Café of the East

January 24, 2012

Cornflour Sponge Cake

I saw this recipe on TV and was intrigued. It was a sponge cake made entirely out of just cornflour and custard powder, not a trace of plain flour in sight! The cake was indeed very soft and spongy, and the texture was very fine. Will definitely make this again.

Adapted from the recipe 'Aunty Jean's Sponge Cake Recipe' featured in ‘Cake Wars’, 11 November 2005 episode of ‘How the Quest Was Won’ at ABC Television, Australia.

Makes one 22cm cake.

[Ingredients]
4 egg yolks
65g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
75g wheaten cornflour
30g vanilla custard powder
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
30g melted butter
60ml hot water
Meringue:
4 egg whites
pinch (1/8 teaspoon) salt
100g caster sugar
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 22cm springform cake tin well. Line the bottom with a piece of baking paper.
2. Mix the cornflour, custard powder, baking powder together and sift three times. Add hot water to the melted butter.
3. Put egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk to dissolve sugar. Add lemon essence and whisk in. In 2 or 3 batches sift flour mixture into the batter and whisk in well, making sure there’s no lumps. Alternate whisking in of the flour mixture with butter/water mixture.
4. Whisk egg whites and salt in another mixing bowl until soft peaks formed. Add sugar gradually, spoonful by spoonful, whisking until meringue is glossy and forms stiff peaks.
5. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the batter lightly and gently. Repeat twice more with the rest of the meringue.
6. Pour batter into the prepared cake tin. Run a knife in the batter around a few times, then tap the pan on the bench three times to rid any large air bubbles in the batter.
7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately drop the cake tin from about 10cm high onto the bench to break the cake structure inside. Loosen the side of the cake from the tin then let it cool for about 10 minutes in the tin. Turn out carefully and cool right-side up on a wire rack until completely cold. Best serve at room temperature, either plain or with whipped cream.

[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.

October 12, 2007

Banana Cake & Farewell

It was exactly three years ago today that I started this blog. It has been fun and enjoyable sharing my ‘experiments’ with all you people out there, those who have actively supported me through the three years, and those who have done it silently, I thank you all.
After three years, I think it is time to say goodbye to my beloved ‘Café of the East’. In the three years since I started blogging, I have seen a plethora of cooking blogs appearing. I remember I have time to visit the few good cooking blogs three years ago easily most days, but now I find that I don’t have the time and also impossible to check on most blogs on the net today. As all you bloggers out there, you all know how time consuming it is to blog – taking photos, editing photos, uploading, research & write-ups, etc., then also time to answer questions as well. I think I need a rest from blogging after three years! I haven’t decided yet if I will continue to blog in the future (if I do, it will be on a brand new blog or I’ll post the recipes on my forum), however I will not been updating this blog anymore. Café of the East will however stay open so you can still access the recipes that I have posted so far, just no more new update.
As for my ‘Home Baking Club’ forum, I’m thinking of partially closing it down as well, as it has not been a success as I hope it would be. As a forum, most members have not been active in coming forward and sharing their cooking or baking experience. Only about 20 or so members have been active there, so I sincerely thank those few active members who have kept the forum going the past year or so. I really appreciate it.
So I bid you all farewell, and hope to see you soon somewhere on the net… and here I share with you one final time, one of my favourite cakes…

[Ingredients]
250g (1 cup) mashed over-ripe banana, from about 2 cavendish bananas
1 teaspoon lemon juice
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb. of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons milk powder
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease the sides of a 20cm round cake tin and line base with baking paper.
2. Mash the bananas and lemon juice with a fork, set aside. Sift plain flour, baking powder, soda and milk powder together, set aside.
3. Cream butter and caster sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined.
4. Add mashed banana and fold in. Add sifted flour mixture and fold in.
5. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Banana Cake

[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.

Labels: Cakes and Cupcakes, Teatime Treats

October 11, 2007

Sugee Wafers

The problem with buying special ingredient to make something is that you inadvertently have some leftover which you don’t know what to do with. So it either sits in the pantry or the refrigerator and take up space or it just quietly goes past its use-by date and turns bad then you have to throw it away.
One such ingredient for me is ghee which I only use for baking purposes. I know I could use it to cook Indian meal, but it has just never happened, yet. So over the weekend, I found myself with some 300g or so of ghee in a tin which has just gone by its best use-by date. I have kept it in the refrigerator and it still seems alright. I tasted it, no rancid taste, so it was still fine to use.
My thoughts turn to sugee (or semolina) cookies as I also have some semolina at home. I haven’t made them for a long while, so I intended to use up as much of both ingredients to make the cookies. I used my Cashew Sugee Cookies recipe I last experimented with and adjusted it. As I wanted to use up the ghee, I added in as much of it as I dare to see what would happen! Well what do you know, after baking they turned into wafer thin biscuits, and oh so crispy and buttery! I love the taste and texture of the wafers, and the faint fragrant of the almond essence is so delicate – goody, another new recipe to add to my bikkie collection.

Sugee Wafers

Wafer thin biscuits.

Sugee Wafers

Base of the cookie (bottom right).

Makes approx. 40 to 50 biscuits.

[Ingredients]
225g ghee, softened
85g icing sugar, sifted
¼ teaspoon almond essence
170g plain flour, sifted
110g fine semolina (sugee)
1/8 teaspoon salt
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Cream ghee and icing sugar until pale and creamy, beat in almond essence.
2. Fold in dry ingredients. The dough will be very sticky, so chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or until firm. Preheat oven to 160°C.
3. Pinch and roll into marble-sized balls (about 2cm or 1 inch in diameter), space them well apart on a cookie tray.

Sugee Wafers