Sour Cream Prune Cake

A good combination of cream cheese and sour cream, I should say. The prunes gives a delicate sweet-sour flavour. Subtitute the prunes with other dried fruits of your favourite.

Sour Cream Prune Cake
(A recipe from Cakes by Periplus Step by Step)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Make 1 20 cm baba cake

Ingredients:
60 gr unsalted butter
60 g cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
1/3 cup sour cream
½ cup chopped prunes
1 1/3 cup self-raising flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C.
Brush a deep, 20 cm baba tin with melted butter or oil. Using electric beaters, beat butter, cheese, and sugar in a small mixing bowl until light and creamy.
Add the egg gradually, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add the rind and the sour cream; beat until just combined.
Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl; add prunes. Using a metal spoon, fold in sifted flour. Stir until mixture is almost smooth.
Pour mixture evenly into prepared tin; smooth surface. Bake 35 minuter or until skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre of cake. Leave in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool

Cook’s File:
Storage time: 3 days in a n airtight container in the refrigerator or up to 2 months in the freezer.

Hint: Do not overbeat cake mixture once the sour cream has been added. Overbeating with electric beaters may produce a heavy-textured cake.

Rea's Sponge Cake

I think I have a privilege to call this "Rea's Sponge Cake" since I've made a lot of trial by my own until I found the perfect sponge cake recipe like I want. Spongy, cotton soft, light textured and slightly fall when it cooled.

A recipe from Rea's Cake

Ingredients:
6 eggs (around @60 gr)
150 gr caster sugar
140 gr plain flour, sifted
1 ½ tbsp water
1 ½ tsp vanilli essence/ 1 tsp vanilli extract/1 small vanilla pod.
75 ml vegetable oil

How to:
Pre-heat the oven. Lightly greased Ø22 cm round cake tin with shortening and lined with baking parchment.
Combine eggs, sugar, water and vanilla in a big bowl and whisk with electric mixer until very pale and fluffy. The other parameter is double-sized mixture and leaving tracks.
Add flour. Whisk in a very low speed.
Stir in oil. Gently combine. (be careful for not over-mixing in this step)
Pour into the prepared tin. Tap tin several times on table to loose air bubbles.
Bake for 40 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean.
When it’s cooked, allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out. Remove & cool it completely.

Citrus Yoghurt Muffins

Another recipe from Connolly's book, 500 Cupcakes and Muffins. I really love this book!! The recipes are so easy to be practised. I often make this muffins for breakfast or having a last minute guest (",).

Citrus Yoghurt Muffins
(Recipe by Fergal Connolly)

200g (8 oz) plain flour
175g caster sugar (I only used 150 g)
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1 tbsp grated lime zest
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
225 ml (8 fl oz) fat free plain yoghurt (I used 250ml flavoured-yoghurt with real fruits)
115ml (4 fl oz) sunflower oil
1 lightly beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a 12-cups muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, lemon zest, lime zest, baking powder and salt. I suggest to put the zests altogether in milk mixture instead of flour mixture. Because it won’t blended well with the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat the yoghurt, oil and egg until well blended. Add the flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Do not overmix. Don’t worry about the lump, it will be just fine when u bake it.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove tin from the oven and cool for 5 minuten. Then remove the muffins and serve warm.

Lemony SourCream Cake

Directly from meine Kleine Küche, this cake is moist with sweet tangy flavour.

Source: Rea’s Cake

Tools: 22 cm silicone-bundt pan or lined&greased well 22cm tulban cake tin

INGREDIENTS
200 g butter, softened*
180 g caster sugar
3 eggs
250 g sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
100 – 150 g raisins or sultana, coarsely chopped
Zest from 2 oranges and 1 lemon
3 tbsp orange juice or 1 tbsp lemon juice
4 full tbsp your favourite jam (plum, strawberry, blueberry, or marmalade, whatever jam)

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 180 C.
Beat unsalted butter and sugar until light and fluffy in high speed. As sugar just dissolved, add egg one by one in a time.
Stir in sour cream and vanilla. Add orange and lemon zest. Beat on low speed until just combined.
Add shifted flour and baking powder and salt. Fold in.
Stir in sultana. Pour to bundt-mould.
Put your favourite jam deliberately, then marbling with a skewer.
Bake for 35 minutes until skewer comes out clean.

* If you are using unsalted butter, add ¼ tsp salt to the dry ingredients.

Light & Airy Cakes with Roses

C3SC....(hmmmph...what's???)

Another simple yet chiz-choc-licious recipe. Right down to the belly like my friends said.

Try to use a variaton cake mould instead of ordinary cupcakes tin then bake it Ala Au-Ban-Marie. It will give a "different" textures to the cupcakes ;)

Chocolate Cheese-Cake Swirl Cupcakes

Prep Times: 30 minutes
Start to Finish: 1 Hour 5 Minutes
Servings: 30 cupcakes

1/3 cup sugar
250 grams cream cheese, softened
2 small eggs
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
¼ unsweetened baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups water
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat oven to 350*F. Line 16 regular-size muffin cups with baking cups. In medium bowl, beat 1/3 cup sugar and the cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in eggs. Stir in chocolate chips; set aside.
In large bowl, beat all remaining ingredients on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Reserve 1 ½ batter.
Fill each muffin cup with about 1 rounded tablespoonful batter (1/3 full). Spoon 1 tablespoons cream cheese mixture onto batter in each cup. Top each with about ½ rounded tablespoon reserved batter.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

Tip>>
DO-AHEAD
>These cupcakes with a cream cheese swirl are great for picnics. They can be made the day before, so you can have them ready to serve to kids of all ages!
>Based on my experiences, these cupcakes just go in a blink! :DD

Carrot Angel-Food Cupcakes

I found this recipe on one of my friends website, Mbak Irma-Germany. Been made this recipe several times and so far I have managed a little revision on ingredients and the directions. On my 1st attempt, I followed the directions precisely like it's said but the result was so poor hehehe :p. Then I revised it like on my way, the result therefore was good and so it does till now ;p. Anyway, if u wish to see the original version and want to try the original recipe from A to Z just give my friend a visit then ;)

Ingredients:
350ml egg whites (about 12 egg whites)
200g caster sugar (I reduced to 150g)
1tsp Cream of tartar
½ tsp baking powder
100ml half and half or evaporated milk or just milk
½ tsp table salt
½ tsp yellow food colouring (just omit this one)
100g all-purpose flour
20g corn flour
30g milk powder
100g carrot, finely shredded
50g cheddar cheese, shredded (add some more like me, 75g)

Topping:
1tsp cinnamon powder, mix with
1 tbsp icing sugar

Directions:

Sift the dry ingredients altogether in a large mixing bowl. Pour in milk, shredded carrot and cheese. Mix using wooden spoon until smooth.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
In other mixing bowl, beat egg whites till foamy, add cream of tartar. Beat again till combine. Stir in sugar and salt gradually. Beat until egg whites mixture gets into peak forms.
Gently fold in egg whites mixture on carrot mixture so the air won’t loose too much. Fold until well combined.

Pour into prepared cupcakes paper. Bake for 20 minutes or golden brown.
Cooled in racks before sift the topping onto.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Steamed Chocolate Brownies

This cake is moist and chocolicous, I dare to say. It's a real HIT for a while as a must-bring-home-cakes when you visit Bandung -The Flower City- in West Java. This recipe of course not the secret recipe of that famous steamed brownies of Bandung, but this one is even far better than the original one...Pretty easy to make really...

Steamed Chocolate Brownies
Recipe by Pak Sahak

Potion A
150g dark cooking chocolate
100g butter

Potion B
5 eggs
200g caster sugar
1 tbsp cake emulsifier (simply omit this)

Potion C
100g cake flour
20g corn flour
40g milk powder
40g chocolate powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate rice/chocolate sprinkles (about 3 tablespoons)

Lined and greased Ø20 cm round cake tin

Directions:
* Preheat a steamer till boiled.
* Melt Potion A. Set aside. Cooled.
* Whisk Potion B with electric whisker till light and fluffy (+/- 7 minuten).
* Stir in melted Potion A. Fold in Potion C gently. Mix till combine.
* Pour half of the mixture into prepared tin. Steamed for 10 minutes.
* Sprinkle the chocolate rice over semi-cooked mixture. Pour in the rest of the chocolate mixture. Steamed till completely cooked (about 20 minuten).
* Remove from steamer. Turn it out and serve warm or cold with ice cream, a dollop of cream, or anything u like.