Rich Chocolate Cake

Oh boy, it has been some time we did not update this blog. I must celebrate the "re-launch" of the blog by posting one of our favourite chocolate cake recipes. Life is busy with kids running around who need the parent’s tender loving care.

In life, we celebrates good things happened around us. We are very thankful that we met some nice people that sincerely want to help us. It is a blessing to have a nice nanny & nice neighbors. We are blessed.

This is our "Thanksgiving" chocolate cake recipes (adapted from Donna H magazine). Hope you enjoy it.

Cake:
250g butter
220g brown sugar
3 eggs
250g flour
1.5tsp baking powder
60g cocoa powder
145g sour cream/ yogurt

Icing:
250g double cream
200g dark chocolate

Method:
1) Beat butter sugar until fluffy.

2) Add in beaten eggs one by one until the mixture light & creamy.

3) Premix all the flour , baking powder & cocoa powder.
4) Sift flour mixture into the butter mixture & mix with sour cream until just combine.
5) Do not overmix.
6) Bake in a pre-heat oven 160C about 45 min- 1 hour

Icing:
1) Melt dark chocolate with double cream.
2) Let it cool at room temperature.
3) Put it into the chiller for about 30-45 mins,
4) Lightly beat the mixture.
5) Spread nicely on the cake.

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Crepe Mille Cake

French Crepe is always delicious. A crêpe is a type of very thin pancake, usually made from wheat flour. The word is of French origin. While crêpes originate from Brittany, a region in the northwest of France, their consumption is widespread in France and they are considered a national dish, and they are also increasingly popular in North America and South America. In France, crêpes are traditionally served with sweet or savory filling. The most popular crepes is the crepes Suzette that you can order in a fine dining restaurant.

Normally when we have guests for dinner, we will serve some home baked pastry. when I am do not have time to prepare a baked pastry, I will normally serve crepes Suzette to my guests. They love it every time.

Today I am going to share with you a crepe mille recipes where you don't even need an oven for it. Crepe mille is a cake that made of many crepes layer. It is guarantee a delicious dessert.

To make a diameter 15cm crepe mille. You can use a diameter 15cm non stick pan. You will have a nice & tall crepe cake. But I am using my normal 28cm non stick pan, therefore, it is not "tall" enough. Nonetheless, it still taste good. Don't restrict yourself by all the "rules" of the recipes. Improvise if you need too. Enjoy the processes & you will fall in love with cooking.
Crepes:
90g low protein flour/cake flour
30g sugar
Pinch of salt
15g melted butter
90g eggs
270g full cream milk

Method:

1. Mix the flour+ sugar + salt in a bowl & make a well in the middle.
   
2. In the egg, mix with a whisk. Mix until all the flour come together.
   
3. Slowly add in the oil continuously. Mix until all the all the material come together.
4. Add in the milk slowly & continue mixing.
   
5. Filter the batter mixture to ensure smooth texture.
6. Lightly mix the batter every time before fry if the flour starts sinking at the bottom.

Pan fry the crepe:

1. A little butter melt in the pan. Not too much. You need just enough to cover the pan.
2. Scoop 30cc of batter & pour into the pan. Quickly spread the pan to make sure all the batter fill up the pan base. (30cc for a 15cm pan), you will need more if your pan is bigger.
3. Use small medium fire. Don't burn the crepe. Lift up your pan if it is too hot.
4. When you can see bubble on the surface & a thin layer start forming, it is time to flip the crepe over & cook the other side. Total cooking time is about 1-2 min depends how thin your crepe is.
   
5. Use a spatula, lightly scrap over the crepe edges, flip it over. Well, I use my hand. But my hubby can flip the crepes like a chef. Practice make perfect I guess.

Assemble the crepe with chocolate cream.
130g cream
130g melted chocolate (cool)

Lightly whip the cream until soft peak.
Mix in the cooled melted chocolate.

Assemble it : 1 layer of crepe , 1 layer of chocolate cream, 1 layer of crepe, l layer of cream..etc
You can also sandwich some chocolate chips between the layers if you like.

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Decorated Chocolate Marble Butter Cake

I know most of us love chocolate. But not everybody love chocolate. Among my friends, especially the older generation, some of them do not really like the after taste of chocolate. Well, in order to please everyone- the younger generation & the older generation. I make a cake something in between - a chocolate marble cake. We have the vanilla cake batter & the some chocolate cake batter in this cake.

Pls refer to this link for the recipies:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Butter-Cake

This is a normal butter cake recipies. In order to make the marble chocolate effect. You can do this:

75g of chocolate

Method:
-Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
-Double boiler means: heated water in a pot & put a bowl of chocolate on top. Use the steam to melt the chocolate. Never melt chocolate using direct heat. It will burn & turn bitter.
-Let the melted chocolate cool.
-Mix the cooled melted chocolate with 1/3 of the cake batter.
- Use the skewer to make some swirl pattern in the cake mold after you alternate pouring the 2 different cake batter in the mold.

Then I decorated it with some butter cream & flowers.

Here is the recipes for the butter cream icing:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Buttercream-Icing

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A Proper Chocolate Ganache

Last week, I tried to make a proper Chocolate Ganache. Ganache refer to a variety of icing, or fillings for pastries and glazes. It is made from chocolate & cream. Its origins dated to around 1850, it may have been invented in Switzerland or France. It is a very versatile glaze for any cakes.

It is pretty easy. Equal part of chocolate vs equal part of cream with a knob of butter. If you would like to have a very chocolate ganache instead of the creamy ganache, you can reduce the cream around 15-20%.

Here is the simple recipes:
125g chocolate
100g cream
1 tsp of butter

1) Chop the chocolate into smaller pcs.
2) Heat the cream in a pot, when it is just boil, throw in the chocolate pcs, off the heat & stir until the chocolate melt.
3) Cool the chocolate ganache before pour it on a cool cake.

The butter cake looks gorgeous with chocolate ganache icing.

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Choocolate Indulgence

Yep, the title speaks for itself, the base cake was a chocolate and banana cake, it was intended to be rich as the buyer was a self proclaimed chocoholic. The cake itself was already heavy, with the additional (really) generous chocolate frosting (we had to get a special imported grade chocolate) just to please the client's insatiable lust for chocolate.

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