Lychee Martini Cake

This is not the first time that I've added some alcohol in dessert bbq orange parcels or in some cooking.  Have heard about Lychee Martini Cake (source Recipe lychee cake) but have not tasted one.

Baked this cake with some adjustments made to my personal preference.
Lychee Martini Cake (7-inch round cake)
Ingredients (A) : Lychee soak in rum
1 cann of lychee
60 - 80 ml Bacardi white rum (you can use Vodka, Martini)

Drain the cann of lychee and cut into small pieces. You can  reserve the #syrup to make syrup water, cold drinks or make cocktail. Put the cut lychee pieces into a bowl of 80ml of white rum and soak for a few hours. Best if it is overnight.

For the Sponge Cake (adapted from mini mango charlotte cake ) :
Ingredients:
3 Eggs (the size of my egg is 60g each with shell)
85 grams Caster sugar
100 grams Cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
15 grams Vegetable oil
10 grams Unsalted Butter
30 grams Fresh Milk
*1 teaspoon of rum from the soaked lychee

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 170°C. Position the rack in center of oven. Note : The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust accordingly.

2) Lay a 7- inch round pan with parchment paper greased with butter. Set aside.

3) Sift the cake flour and baking powder together and set aside.
Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. (Note that I prefer using cold eggs)

4) Melt butter and milk in a heatproof dish. Once melted, add the vegetable oil and mix well.

5) In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the cold egg whites till foamy using the electric mixer. Gradually add in caster sugar in 3 separate additions and beat till stiff peak, formed into a firm meringue.

6) Add the egg yolks to the meringue and whisk on low until evenly combined (about 1 minute).  Add in *1 teaspoon rum.

7) Next, fold in the sifted flour in 3 separate additions, folding gently with a spatula until combined.

8) Mix in the melted butter mixture in 2 separate additions with a spatula.

9) Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top a few times to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

10) Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cake surface turns golden brown.  Check for doneness with a skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake if it comes out clean.  (I tent it with aluminium foil in the last 10 minutes of baking).

11) When the pan was removed from the oven, I used the suggested technique to drop the pan at a height of 20~30cm onto a table top. This action helps to keep the springy texture of the cake when it is left to cool.

12) Carefully invert cake pan onto wire rack, remove pan and the parchment paper for cake to cool completely on wire rack.

Ingredients B : Lychee icing
350ml whipping cream (note I left with this amount, can use 400 to 500ml)
2 tablespoon icing sugar (add more if you prefer it sweeter)
1 teaspoon Bacardi rum (optional)

Method:
1. Remove the bowl of soaked chopped lychee from fridge, drain and reserve the liquid.

2. Freeze the cleaned mixing bowl for about 15 minutes.  Take it out from the freezer, immediately put all together the cold whipping cream, icing sugar and rum in the cold mixing bowl. Use the electric mixer to whisk till ribbon and a soft peak form.

3. Scoop about 100g of whipping cream and mix with the chopped lychee pieces.

4. Fill some whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle.

To make the syrup water:
2 tablespoon rum (from the soaked lychee)
3 tablespoon lychee #syrup
Mix them and pour the syrup water either into a sprayed bottle or small bowl.

To assemble:
1) With one hand firmly on top of the cake, run a serrated knife around the centre of the cake and slice horizontally into 2 even layers.

2) Spread some whipped cream onto the cake board to stick the bottom cake layer. Place the half of one cake on a cake board and place it on a turntable.

3) Brush the cake top or spray the surface with syrup water. Pipe outer ring with whipped cream. Spoon the lychee cream mixture to fill the center. Then use a straight spatula or off set spatula to evenly frost the lychee cream mixture.  Gently stack the other half cake on top of each other, brush a little syrup water and frost the top with some whipped cream.

4) Apply crumb coat - Use spatula to add frosting to the sides / top of the cake. Wipe the excess frosting off with spatula into a bowl.  Chill in the fridge for 30 min.

5) Frost the cake using the remaining whipping cream.  Wipe the excess frosting off with spatula into a bowl.  When the sides are done, smooth out the top edge. Using your spatula, smooth the excess frosting inward toward the center of the cake. Decorate the cake as desires.

Looks like I'm getting back my motivation in baking cream cakes :)
Enjoy & happy baking !

Blueberry Compote Cake

Looks like I got the hang of baking cream cakes for our weekends snacks.  Afterall, my 2 adults enjoy homebaked cakes.

Using the same sponge cake adapted from Strawberry cake, this time I added homemade simple blueberry compote as filling.  Perfect combination ! I just love the tangy compote with natural sweetness sandwich between the sponge layers.

Blueberry Compote Cake
Ingredients:
3 eggs (60g with shell each)
110g caster sugar
33g unsalted butter melted
53g milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g cake flour - sifted

To make simple syrup water :
About 150ml water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan, boil over medium flame over the stove.

Stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture is clear, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Put aside to cool.

For the filling :
Blueberry Compote
300g blueberries
2 tablespoon honey
2 tablesppon water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a small pot and cook over low flame for about 8 - 10 mins.
Stirring and meshing the blueberries ocasionally till all softened. Leave cool and the mixture will be slightly thickened.

For whipped cream
200ml Whipping cream
10 grams caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method :
1) Preheat oven to 170°C. Position the rack in center of oven. Note : The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust accordingly.

2) Lay a 7- inch round pan with parchment paper greased with butter. Set aside.

3) Fill 3/4 cooking pot with water and bring to a boil.  Off the fire remove the pot from stove.  In a stainless steel bowl placed over the cooking pot of hot water, whisk together the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract with a whisk. Test batter with thermometer for temperature reached 40 degree celsius.  Remove the bowl from the cooking pot.

4) Combine the milk and butter in a small bowl and put into the pot of hot water to melt the mixture.

5) With electric mixer, beat in low - medium speed the egg batter until smooth, light (about 3 to 4 minutes), switch to high speed and continue to beat for about 5 minutes and ribbon trail forms when whisk lifted up.

6) Add in the sifted cake flour. With a spatula, fold in the flour gently till combined.

7) Remove the butter and milk mixture from the pot. Add a spoonful of batter and mix it with the butter and milk mixture. Pour all into the batter, fold and mix well with a spatula.

8) Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top evenly with a spatula.  Lightly tap the pan  2 - 3 times on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.  Bake in preheated oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.

9) Check for doneness with a skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake if it comes out clean.

10) Remove cake from pan, remove the parchment paper and place cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the whipped cream:
Freeze the cleaned mixing bowl for about 5 minutes.  Take it out from the freezer, immediately put all together the cold whipping cream,  vanilla extract and caster sugar in the cold mixing bowl. Use the electric mixer to whisk from low speed (about 1 min) then change to high speed until medium to stiff peaks form.  Do not over beat.

Add 1 tablespoon of blueberry compote to the whipped cream, mix well.

Fill some whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle.

To assemble:
1) With one hand firmly on top of the cake, run a serrated knife around the centre of the cake and slice in half horizontally for 2 layers.

2) Spread some whipped cream onto the cake board to stick the bottom cake layer. Place the half of one cake on a cake board and place it on a turntable.

3) Brush the top with a little syrup water. Pipe outer ring with whipped cream. Spoon the blueberry compote to fill the center. Gently stack the other half cake on top of each other, brush a little syrup water and frost the top with some whipped cream.

4) Use spatula to add frosting to the sides of the cake. Wipe the excess frosting off with spatula into a bowl.  When the sides are done, smooth out the top edge. Using your spatula, smooth the excess frosting inward toward the center of the cake.

5) Decorate the top as desires. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours for the frosting to set before slicing and eating.

Baked a cream cheese frosting blueberry compote birthday cake to a dear frend.
Looked lovely and so glad she had given good compliments to the cake.

Cream Cheese Icing
Enough to frost a 7 inch cake
200g cream cheese, softened
100g unsalted butter, softened
80g sifted icing sugar
1 - 2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 - 2 tablespoon fresh milk (adjust the texture to your preference)

To make cream cheese icing:
1) Allow cream cheese and butter to stand at room temperature. In large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and butter with mixer on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add in fresh milk and lemon juice and whisk to combine.

2) Gradually add in the powdered sugar in 3 additions, beating well. Scrape the sides of the bowl if necessary.  Beat until it reach spreading consistency.

Enjoy & happy baking !