Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

The Golden Cake recipe used in preparing the Checkerboard Cake.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
2. Subsequently, beat in milk and vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat in the flour mixture gradually with the wet ingredients from (2), just enough to mix.
5. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 8-inch round cake pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for about 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Let cool in the cake pan for 10 minutes before resting the cake on a cooling rack. Wait till the cake is completely cool before cutting.

For the chocolate layer, substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour with cocoa powder. Follow the steps above.

I have the liking of checkerboad patterns. One of my favourite childhood cookies is checkerboard cookies. Wouldn’t it be nice to have checkerboard cake too?

Miles and I attempted two checkerboard cake in the past, one of which is the Festive Birthday Cake for our friend, Josie. Finding the cake cutters of different sizes was one of the greatest challenges. We found stainless steel sheet from the hardware store and made ourselves some.

Next, the recipe. Regular moist cake recipe doesn’t work too great as the cake will be too soft to handle. Hence, we tried the pound cake recipe. The texture turned out fabulous! However, I find the cake too dense. It’s not enjoyable to be eating a dense cake. Now, I’ll have to get a cake recipe that will give me a cake that’s firm enough to handle, but also moist enough to taste good. I think I’ve found one!

This recipe is modified from a golden cake recipe, and it works wonderful for making checkerboard cake!

Our second checkerboard cake attempt, with a pound cake.

The third attempt, with a golden cake recipe.

Many might wonder, how is checkerboard cake prepared? An easy answer to this: you’d need a chocolate cake and white/yellow cake. The tricky part is assembling the cake.

8-inch golden cake that was cut into half in height. Rings of various sizes (6, 4 and 2-inch) were used to cut the cake.

The same idea applied to the chocolate cake.

The nerve-racking moment was to assemble the cake. Chocolate and golden cake rings were placed in an alternate fashion. Decorate the next layer starting from the opposite color of cake ring. Icing was used to keep the rings intact.

It has been a rainy week this week. Although there are tons of things on my -to-do list, I didn’t feel motivated enough doing them. Hence, I decided that I should experiment on a self-improvised checkerboard cake recipe to relax my mind.

Here is my latest creation. Happy Summer!

*hope the rain will soon be gone*

When Miles informed me about a month ago that his classmates would like him to share a graduation cake with the group, the first thing that came into my mind was “this is going to be a challenging one!” Part of the reason, of course, is that Miles had a picture of a fancy graduation cake in mind.

From our first cake with fondant, to creating a Chocolate Cherry Cake, and later on a Festive Birthday Cake, we’ve learned a lot about cake decorations. This time around, is the ultimate challenge! Here is the big picture: two-layered cake resembles the laboratory bench and a drawer, plus some laboratory apparatus on the bench.

The cake making started a week before the cake even exists! To prepare Erlenmeyer flask and beaker, we used cereal treats (a.k.a. rice krispies). The same recipe as Rice Krispie Squares, except that we hand-molded the rice krispies into shapes of flask and beaker.

Miles prepared the second beaker, a stirring rod, as well as freehand flask, beaker, and funnel cut out shapes with gum paste (also known as sugar paste). They were let air-dry for several days.

One 9 x 13 x 2 inch marble cake was iced on top of the other, with white icing. Then, the cake was covered with fondant. Staying up “early” till 4 a.m. in the morning wasn’t very fun. But guess what? At least we got the major parts of the cake done. *Phew*

The Masterpiece that took us hours and hours to complete. A laboratory themed cake!

Erlenmeyer flask with Johnny Jump-ups around it. They are edible flowers that make nice decorations.

Bubbling potassium dichromate in the beaker. Caution! It’s hot to handle!

Chlorine gas is released from the beaker with a stirring rod. Spooky….

Happy Graduation to all the future graduates! Hope everyone enjoyed the cake ^v*

Time flies. Miles and I celebrated our first anniversary as a couple recently. When it comes to anniversary, there are different ways to celebrate it. It could be a romantic candle light dinner, a bouquet of flowers, a nice gift etc. A nice surprise, in my opinion, is a wonderful way to celebrate anniversary.

Having told that there will be an anniversary cake, I had no idea what the cake will look like, besides for it being a heart-shaped cake.

Surprise! A nicely decorated anniversary cake that Miles prepared in the midst of his hectic exam schedule. How sweet! p/s: very neat handwriting for one who doesn’t grow up learning Chinese.

The “interior” of the cake; red and blue (Miles’ and my favourite colour, respectively) marble patterns, with chocolate ganache in the middle, and topped with buttercream icing.

Of course, we shared the cake with friends too. It was one of the best homemade cake I ever had; rich but not too sweet. Very well done (someone mistakenly thought it was store-bought)!

Happy Anniversary, Miles! Thank you very much for the lovely cake :)

If there is snowman, there should also be snowwoman! Miles and I found a snowman cake pan from Wal-mart before Christmas. We’ve been waiting for to bake a snowman cake. And guess what, snowwoman is getting into the picture too!

Snowman is dressed in his manly black hat and a red scarf.

Snowwoman is dressed in a girly pinky scarf, with a purple and pink hat.

Josie, a good friend of Miles and I celebrated her birthday last weekend. We wanted to prepare a birthday cake for her during a Christmas/birthday party at her place. The first question that came into my mind was, “how am I going to incorporate the two themes into the cake?”

Tier cake, fondant covered cake, layered cake etc. After a few days of discussion, we finally decided on a checkerboard cake. Mind you, it’s a festive checkerboard cake!

Josie’s wedding bouquet had her favourite white roses and orange lilies. To personalized the birthday cake, I handmade the flowers with fondant and gum paste as cake decorations.

It seems like a long process preparing just a 4-layer 8-inch round cake. Nevertheless, Miles and I had great fun preparing it, despite the challenging part where we had to put the rings of cake together. A good try!

We were glad that Josie enjoyed the cake. All the “wows” and ‘wahs” we received for the pretty flowers and a surprise festive checkerboard pattern as everyone savoured the cake.

What’s my favourite cake? For something simple, marble cake. For something fancy, Tiramisu cake!

Tiramisu is a popular Italian cake, prepared with lady finger biscuits dipped in strong coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of mascarpone cheese, coffee flavoured liqueur, and sugar, and topped with cocoa powder. Yumm..

I’ve made Tiramisu cake with lady finger biscuits in the past and found that they turned soggy easily after soaking in coffee and liqueur. However, if they’re not soaked long enough, the cake will be less flavourful.

Miles came across with this Tiramisu cake recipe that called for regular white cake. It turned out to be fabulous! It was a hit :)

Ingredients:

(A) Cake
1 package of moist white cake mix
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1/4 cup coffee
1 tbsp coffee flavoured liqueur

(B) Filling
~ 230 g (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp coffee flavoured liqueur

(C) Frosting
2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp coffee flavoured liqueur

(D) Garnish
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
~ 30 g (1 oz) semi-sweet

Directions:
1. Prepare cake batter according to the direction on cake mix package. Divide two-third of the batter evenly between two greased 8-inch cake pans.
2. Stir in coffee powder from (A) into the remaining one-third batter, before transferring it into another greased 8-inch cake pan.
3. Bake cake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Mix together the 1/4 cup coffee and coffee flavoured liqueur from (A). Set aside to cool.
5. To prepare the filling: In a small bowl, beat together all ingredients in (B) with an electric hand mixer on low speed, just until smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
6. To prepare the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat together all ingredients in (C) with an electric hand mixer on medium speed, until stiff.
7. Fold 1/2 cup of frosting mixture from (6) into filling mixture from (5).
8. To assemble the cake: Place one plain cake layer on a serving plate. Using a thin skewer, poke holes in cake, about 1 inch apart. Pour one-third of reserved coffee mixture from (4) on cake, then spread half of the filling mixture from (5) on cake.
Next, place the coffee-flavoured cake layer on top, and poke holes in cake. Pour another third of the coffee mixture on cake and spread the remaining filling mixture on top.
Subsequently, top the cake with remaining cake layer, and poke holes in cake. Pour remaining coffee mixture on cake. Spread sides and top of cake with frosting.
9. Lightly dust the top of cake with sifted cocoa powder.
10. To prepare chocolate curls, use a vegetable peeler and run it down the edge of the chocolate bar. Garnish cake with chocolate curls.
11. Refrigerate cake for at least 30 minutes before serving.

More baking! Miles and I did more baking last weekend. There was something new that we wanted to try preparing–gum paste.

Similar to fondant, gum paste is a pliable dough that can be easily shaped for cake decorations. As the name implied, the latter has more of a gum texture and it holds its shape better than fondant.

Cake baking, cake cooling, cake leveling, cake icing, cake chilling… all happened on the first night. Fondant and gum paste were prepared on the same day.

The next morning, we moved on to rolling out the fondant and laying the thin sheet (1/8 inch thick) onto the cake. Miles did a fabulous job transferring fondant onto the cake on his first attempt!

While the cake is being chilled in the fridge, we cut out various patterns on gum paste. Then, they cut-out patterns were placed in mini tin foil cupcake liners to hold their shapes. Painting was the next step. We used mainly gel paste food colouring for painting. Meanwhile, home-made chocolate icing was artistically piped along the top and bottom edges of the cake.

Finally, we assembled the gum paste ornaments onto the cake, placed a maraschino cherry on each flower, and garnished cake with milk chocolate curls.

Final results:

It was a heart-breaking moment to have to cut the cake. Oh well, that’s what the cake is for–consumption! More importantly, Miles and I had great fun preparing the cake and everyone enjoyed eating it ;)

Allergic to eggs? Ran out of eggs? Try this awesome eggless chocolate cupcakes!

Ingredients:
3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cup water
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, white sugar, cocoa, salt, baking soda.
2. Next, stir in oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Stir until well-blended.
3. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin cups. Pour batter into the muffin cups about 2/3 full.
4. Bake cupcakes for about 25 minutes in preheated oven at 350 F.

* Modified from Allrecipes.com

Yield: ~ 24 medium cupcakes

The cupcakes tasted wonderful! Better still, by reducing the baking time a minute or two will keep the cupcakes moist and yummy ;)

I’m fascinated by beautifully decorated cakes with delicate edible ornaments. For the past few months, I’ve been watching the cake show on TLC channel, the “Cake Boss.”

“Cake Boss” is a show that films some absolutely stunning cake preparation processes, prepared by the Carlo’s Bakery in New Jersey, U.S.A. Needless to say, one of the most popular items on their cakes is fondant. I thought to myself, “I’m going to give it a try making it some day!”

Knowing that it’s going to be a time consuming process to decorate the cake, I opted for a quick and easy way to cake the cake by using cake mix. My favourite marble cake! Thanks to the Duncan Hines Marble Fudge cake mix. The cake turned out fabulous!

The baking process took me about 35 minutes and about 20 minutes for icing the cake. However, the decorating process took Miles and I nearly 2 hours (equivalent to 4 man hours)!

The cake turned out great, simple yet colourful. It wasn’t bad at all, considering that was our first fondant attempt.

A healthier blueberry cake? How about blueberry zucchini cake? Marie came out with the idea of baking the cake, with the help of Miles and I. It turned out to be tasty! My all-time favourite topping added a unique texture to it. The cake would have been better if it’s more moist. Happy baking!

Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 + 1/4 cup white sugar
2 cup shredded zucchini
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp margarine
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, mix together the eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and white sugar. Fold in the shredded zucchini.
2. In a separate bowl, combine all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
3. Pour in the flour mixture gradually into the egg mixture. Fold in the blueberries.
4. Transfer batter into 2 round cake pans and 1 loaf pan.
5. Prepare topping by mixing all the ingredients with hands, to form crumbs. Sprinkle topping on the batter generously.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 50 minutes, or until cooked.

* Modified from Allrecipes.com

Aromatic cupcakes and yummy frosting
With cut-out hearts nicely sparkling
I’ve yours and you’ve mine
A sweet moment forever in mind

Decorative red hearts on cupcakes
Love and patience is all it takes
One for you and one for me
A love message we both received

Longing for some strawberry treats? How about homemade strawberry shortcake? Preparing everything from scratch; tea biscuits and whipped cream. They make the best strawberry shortcakes with fresh berries!

A generous serving of berries on a strawberry shortcake.

A strawberry shortcake “eruption”.

Tea Biscuits
Ingredients:
2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Directions:
1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut shortening in until the mixture has a fine crumb texture.
2. Stir in milk to make a soft dough. Knead for about one minute.
3. Roll out the dough to a minimum thickness of 1/2 inch. Shape into rounds. Let rest on lined cookie sheet for a few minutes.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 400F for 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

* Yield: ~ 6 tea biscuits.

Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp white sugar

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream until peaks are just about to form.
2. Beat in vanilla extract and sugar until peaks are formed.

* The lumpy-looking whipped cream was due to over-beating, but it still tasted great.

Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients:
~ 2 quarts fresh strawberries, hulled, sliced and tossed in sugar
6 tea biscuits
Whipped cream

Directions:
1. Slice cooled tea biscuits into halves, to make two layers.
2. On the first layer, place fresh berries and then whipped cream on top.
3. Top with the remaining half of tea biscuit. Again, place fresh berries and then whipped cream on top.
4. Serve immediately.

* Yield: 6 Strawberry Shortcakes.

One of the many Malaysian desserts I missed is the pandan chiffon cake. The aromatic smell of pandan, rich flavour of coconut, soft and smooth texture of cake…

Pandan chiffon cake is light green in colour. The key ingredient in this recipe, pandan paste, contributes to the colour tone. The green is derived from the chlorophyll of the leaf juice. Just like other angel cakes and foam cakes, the fluffy texture of chiffon cakes is created by preparing beaten egg whites that are stiff, and folding them into cake batter, prior to baking.

I was excited when I came across with the pandan chiffon cake recipe here, and was really eager to try it out. It turned out very well. It’s certainly worth a try!

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 + 1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup thick coconut milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
8 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pandan paste
1/4 tsp pandan extract

Directions:
1. Combine coconut milk, pandan paste, and pandan extract, in a mixing bowl.
2. With an electric mixer, beat together egg yolks, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract, until well combined.
3. Mix together all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt, in a separate bowl. Sift the flour mixture.
4. Make a well in the centre of sifted flour mixture. Whisk egg mixture into the flour mixture.
5. Next, beat egg whites until frothy, with an electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and beat until firm peaks formed.
6. Subsequently, fold the beaten egg whites into flour/egg mixture with a spatula.
7. Gently pour the batter into an angel food cake pan. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 50 minutes, or until the cake is cooked.
8. Remove cake from oven. Invert the pan (upside down) onto a cooking rack. Remove the cake from pan when it’s cooled. Enjoy!