Dark Chocolate Espresso Cake

I'm very happy when my friends asked me to bake a cake for them. It means a lot to me that they trust me to bake something nice... for a special occasion. This time, my roommate asked me to bake a cake for her boyfriend's birthday. It's the first birthday for Ryan after they are together. We talked about the kind of cake that Ryan would like and Mery's request to me was to make a rich chocolate cake. :) So here it is...

This cake is made of 2 layers of dark chocolate cake, 2 layers of dark chocolate espresso mousse, a layer of black raspberry jam, and topped with chocolate rum cream. :)

I really wished that I had more time to do the cake. I wanted it to be extra special for both of them, but I had to work late these days and I didn't have much time to decorate the cake at night.

Again, I couldn't make it to the birthday surprise because of work, but I'm glad everybody enjoyed the cake. :)

Marble Cake with Vanilla Frosting - Version 2

This is the second cake I made for Eva's coworker. I decided that if I should make a cake that fulfils the request (marble cake + vanilla frosting) but is in my style.

This cake uses the same marble cake as the first one but instead of simple vanilla buttercream, I used vanilla Chantilly cream and filled it with some bing cherries as well. :) Then I lined the cake with some pretty ladyfingers, and drizzle it with dark chocolate.

I really don't know which to give to Eva's coworker so I had made up my mind to let Eva make that decision. :) I brought both cakes to church and let Eva looked at both cakes and cast the vote. I think the final conclusion is that Eva liked this second cake better because it's more my style, but she thinks that the first cake is more suitable for a little girl's birthday. Her final vote was for the first cake. I haven't heard from her on her friend's comment on the cake yet, but I'll be sure to ask. :)

So... what did we do with this cake? Well... it turns out that it was Chien2's birthday today and so we used this cake (we took out the Nicole, of course) to celebrate Chien2's birthday. :) I guess it was all planned out by God that I had made 2 cakes. :p

Marble Cake with Vanilla Frosting - Version 1

This is my second fondant cake. It's a simple decoration but I think that it's really cute. This was for my friend's coworker's daughter's birthday. The story of this cake began when Eva brought the black forest cake that I had made for her to work. Her coworker tried the cake and liked it. She then asked me to bake a cake for her daughter. I never spoke to her directly but Eva's the messenger between the two of us.

She had wanted a marble cake with vanilla frosting. I'd never made a marble cake before but I'm glad to have a chance to try. :) I also used simple vanilla buttercream to fill the cake and strawberry buttercream to cover the cake. I don't usually use this "american" style buttercream, but from past feedback from my american friends, they liked their cakes to be more on the sweet side. So I decided to use a sweeter frosting for this cake. After finishing with the cake, I covered it with pink fondant and decorated it with a teddy bear and a few hearts. :)

However, after long thoughts about the cake, I realized that this is not my kind of cake. I don't usually bake butter cakes and I don't usually use simple buttercream to ice my cakes. It's too sweet for me. I started to doubt this cake and so I made a second cake... just in case...

Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Raspberry Buttercream

It's my very first fondant cake! I am VERY excited about it and I'm pretty satisfied with it.


The story began when my friend asked me to bake a birthday cake for her daughter's 1st birthday. What an honor for me! First birthdays are always very important for the parents and for the little girl herself (when she's old enough to understand). I was very excited about this "prospect" and at the same time nervous. I wanted to make a cake that is memorable, taste good, and looks cute. When I got this cake order, I had never touched fondant before. I believe the call was on a Saturday night. Then on Sunday, I started playing with fondant. I made a little duck, little boy and girl, and a little turtle. It was after the turtle that I decided to make a fondant cake for my friend's daughter, Stina.

I had so many ideas floating in my mind. I knew that I wanted to make something simple - since this will be my very first time covering a cake with fondant. I also knew that I wanted the cake to be cute and girly. I also wanted the cake to be one of a kind. With all that in mind, I finally decided to make a cake in the shape of the little girl's face. :)

The cake itself is a 3 layer buttermilk chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry italian meringue buttercream. I then covered the cake with vanilla italian meringue buttercream. I waited for the frosting to crust and then covered it with fondant. It was SO MUCH FUN!

The sad part was that I couldn't make it to the birthday party. :( I really wanted to go, but I had to work that Saturday. The cake made it to the party with Alvin's help and, from what I heard, they loved the cake! It's all worth it... all those hours and energy... it's totally worth it!

I think that this cake really boost my morale in making more fondant covered cake. Which is exactly what I did for the following Sunday. :p

Double Chocolate Black Forest Cake

Weekend is my time to bake! Starting January till the end of February, my work will be taking up most of my time. But I am really grateful for the arrangements that my engagement team has set up that allows us to have Wednesday early nights and working only one weekend day. During those times, I usually take the chance to bake - either for a cake request, or just for the sake of it. :)


I made this cake on Sunday morning - at about 3AM in the morning. :p I had been working on Saturday and we had a dinner appointment during the evening. I really enjoyed the dinner but this pushed back my baking schedule. So instead of baking Saturday night, I baked Sunday morning. This may be shocking to some people, but for me, this is such a wonderful time to spend with myself.

Today is Eva's birthday and I really wanted to bake her something special. She has been one of supporter in many areas of my life. I really cherish the friendship that we had and since I wasn't able to celebrate her birthday with her, I wanted to make it special for her. This cake is a 6" double chocolate black forest cake. The "double chocolate" is because the cake is made of 2 layers of chocolate sponge cake and filled with rum-chocolate frosting. The typical black forest cake is filled and frosted with rum-cream frosting but I've grown fond of using rum-chocolate frosting in its place. :)

I also experimented with different ratios of ingredients in the cake this time and I find that this cake is more on the sweet side. I will use less sugar in the future and dark chocolate (100% cocoa) for the filling (instead of bittersweet or 65% cocoa).

For those of you who are interested to try making this cake yourself, below is the recipe - courtesy of my dearest mother:

Cake Ingredients

10 egg yolks

5 egg whites

150 g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs dark rum

100 g all purpose flour

35 g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

100 g melted butter

rum simple syrup

Cake Method

In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks, egg whites, and sugar and mix on high for 10 minutes or until the mixture has triple in volume and form a thick ribbon-like texture when poured. Mix in the vanilla extract and dark rum until blended.

Using a spatula, fold in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder) into the egg batter. Making sure to fold gently so that the mixture will not deflate. Once mixed, pour in the melted butter and mix to make sure that the butter is incorporated evenly in the batter. Note that the butter is heavy and so, it tends to sink to the bottom of the batter. Just be sure to mix it in the batter evenly.

Pour the batter on two 8" cake pans that have been sprayed with PAM and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted to the cake comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling tray. When cakes are cooled, unmold from pan and brush the cake with rum simple syrup to moisten it.

Chocolate Filling Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

4 tbs sugar

5 tbs cocoa powder

2 tbs dark rum

Chocolate Filling Method

In a medium metal mixing bowl, combine the cream, sugar, and cocoa powder. Cover the bowl with foil and store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Once cooled, mix the cream using a hand mixer and a whisk attachment until the cream reached soft peaks. Add in the rum and mix until blended.

Assembly Ingredients

1 can of dark Bing cherries in light syrup

2 oz bittersweet chocolate squares

Chocolate decorations for the wall (optional)

Assembly Method

Place one cake on the cake board, flat side down, and spread some of the chocolate frosting. Arrange the cherries on the frosting and then cover with more chocolate frosting. Add on the second cake, flat side up, and brush the top of the cake with rum simple syrup. Frost the whole cake with the remaining chocolate frosting. Grate some chocolate and cover the top of the cake with it.

Decorate the cake as you please!

If you try this at home and you love it, all the credit would go to my mom! :)

Lightened Cheesecake

I've been experimenting with cheesecake lately and this is from a recipe that I found on foodnetwork. This cheesecake uses low fat ricotta cheese, low fat cream cheese, and light sour cream. I think this will definitely fit the description of a healthy cheesecake. :p

Slight modification that I made to the recipe is that I baked it on a waterbath. Bertha told me that even if a recipe doesn't call for a water bath, it is good to use it still so that the cake can retain its moisture and bake more evenly.

I baked this cheesecake on Friday after I went to Macy's to look for Kitchen Aid standing mixer. Macy's online store has the KA mixer on sale for 30% off and I really thought that it's a good deal. On top of that, I had thought of another brilliant idea: to buy it at the store and save on the shipping cost. HOWEVER, the Macy's store doesn't necessarily offer the sales and promotions that Macy's online store does. I felt so down when I found out. But baking this cheesecake ease my mood for the rest of the day. :)

I have no idea who or what this cheesecake is for, but I will start to look for victims now to share the "blessings."

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake

Baking is really a very rewarding activity for me. I find it very relaxing, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it relieves all the stress that built up during the day. If that's not enough, getting positive feedback from friends who tried the cake and seeing their satisfaction in trying the work of your hands will definitely make baking worthwhile.

In the midst of my work's busy season, I realize that baking provides a channel for me to relax and be at peace with myself. Late at night, at about 12:30AM, I made this chocolate banana bundt cake - and I enjoyed every moment of it.

I've promised my coworkers that I would bake this chocolate banana bundt cake and bring it to work. They liked my banana bread and thought that this choco-nana bundt cake would be good as well. I've been preparing to make this cake for a while now. I bought the sour cream on Monday or Tuesday night and I bought the bananas on Wednesday. Finally, on Thursday I made the cake. :)

I have never made bundt cake before and I've been hesitating to make one because bundt cake pans tend to be more expensive than other cake pans. After a long internal debate, I came across this bundt cake pan and it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. I bought it right away! Since then, I've been researching on bundt cake recipes - looking for one that would be good for a first time bundt-cake-baker. This recipe from Baking Bites turns out to be pretty awesome! :) It's definitely worth a try!

The bundt cake looked glossy on the outside. I'm not quite sure as to why this is the case, but it got me worried for a bit this morning. But when I cut a slice of the cake, the inside looked very lovely (in my opinion, at least). I am truly content with this cake. I also think that my coworkers were pleased with this.

I only have a quarter of it left by the time I brought it home from work. And now, I think there's only 2 slices left in the box. I'm saving it for breakfast tomorrow. :)

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

I have always wanted to try baking cakes using buttermilk but I somehow missed the opportunities a few times due to various reasons. There was even once when I had bought the buttermilk but didn't get to use it until it was expired and I had to throw it away. :( But I'm really glad to find Tartelette's recipe on chocolate buttermilk cupcakes.

In my personal opinion, this was the best tasting chocolate cupcake I had ever tried. And I'm giving all the credits to Tartelette! I think baking is more of a science than it is an art. Although cake decorating is a whole other topic on its own. :) I followed the recipe step by step and I managed to produce the cupcakes.

The texture of these cupcakes is moist and soft. You'll definitely be able to taste the dark chocolate and it is not too sweet. One adjustment I made to the recipe is the frosting. I tried the cream cheese frosting from this recipe, but it just didn't work for me. In its place, I made a whipped dark chocolate ganache frosting. The verdict: silky and rich!

I realized soon after I started making my first cupcakes that people are much more likely to try a mini cupcake than they would a regular cupcake. I guess size matters. So, for these cupcakes, I managed to baked 15 regular sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes. I also left some of the cupcakes unfrosted for those who are more health conscious.

I think I will definitely make this cake again in the future. I'll try using the cake recipe to make a regular cake (instead of a cupcake). I think my chocolate lover friends will definitely enjoy it. :)

Banana Bread

I'm on a baking frenzy these few days. I've been baking for about 3 days straight and I am very happy about this. I bought some bananas from Costco last week and the quantity from Costco is always more than what I need. As such, I have some very ripe bananas sitting on my counter top. I discussed with my coworkers as to what I should do with them. The choices that they came up with were: banana bread, banana pudding, or chocolate-banana bundt cake. Yes, they are quite the Southern people. :p

As you can see from the blog title, the winner is Mr. Banana Bread! I made the banana bread in an oval cake pan that I had bought in Indonesia and brought it here. It's typically used to bake cheesecakes, but I thought that oval banana bread would be pretty as well.

An added bonus for me for using the oval pan is that the banana bread will fit perfectly in this cute little box that Alvin's mom gave me. I just love the box! :)

My coworkers commented on the box - they said that the boxes always have some form of hearts on them. It's true! The square box for the cheesecake the I brought to the office has a heart-shaped window. This one has 3 little hearts printed on the sides. :)

As the Chinese saying goes: the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Cheers!

Chocolate & Green Tea Steamed Cupcakes (Bolu Kukus)

I don't like coming home to an empty house. It feels lonely for me. In order to make that somber feeling go away, I bake. This is the scenario for me last night. I had came home from work late (and will be until end of February) to an empty apartment. I don't like the silence; especially after going to a funeral last Saturday. So to fill my time, I made these steamed cupcakes. My mom taught me how to make these. :) I felt so much better after I baked! ^_^

I've always made these with pandan and rose extracts, but last night I felt like doing something a little different. I made these in green tea and chocolate flavor using matcha powder and cocoa powder. I think these give the cupcakes more flavor but it also weigh down on the batter. The result: although the cucpcakes blossom, they didn't open up as much. I think I'll stick to extracts in the future. :p

I brought a couple of these to work today and some of my coworkers tried them. Their comments are:

"this is interesting..."

"yossi, your cake always have interesting textures..."

"are you trying to choke me?!" --> upon finding out that the cake is steamed on a double broiler

I guess they're just not used to the idea or texture of a steamed cupcake. lol. :)