2x6cm pastry into half vertically and one of the halves into another half horizontally (one of which forms the "roof" of the cabin for the train driver). Fill the locomotive with some pastry cream and assemble as shown in the picture, with 4 straight rods supporting the "roof". Pierce the top of the locomotive with a wooden skewer/ toothpick and insert the chimney.
3. Fill the carriages with pastry cream and apple pie filling. Arrange the locomotive and carriages in line and you are done!

It's so refreshingly light that all of it was eaten up by hubby and kids within 5 minutes of assembly! I made the apple pie filling and pastry cream the day before I baked the pastry so my family had the privilege of eating freshly baked and assembled Choux pastry.

You may ask what did I do with the remaining Choux pastry? Stay tuned for my next blog post :).

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

With love,
Phay Shing

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Fruity Pancake Pops

I made these fruit-shaped and fruit flavored pancake pops for my kids to bring to school for children's day party last year. Besides steamed cakes, this is another type of pretty cake that can be made without an electric mixer and oven. I made apple, orange, mango,  pear and mixed berry flavored pancakes with an extra oomph of chocolate flavor from the outlines.

I am far from being an expert at pancake art and am only able to do simple drawings on a frying pan. So do check out awsome pancake artists like Jenni Price and Jim. It's quite fun to make these pancakes and there isn't any complicated recipe to follow. Just arm yourself with pancake batter, a frying pan, spatula, some squeeze bottles or piping bags and loads of imagination and you are good to go! But be prepared to spend quite a while at the stove if you are a novice like me and making pancakes for two classes!

I used pancake mix bought from the supermarket but instead of water, I added fruit juices and a bit of food coloring. For the chocolate outlines, I added some cocoa powder. I added a bit of sugar to the pancake mix to sweeten it up a bit more as they are eaten plain at the class parties. You may wish to make your own batter or pancake mix.

Just some tips on making these pancake pops:
1. Prepare a thicker batter for the outlines and a thinner batter to fill and flood the outlines.
2. Have a template or drawing on hand so that you can draw more easily with a reference, especially for complicated designs.
3. Use low heat (if you don't have a griddle that can control the temperature) on the stove to prevent your designs from browning if you want to keep the color vibrant.

Steps:
1. Prepare pancake batter for the outlines (chocolate flavor) and insides of the "fruits" (fruit flavored). Prepare enough ice cream sticks to make the pops.
2. Fill a squeeze bottle with chocolate batter and another with fruit batter. I used piping bags for this as my squeeze bottles have pretty big nozzles. I used a wilton #5 tip.
3. Heat up frying pan (preferably non- stick) and lightly grease or spray the surface with oil. Draw the outline of the fruit with chocolate batter and wait for it to set. You may draw a few "fruits" depending on the size of your pan. Make sure that you leave enough space for the ice cream sticks.
4. Fill the spaces within the outlines with fruit batter. Be careful not to let it overspill out of the outlines. Wait for several seconds and then carefully place an ice cream stick in the middle. Add a bit of batter to cover the stick. When you see bubbles appearing at the top surface of the pancake, slide the spatula under the pancake and flip it over.
5. Cook the other side of the pancake until it is dry.
6. Leave it too cool completely on a cooling rack before storing. Pancakes are best consumed fresh from the pan. Since this is not possible, place the pancake pops between baking sheets and store them in an airtight container/ ziplock bags in the feeezer. Microwave for half a minute on high straight from freezer before consuming.

It takes practice to get the timing and heat right so don't give up if your first attempt fails.

Have fun with pancakes! This can be a great holiday activity with older kids too!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Azuki Matcha TOPO Map Love Bundt Cake

The first time I saw this TOPO map love cake on Jozelyn's blog, I thought it was real cute! A cake with a TOPO map in every slice! :D She pointed me to Wendy's Table for 2 blog, which had a real pretty TOPO map love cake or Kek Alunan Kasih, and also Roz of Home Kreation which used fresh milk. 

Azuki and matcha is my favourite combination, so I decided to try a TOPO map butter cake with this yummy combination. I had a lot of fun with this one, layering the two batter. I largely referred to Wendy's blog and Roz of Home Kreation in adapting the recipe to azuki and matcha flavours and scaling it down to 3 eggs. I used the yummy azuki paste from Daiso that my hubby loves. I think it's the best kept secret around :).

Ingredients (makes two 5.5-inch bundt cakes)
150g butter
140g sugar (I reduced the sugar from the original recipe)
3 eggs
180g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
80 ml fresh milk
2 tbsp matcha powder
40g azuki paste
Cocoa powder for creating the topo lines

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and flour the bundt pans for easy removal.
2. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition.
4. Sift ½ of the flour into the batter and beat on low speed until well-combined.
5. Add in the milk and mix until well-combined.
6. Sift the rest of flour into the mixture and beat on low speed until well-combined.
7. Divide the batter to two. Add matcha powder to one part and azuki paste to the other (left column picture).

8. Spoon a layer of matcha batter into the pan. Level it (right column, top picture).
9. Sift a thin layer of cocoa powder evenly over the layer (right column, middle picture).
10. Gently spoon a layer of azuki batter over the cocoa powder and level it. Repeat the sifting of cocoa powder.
11. Repeat layering with both batters, separated by a thin layer of cocoa powder, except for the top (right column, bottom picture).
12. Bake for 50 min or until toothpick comes out clean.
13. Cool for 10 min in the bundt pans. Remove the cakes after 10 min and leave to cool completely.

These were the bundt cakes with TOPO map patterns after cooling. The size of each cake is perfect as a present for a small family!

Cake is moist, fragrant, and really cute with geographical matcha-cocoa TOPO lines running across! I will probably bake this again when the kids are bigger and I need to teach them geography :D!

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

With love,

Susanne

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Orange Wheel Chiffon Cake

I made this cute little orange wheel cake for a little boy who loves wheels! The round shape of the chiffon cake with its centre hole is actually very similar to a wheel, so no shaping was required! :) I piped the rim and the spokes, and coloured the tyre.. and the wheel was ready to roll :D. The boy was lactose-intolerant so we opted for a fresh fruity orange flavour, which went nicely with a cheery orange wheel. I wish him a very happy birthday with this happy wheel cake!

Now I feel like singing my daughter's favourite song: "The wheels on the bus go round and round..." :)

Viola! An orange wheel chiffon cake!

My friend who sampled the cake shared that it was soft, moist and delicious =).

With love,
Susanne

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Mini Wu Pao-Chun Champion Toasts: "Watermelon" & "Rose" Bread

I baked this for my parents-in-law who can't take sweet or overly buttery stuff. My Mil loves raisin buns and my Fil loves good bread....and I couldn't resist having fun ;). Presenting my mini Wu Pao-Chun champion toasts with watermelon or rose in each slice! All made without artificial food coloring!

The purplish pink color is made by adding lemon juice to purple sweet potato puree. You can also use beetroot juice to color the dough pink naturally but I didn't have it. The green color is made from Matcha powder. The "watermelon seeds" are chopped jumbo raisins. These slices are actually really tiny!

A slice is easily dwarfed by my palm!

I used the same recipe as my previous Wu Pao-Chun bake but I increased the amount of sugar to 18g and the bread is tastier this time. Needless to say, this famous bread recipe yields soft bread that stays soft after a couple of days. Quite a feat for a straight dough recipe that does not rely on the use of loads of butter or oil.

You can easily find the assembly instructions for watermelon loaf from the internet but not for a rose loaf, so I will provide detailed assembly instructions for the latter.

Recipe for Wu Pao-Chun mini loaves (yields 3 watermelon and 3 rose loaves)
Ingredients:
300g bread flour + extra as necessary
18g caster sugar
3g salt
3g instant yeast
200g fresh milk
15g butter

32g purple sweet potato puree (Steam potatoes with skin on until soft. Mash with a fork. Pass through sieve to remove lumps.)
4g lemon juice

30g chopped or whole black raisins

1 tsp Matcha powder
1.5 tsp water

Steps:
1. Prepare pink sweet potato puree by mixing the lemon juice with the potato puree.

I love this kitchen chemistry experiment!

Prepare the Matcha paste by mixing the powder with the water. Set aside. Line 6 mini loaf pans with baking sheet. **(you may adapt the recipe to make one single standard sized loaf)

2. Combine flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add yeast and mix well. Pour milk in and use a wooden spoon to mix until a rough dough forms.

3. Pour the dough onto a non-stick mat  and knead until smooth. Gradually knead in butter and continue kneading until smooth and elastic and the dough passes the windowpane test. About 20-25 minutes.

4. Place dough in a lightly greased large bowl and proof for about 50 minutes- 1 hour, nearly double in size.

5. Punch down the down and knead a few times to expel trapped air. Add sweet potato puree to 150g of dough. Add flour if necessary when the dough becomes too sticky to handle. Add Matcha paste to 120g of dough. Add raisins to 110-115g of pink/purple dough.

6. Work quickly from this point onwards, covering the dough that is resting loosely with cling wrap.

7. Portion the following for each watermelon loaf:
a) 45-49g raisin sweet potato dough
b) 25g plain dough
c) 32g Matcha dough
Roll a) into a log with length about 2cm shorter than the length of the mini loaf pan. Roll b) into a rectangle with width the length of a). Wrap a) with b). Roll c) into a rectangle with width the length of a). Wrap the combined log with c). Pinch the seams and place the log seam side down in the loaf pan. Cover all loaf pans loosely with cling wrap and proof for 50 minutes.

8. Make the rose loaf. Portion the dough accordingly for each rose loaf:
Center swirl: 9g plain dough + 9g pink dough
Surrounding petals: 6g x 3 plain dough + 5g x 3 pink dough
External leaves: 5g x 2 green dough + 32g plain dough (or whatever amount that is left)

Assemble the loaf according to the picture below:

Please excuse the poor photo quality as I was trying to work quickly. Read the images from left to right, top to bottom.
i) Assemble the swirl by rolling flat the 9g balls of pink and plain dough and placing pink on top of plain (first picture). Roll it up like a swiss roll (second picture)
ii) Roll all 6 pieces of dough for petals flat and place pink on top of plain dough (third picture). Stack the pieces with each one overlapping half of the bottom piece (fourth picture). Roll the assembly flat, but not too flat or else the petals won't turn out nicely (fifth picture). Wrap (i) with this assembly to form the petals surrounding the center swirl of a rose (sixth picture).
iii) Roll the plain dough for the external leaves into a rectangle. Roll the 2 pieces of green dough into flattened logs and place them at the ends of the plain rectangle. Place the rose assembly from (ii) in the middle and roll it up (seventh picture). Pinch the seams and place the loaf seam side down in the loaf pan (eighth picture).

Proof covered loosely with cling wrap for 50 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Milk wash the loaves and bake for 15-17 minutes. I introduced steam by placing a loaf pan filled with hot water in the oven. Cool completely on cooling rack before slicing.

It's a rainy day in Singapore when I baked this. Temperature was about 28 degrees Celsius in the kitchen so do adjust your proofing times and flour/milk used according to your room temperature and humidity.

Freshly baked mini loaf! Smells good!

My in laws loved the loaves and happily ate the plain one on its own! Mil said the bread is very 松软 (soft and fluffy) and that she doesn't usually eat plain bread but this she could eat it plain :). So glad that the bread tasted good even on the second and third day!

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

With love,
Phay Shing

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