Strawberry Mille Crêpe Cake

Still counting my blessings ... glad that I'm one year older and still surviving ... ^-^!
Made this Strawberry Mille Crêpe Cake for my birthday and a small 'tribute' for my blog turns 2-year old in January.

Recipe modified slightly from Milo Mille Crêpe cake

Strawberry Mille Crêpe Cake

Ingredients for Crepes:
(A)
250g cake flour - sift and set aside
50g caster sugar

(B)
2 eggs
30g melted unsalted butter
250ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped cream filling:
350ml heavy whipping cream
25g caster sugar (2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Strawberry (1 punnet 250g)
Some cooking oil for greasing the pan.

Method :
1) Combine and mix ingredients (A) in a clean bowl.

2) In another bowl, make ingredients  (B) : whisk eggs with a manual whisk and mix in the melted butter. Next, pour the milk in and continue to whisk till combined.

3) Add in (B) to (A) mixture and whisk till a smooth batter.

4) Heat the non-stick griddle or pan with low flame. I'm using a 20cm non-stick pan. Dap a little cooking oil with kitchen towel and lightly grease onto the non-stick griddle or pan.

5) Pour crêpe batter using a small soup ladle or big ice-cream scoop, swirl to cover the surface of the pan. Cook about 1 minute. Using a chopstick to tip the side, with your fingers, gently and carefully flip the crêpe over, continue to cook for about 30 seconds.
Remove the cooked crêpe. Repeat this process till finished the batter.

For the strawberries:
Reserve about 10 whole strawberries, cut each halves for decoration.
For the filling, hulled and slice each strawberry thinly into 4 slices vertically.
Pat dry with kitchen towel and aside in the refrigerator.

To make the whipped cream:
Freeze the cleaned mixing bowl for about 10 minutes.  Take it out from the freezer, immediately put all together the cold whipped cream, caster sugar and vanilla extract in the cold mixing bowl. Use the electronic mixer to whisk till stiff peaks form (about 4 - 5 minutes).

To assemble the crêpe cake:
Place one crêpe on a large plate or cake board.

With a small spatula, spread a thin layer of the whipped cream on the crêpe. Place about 6 - 7 slices of *strawberries. Spread another thin layer of whipped cream. Next, top with another crêpe and repeat the same process till finished the filling. For the final top layer, spread some whipped cream and decorate with some strawberries as you like.

Chill the crêpe cake for a few hours before cutting/consuming.

Dust the decorated strawberries with some icing sugar or snow powder  when serving. (optional).

*Note: 
I didn't fill every layer with strawberries. Filled the initial 4 layers and alternate the last 2 layers. Feel free to fill each layer with sliced strawberries but you'll need to add more quantity.

I ran out of all-purpose plain flour, replaced with cake flour.

Happy Birthday to me ^-^!

Happy 2nd anniversary to Luvswesavory :D

♡♡~~♡~~♡♡

Every blessing You pour out 

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

~~♡♡♡~~

Brownies with Ferrero Rocher

Both the birthdays of my big kids fall in March but a day apart. So it's easy for me to just bake 1 simple cake for them ^-^!

They love chocolaty and fudgy brownies.
Well, this is so easy to make ... when I read :
*The beauty of this Brownie is that it is made using just one bowl.
*You do not have to pull out your electric mixer, all you need is a wire whisk and spatula (or wooden spoon).

They love Ferrero Rocher. .. so I just add some to it.

Recipe adapted from : Joy of Baking

Below my version with slight changes made:

Brownies with Ferrero Rocher 

Makes 16 brownies.

Ingredients :

150 grams bittersweet chocolate chopped

113 grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons (15 grams) cocoa powder

125grams caster sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

95 grams all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 Ferrero Rocher cut into halves

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees and place the rack in the center of the oven. 

2) Butter (or spray with a nonstick cooking spray) an 8 inch (20 cm) square pan, and line the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper.

3) Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar. Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour and salt.

4) Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Place the Ferrero Rocher evenly spaced apart. Pour the remaining batter to cover all the Ferrero Rochers. 

5) Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled. These freeze very well.

When this brownie was taken out from the oven, I was "astonished" ! CRACKED! 

But when I read that 'This is a Brownie with a dry cracked crust, a wonderfully moist texture, and a deep chocolate flavor." 

Hoo ! Phew ! What a relief. .. hee .. hee!

Look ! So moist and fudgy ! Yum yum ! topped with a scoop of chocolate flavour ice cream.

Blessed birthday to C & C ! Brownies baked with love from mom.

Japanese Dark Pearl Chiffon Cake

Baked this birthday cake for myself …. It’s my 2nd homemade birthday cake since I started baking (cakes & pastries) a few years ago.  Coincidentally, my blog turns 1 year old in January.

Time really flies ….  Looking back, 2014 had been an exciting and fulfilling year for me in my baking journey. I started this blog mainly to record the recipes ... like an E-recipe book with pictures (hee.. hee..)! Flip back to see what I’ve baked and how it turned out etc.

I’m really so blessed to know so many blogger pals through the organized blog-hop theme events like Little Thumbs Up, Bake Along, Cook-Your-Books, Best Recipes For Everyone etc. I’m so inspired by their bakes, recipes, creations and knowledge sharing.
♡ Through their selfless sharing, I've acquired new knowledge and baking skills. ♡ Through their passion, I was inspired to try recipes I've never tried before.

With the encouragements given by some of them, I dared to make my 1st attempts in :
Chiffon Cakes
Mooncakes (baked and snowskin)
Japanese Condensed Milk Bread

Thank you ♡^-^!

My “bake-along” cum gathering sessions with my baking kakis (friends) had also spiced up my baking journey too ♡!

I've chosen to bake this Japanese Dark Pearl Chiffon Cake on my birthday as I was inspired by some blogger pals whom had baked this cake perfectly :
Ann
Esther
Lena
Eileen
Jeannie

Also, I remembered chiffon cake was the only cake that has really "drove me crazy" in the "Bake-Along #64 : Theme - Chiffon Cake" blog-hop event ... hee hee ^-^!

Japanese Dark Pearl Chiffon Cake
日式黑珍珠戚风
(I used a 17 cm chiffon pan)

Ingredients
3 egg yolks
35g corn oil
60g milk
80g chocolate, chopped
35g cake flour
15g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Meringue:
3 egg whites
45g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Directions
First melt chocolate over double boiler or microwave. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool.

Stir the egg yolks and oil together, then stir in the milk and the slightly warm melted chocolate. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda together and sift into the egg yolk mixture, mix till to a smooth batter.

In the mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy and add in the sugar, beat till stiff peaks. Fold in the meringue to the egg yolks batter in 3 batches till no traces of egg whites can be seen.

Pour into chiffon pan, gently knock the pan on the table to release air bubbles.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for about 40 minutes.
*note: I reduced the oven temperature to 150°C in the last 20 minutes into baking.

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.

When baked, turn mould upside down to cool before unmoulding the cake from pan.
I slipped the knife while unmoulding, hence, resulted a slight piece chipped-off :(

So, what's up for me in Y2015 ?
Eat well, sleep well, work well and live well ! Healthy eating .... healthy living !
Yes, I've a long list of recipes that I’ve bookmarked ... will definitely find time to try as much as I could.  Continue my baking & learning journey.
Happy birthday to me ^-^!
Happy 1st anniversary to my blog :D

♡♡♡♡☆☆♡☆☆♡♡♡♡

Every blessing You pour out 

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

♡☆☆♡☆☆♡

A small birthday cake for C&C

The birthdates of my 2 teens were just one day apart in the same month.   As the friends of my girl had given her 2 small cakes and a dozen of cupcakes to bring home, I could not bake any more cake without first finished those 'stacking' on top of each other in the refrigerator.

They had previously suggested a cake decorated with Ferrero Rocher (of course
theirs favourite) ...Well, searched through some related recipes and decided to bake Nutella Butter cake that I had attempted before and to decorate it with Ferrero Rocher.

Readily available

Here's the recipe I adapted from Happy Home Baking for the Nutella Butter cake.
Ingredients:
225g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
85g butter, soften at room temperature
3 tablespoons Nutella spread
150g (I used 140g) caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
120g plain, non-fat yogurt

Method:
1) Preheat oven at 180 degC. Line bottom of a 20cm (8") round pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides of the pan, set aside.
2) Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3) Mix together yoghurt and vanilla essence.With an electric mixer, beat butter and nutella for 1 min. Gradually add in caster sugar and beat on high speed for about 3 mins. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl periodically.
4) Dribble in the eggs slowly, about 1 tablespoon at a time, beat constantly for about 2 mins.
5) On low speed, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in 1/2 of the yogurt mixture. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour mixture. On high speed, beat in the remaining yogurt mixture. On low speed, beat in the rest of the flour mixture.
6) Pour batter into into prepared pan, smooth the top evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 40 ~ 45 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.Let cool in pan for 10 mins before unmold. Invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

As for the Nutella buttercream,  I improvised the buttercream recipe I had used for cupcake frosting and added some wafers (crushed) to the cake.
7 Ferraro Rochers for decor (or as you desired)
Crushed some wafers (enough to fill the sides)
Nutella Buttercream
Ingredients:
150g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
80g icing sugar
80g Nutella
3 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Use electric mixer, cream butter until light an fluffy. Add in the icing sugar.
Add the vanilla and nutella (few spoonfuls at a time).

Well, here's the belated small Nutella + Ferrero Rocher cake for them! Happy birthday to C&C, with love always ... Mom.

I baked my first birthday cake

Today is my birthday. It's just like any other weekend with the usual routines like doing household chores, groceries shopping, cooking and washing etc. etc.
But today is slightly different, not because it's my birthday.  Yesterday, my girl sprained her ankle during her basketball practice in her school. Her  coach brought her for physiotherapy and needed follow-up review today. So, the original plan for a family lunch celebration has to be call-off as I need to bring her for the physiotherapy appointment at 2:30pm. As she has been advised to 'walk less', my boy (17 years old) helped to cook simple delicious spaghetti for the family while I baked the cake. A small 2 layered sponge cake with some fruits toppings to share with family. Happy Birthday to me!