Fruit Pastry Cake

I remembered I learned to bake this fruit pastry cake about 6 years ago as it was very popularly shared by recipe bloggers then.  A butter cake of light texture with a combination of fruity bites. 

My girl invited 2 friends over for lunch.  Since I have some strawberries and a can of peaches, decided to bake a tray of fruit pastry cake for their afternoon snack.  And it was very well received.

Adapted from recipe source: Happy Homebaking, Anncoo Journal

Pan size : 9-inch round pan or 8-inch square pan
Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
200g caster sugar (I cut down to160g)
50g yogurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest
210g plain flour (sifted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
400-500g fruits and tossed with 2 tablespoon sugar* (I omitted tossing with sugar)
You can use strawberries, peaches, blueberries, peaches, bananas, oranges, pears, apples, pineapple, or any other fruits that are not too juicy.

Method:
1) Grease the sides of an 8-inch square pan with butter or spray. Lightly coat with flour.  Line the base of the pan with lightly greased parchment paper.

2) Combine plain flour and baking powder in a dry clean bowl. Sieve and set aside.

3) Wash and drain the fruits. Cut in slices or chunks and toss with sugar (if desired) and set aside. If using canned fruits, wash the fruits to remove the syrup, drain and pat dry with kitchen towel. Set aside.

4) Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Position the rack in the middle. The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust the temperature and timing to suit your oven.

5) In a clean mixing bowl, cream together the butter, castor sugar, and yogurt until light and fluffy using an electric mixer on medium speed. Dribble in the eggs gradually and beat till incorporated in the batter. (The mixture may appear slightly curdled.)

6) Add vanilla extract and zest. Mix to combine.

7) Add in the flour in 3 additions, mix till combined and smooth.

8) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with spatula. Tap the pan lightly on a table top a few times to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

9) Arrange fruits on top, don’t press the fruits down into the batter. Decorate the fruits as desired.

10) Bake in pre-heat oven for 60-70 minutes or until golden brown.
*note: tent it with aluminium foil in the last 15-20 minutes of baking.

11) To check for doneness, insert a skewer or toothpick in the center of the cake if it comes out clean

12) Leave the cake to cool in the pan for about 5~10 mins. Unmould and transfer to wire rack to let cool completely.

To serve, dust the cake with some snow powder sugar if you like.

While cooling on rack, the fruity tangy fragrance filled the dining place. Finally! Served the cake and glad that they enjoyed it.

Happy baking!

Mini Custard Mooncake Yr2019

It's been a few years since my last attempt of homemade mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.  A few of my good friends were interested to make the walnut moontarts and some snowskin mooncakes with lotus paste, pandan paste and the homemade custard filling.  So I arranged them over to my place and we spent the whole fun-filled afternoon in making mooncakes.  Glad we could pack the delicious homemade mooncakes as gift for our family and friends.

I saw the sharing of custard mooncake by Victoria Bakes.  The crust pastry recipe is slightly different from the mini baked custard mooncakes I baked some years ago.  So since I've have some leftover homemade custard filling, tried out the pastry recipe adapted from Victoria Bakes.  I made a slight change to replace whipping cream with thickened cream.



Love the sweet fragrance! My kitchen was filled with sweet coconut and buttery aroma!

Recipe for custard filling can refer to my baked mini custard mooncakes.

Mades 10 mini mooncakes, about 50g each
Pastry dough ingredients:
(A)
100g cake flour - sifted
20g potato starch
20g caster sugar
15g coconut cream powder
35g thickened cream
15g condense milk

(B)
40g butter, softened

(C)
1 egg yolk mix with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash

Method:
1) In a large bowl, combine and whisk all the ingredients in group (A).

2) Add ingredient (B) and cut the butter till coarse and crumbly using a spatula.

3) Using your hand, mix mixture together and combine them to form a dough. Stop mixing once dough is combined.

4) Divide the dough into 10 equal portions.
My pastry dough is 23g each   /  Custard filling is 25g each
Shape each into balls.

5) Position the rack in top level and preheat oven to 200°C.
The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust the temperature and timing to suit your oven.

6) Line a baking sheet or tray with parchment paper. (I did not grease it)

To assemble the mooncake :
1) Using a lightly floured hand, flatten a portion of pastry dough into a flat and round circle. Place a custard ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Enclose the custard filling inside the pastry, seal up and gently roll it into a smooth ball.

2) Lightly dust the mooncake ball with flour.  Place each ball into a lightly floured mooncake mould and press it gently until all the edges of the mould are well-filled with the pastry. Dislodged and repeat the process.

3) Place the mooncakes onto the prepared baking sheet.

4) Bake in pre-heated oven for about 5 minutes.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven.  Brush the mooncakes with egg wash.  Adjust the oven temperature to 150°C and continue baking for 15-17 mins (do not overbake as it will result in a dry mooncake).

5) Remove the mooncakes from baking sheet and cool completely on a wire rack before storing them in airtight container.

Before bake

After baked

Lovely golden colour of these mini custard mooncakes

Here's sharing of some photos that the group made the walnut moontarts and snowskin mooncakes :)
Refer and click this link for Walnut moontart

Happy Mid Autumn Festive Season to everyone !  

中秋佳节愉快!

Chocolate Orange Chiffon Cake

I remembered that I've tried making some curvy waves on one chiffon cake Trio colour chiffon cake 2 but that was to spoon the batter to create the curves.

After my attempt in making a hurrican swiss roll, I saw another sharing of hurrican pattern chiffon cake in video link https://youtu.be/ANLDACjWWGo

I used one of my chiffon cake recipes here  and modified/adjusted for this chocolate and orange flavour.

Chocolate Orange Chiffon Cake
17cm chiffon pan
Ingredients:
For egg yolk batter :
4 egg yolks
20 grams caster sugar
30 grams canola oil
45 grams fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
75 grams cake flour, sifted

1.5 tablespoon cocoa powder - sifted

For meringue :
4 egg whites
50 grams caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:
1) Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. (the size of my egg is 60g each with shell)

2) Position the rack in 2nd bottom level and preheat oven to 160°C.
(Note: The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust accordingly)

3) In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the cold egg whites and lemon juice till foamy using the electric stand mixer. Gradually add in caster sugar in 3 separate additions and beat till stiff peak, formed into a firm meringue. Transfer to a big bowl and chill in the fridge.

4) In the same mixing bowl, cream together egg yolks and caster sugar until pale and thickened using the electric mixer (about 3 - 4 minutes).  Add oil, orange juice and zest and whisk until the mixture is combined.

5) Sieve in cake flour and whisk again until mixture is well combined.

6) Scoop about 1/2 of the batter and add 1.5 tablespoon cocoa powder, mix well.

7) Divide the meringue into 2 portions: for cocoa mixture and the remaining for orange mixture.

8) Gently fold meringue (in 2 batches) into the cocoa mixture with a manual whisk or spatula until it looks evenly mixed (no streaks of meringue).

9) Gently fold the meringue (in 2 batches) into the orange mixture with a manual whisk or spatula until it looks evenly mixed (no streaks of meringue).

10) Pour the vanilla batter into the un-greased chiffon pan.
Smooth the top evenly with spatula. Lightly tap the pan  2 - 3 times on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

11) Gently spoon the cocoa batter on to the vanilla batter using a big spoon.

To make the hurrican effect on the side, use the base of a spatula/spoon to draw circle upwards and downwards. Repeat till it reach one full circle.

12) Bake in a preheated 160ºC for 10 minutes. 
Then lower the temperature to 130ºC and bake for 30-35 minutes.

13) Cover with a piece of loose foil over the pan if top of the cake is browning too quickly.  Bake until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

14) 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.

15) Immediately invert the pan to cool before unmoulding the cake from pan. To unmould cake by hand, gently pull cake from the sides of the tube pan. Turn the cake pan over and press down on the bottom firmly to dislodge. Gently pull the cake from the base around the edge and around the whole cake. Continue to lift up the cake and moving inwards until you reach the tube.

Well, I didn't achieve those powerful hurricane effect on my chiffon cake :(

Hope to perfect it in my next attempt.