Cotton Cake 原味棉花蛋糕

With reference to the recipe from Chef Chu''s Kitchen, I pulled up myself and gathered my ingredients to make the cotton cake. The recipe is very simple with only a few ingredients, but skillful technique is needed.

Let's look at the ingredients first.
 
Ingredients:
(6 inch mould)

1. Unsalted butter 48g
2. Cake flour 65g
3. Whole egg 1 pc
4. Egg white 4 pcs
5. Egg Yolk 4 pcs
6. Milk 65g
7. Cane sugar 63g

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 180 Celsius. 
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan until boil. Turn off the heat and put in the flour and mix.
3. Pour 1 whole egg, 4 egg yolks and milk into the flour mixture gradually and mix.
4. Beat the 4 egg white with sugar into meringue.
5. Mix the meringue with the flour mixture until fully mixed.
6. Pour the mixture into a lined cake mould. Bake the cake at 180 Celsius for 15 minutes. Then bake for 65 minutes at 150 Celsius.

And this is my first cotton cake - crack at the top and uneven inside:

And this is my second trial - no crack this time but raise high at one side (sigh!) but great that it dropped down finally (baked this especially for our friend Johnny and Ming last night and I am so glad that they said it tasted good!):

I've consulted Chef Chu and he said that the temperature of the oven is uneven as it is a small size one. What I can do is to move the cake quickly to another side. I will try again and see when I can get the desirable result!

Earl Grey Sponge Cake

It is always one of my desires to make something with Earl Grey tea. Earl Grey chiffon cake is very popular but I have not find a good quality chiffon mould yet. Those from Japan are quite expensive. 

So, with my success to make a chocolate sponge cake earlier, I tried to make my own Earl Grey sponge cake by taking reference of other recipe in making the Earl Grey milk tea.

Well, I failed. The middle of the cake collapsed when I took it out from the oven the 2nd time after testing it to see if it is done. I guess it is because: 1) I forgot to take out the eggs earlier to leave at room temperature and it took quite a long time for me to create the egg mixture; 2) I didn't put baking papers at the base of the mould and so the oil leaked out during baking. 

Though with all these errors, the cake turned out to be delicious and smell very good! I will try again soon for a better one!

Ingredients
(8-inch cake mould)

1. Eggs in room temperature 5 pcs
2. Cane sugar 142g
3. Cake flour 100g
4. Vegetable oil 53g
5. Earl Grey teabag 6g (3 pcs)
6. Milk 120ml

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Celsius.
2. Warm the milk in a pot in small heat. Turn off the heat and pour tea leaves into the warm milk and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour the milk tea in a mug and leave to cool. Save the tea leaves for use.
3. Beat the whole eggs with sugar into smooth egg mixture.
4. Mix in the sieved cake flour into the mixture gradually until fully mixed.
5. Add the oil and 3 tbsp of egg mixture with the milk tea, mix well and pour into the rest of egg mixture. At this stage, you must make sure the oil mix with the batter evenly. 
6. Add around 2 tbsp of tea leaves into the batter and mix well.
7. Pour the mixture into a lined cake mould and bake for around 30 minutes. 

New year's first challenge: Magic Cake

I've decided to take up the baking challenge by making the most talked about Magic Cake. 

Magic Cake (Gâteau magique à la vanille in French) is a cake with just one batter and you can get three layers with different textures: sponge cake, custard cream and soft fudge. 

I've read from the web that many people found it very difficult make it successfully. I am lucky enough to be successful in this first trials. I think the tips lie on amount of the batter and the size of the cake mould, and it is very important not to mix the batter too even. 

Cake done and took out from oven

Magic cake put into fridge overnight

Cut-opened view of the cake and the 3 layers are visible

Sprinkle with icing sugar

Ingredients
(8-inch cake mould)

1. Unsalted butter 98g
2. Vanilla extract 1 tsp
3. Eggs 3 pcs
4. Cane sugar 118g
5. Cake flour 90g
6. Water 11ml
7. Milk 395ml
8. Salt just a pinch

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 150 Celsius.
2. Melt the butter by steaming in wok/in a pot with direct heat/microwave and leave for cool.
3. Warm the milk (lukewarm will be fine).
4. Separate the eggs into egg yolk and egg white. Add water and sugar to the yolks and beat them till the mixture turn into light yellow cream.
5. Then mix each of the followings into the cream one by one: melted butter, vanilla extract, cake flour, salt and milk.
6. Whisk the egg white into foam with soft peak using electric mixer. Separate the foam into 3 portions and mix with the batter gently. No need to mix it too even. It will be fine to have some lumps.
7. Pour the batter into the mould and bake for around 50 minutes.
8. When the cake is done, cool it in the rack and put it into the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight. Sprinkle with icing sugar when serve.

Bon appétite!