Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake & Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon

There are quite a number of backlogs that I have not got a chance to post up for the past few months. And it seems to be stacking up steadily as the days goes on. I can say I'm usually a fast baker, but now due to time constraint, I've become such a slow blogger. *sigh* So today I'm going to "kill 2 bids with one stone", 2 recipes in one post. :) Don't be surprise if eventually I'm posting up 3 in 1 in the future, lol! So please bare with my long post today. :P

First up is Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake. Made it because I was craving for a cake, not just a simple sponge or butter cake, I want with layers and icing and of course with chocolate!

It's be ages since I last made myself a luscious yummy cake...just for myself not for someone's birthday, heehee. I got the primary idea from Hearty Bake's Orange Sponge Cake post a while back. I was totally captivated by the sponge cake and swore to try it out myself. The outcome was great of course(thanks for the recipe Jessie!) but I did made some minor changes to it to suit my taste. :) Here is my version:

Ingredients for Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake: (makes a 6"X3" round)

4 egg yolks

30g sugar

1/2 tsp orange essence

75ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of 1 naval orange

40g cake flour

40g plain flour

50g melted butter

4 egg whites

90g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

• Sieve the flours twice and set aside. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 6"X3" round pan with removable base.
• Place the egg yolks and sugar over a heat proof bowl over a double boiler on a gentle simmer. Using a hand beater, whisk the mixture till foamy. Then add the juice and zest and continue to whisk till ribbon stage. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for later use.
• In another bowl, beat the egg white and cream of tartar together till foamy. Gradually add in the caster sugar while the beater whisk at high speed. When it reaches stiff peaks, stop the mixer.
• In 3 separate portions, fold the whites into the yolk mixture till all is combined.
• Also in 3 separate portions, sieve the flour mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold in till all the flours are not visible.
• Lastly add in the cooled melted butter and fold in gently and careful not to deflate the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and give it a light tap on the table to remove some bubbles.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Toppings and filling:

200ml of non-dairy whipping cream,
15ml freshly squeezed orange juice
Nutella for spreading between cake layers
200ml semisweet chocolate, chopped small (I used Valrohna)
100ml dairy heavy cream
20g of butter


Assembly:

• In a mixer, whip the non dairy cream with orange juice till stiff peaks. Note that if your whipping cream is unsweetened, you can add some confectioner's sugar to your liking.
• Slice the cooled cake horizontally into 3 layers. Then spread a layer of nutella on one of the disc. Top it off with some orange whipped cream and cap it with the next cake disc. Repeat till you place the last disc on top. Ice the whole cake with the remaining orange whipped cream and let it chill for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, heat the dairy heavy cream till almost bubbly, then add in the chopped chocolate and butter in. Let it stand for 5 minutes. After 5mins, stir the mixture till soon.
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the cake and let it naturally flow down on the sides. Chill the cake for an hour before serving.

I was very pleased with the end result. The sponge cake was soft with an evident orange scent. Plus the orange and chocolate flavor comes together perfectly. With the hazelnut spread, it gives another hint of nutty flavor at the back, pretty nice I must say. :)

This cake was pretty easy to whip up. Definitely can be made into a nice birthday cake for your love ones. Perhaps I will do that the next time. :) Feel free to substitute the hazelnut spread to just plain chocolate if nuts is not an option. :)

Next recipe is an all original HoneyBeeSweets creation, Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake! Heehee, it's very nice I can tell you that, so no worries if you decided to give my recipe a try. ;)

This chiffon is soft and creamy with a nice banana and chocolate flavor. I actually made this twice already since my kids loved it so much. ;) So here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake: (makes a 22cm to 24cm chiffon)

Egg Yolk mixture:

4 egg yolks

70g caster sugar

80g ripe bananas

80g cream cheese (room temperature)

60ml fresh milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

70g vegetable oil

75g cake flour

75g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Egg white mixture:

5 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

80g caster sugar

100g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 55% cocoa Valrohna)

(Note: Try not to use chocolate chips as it might just sink all the way to the bottom)

Method:

• In a blender, add in cream cheese, banana, fresh lemon juice and milk. Blend the mixture till smooth. Then pour the mixture into a large bowl, add egg yolks and vegetable oil and mix well.
• Sieve the 2 flours and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and stir well till smooth.
• Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy, then gradually add in the caster sugar with the beater on at high speed. Beat till stiff peaks.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• In 3 separate portions, fold in the whites to the yolk mixture but not over mixing and deflating the batter.
• Lastly stir in the finely chopped chocolate chunks into the cake batter. Then pour the batter into the tube pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the tester comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and invert the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I was glad this experiment turned out well. Perhaps next time I will try out with more interesting flavors, heehee. :D Maybe substitute the cream cheese with sour cream or yoghurt perhaps? We'll see. :)

BTW, I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from Noms I Must.

Okay folks, hope you all have a nice long weekend and Happy Labor Day!

Pandan Kaya Twist Loaf & Belated Easter Party!

Yes, another bread post. I bake bread faithfully at least once a week. But if time permits, twice or more times would be great! Some how it is quite therapeutic for me, not that I still do the kneading by hand anymore. But the whole process of baking bread takes me to a peaceful zone. And of course the best part is to enjoy the delicious end product! So I am always, seriously always looking for good bread recipes. The "addiction" never seems to go away, heehee! I guess it's not a bad one, so no harm in that right? So you can imagine, if I haven't thought about how boring it would be to my readers, I probably be posting bread recipes almost every post, lol! No worries, I still love cakes and cookies....

Today's bread post is sort of a "reborn" of the Pandan Kaya Loaf that I baked awhile back. This time round, I have used the 17hr pre-fermented dough recipe. This method has got me hooked and swear by it. The end product speaks for itself, so I am still very much baking bread using this method every time now...well until I find a even better recipe of course, lol!

If you have tried the previous Pandan Kaya Loaf recipe from me and liked it, then you should definitely try this new version. No regrets guaranteed, because you are gonna love it!

Ingredients for Pandan Kaya Twist Loaf (makes 2 of 8"X4.5"X5" loaves)

Pre-fermented Dough:

459g bread flour
262ml water
13g fresh yeast (I used 11g instant active dry yeast)
13g skim milk powder

Mix everything together and knead till forms a soft dough. Cover dough in cling wrap or large sip lock bag and chill in fridge to let it prove for 17 hrs.

Main Dough:

197g bread flour

20g skim milk powder

7g sea salt

98g sugar

26g beaten egg

105ml pandan juice (3 pine screw leaves blended with 120ml water and sieved)

56ml coconut milk (I used boxed version)

7g fresh yeast (I used 6g instant active dry yeast)

52g unsalted butter, room temperature

Filling:

Kaya spread

Method:

• Cut the pre-fermented dough into small pieces.
• Knead all the ingredients of main dough together except for the butter. Add pre-fermented dough one by one piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Finally add in the butter and continue to knead until it reaches window stage.
• Put the dough into a big bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it proof for about 30 to 45 minutes,
• Once proved, punch out the air in the dough. divide the dough into 6 equal portions. (in my case, I divided it into 9 portions and made into 3 smaller size loaves.) Roll each portion round and cover to rest for another 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive out the air. Roll each portion of dough into a rectangular with a rolling pin . After rolling out 3 portions into 3 almost equal sized rectangular, spread a layer of kaya on two of the rectangular. Then spread a layer of salted butter on the remaining rectangular surface. Place the buttered side facing down to one of the kaya spread rectangular. On the back side of the rectangular, spread some more butter and top if off with the last rectangular with the kaya spread. Seal the edges and cut it into 3 strips. Sealing one end of the 3 strips together, pleat the 3 strips and then sealing the other end.
• Gently place this pleated dough into a greased loaf tin to have its 2nd proofing. Repeat with the other dough portions till all is used.
• Let proof for a good 30 minutes or till the tin is 90% filled. Brush with egg wash.
• Bake in a preheated oven of 170 to 180C for about 25 to 30 minutes till golden brown.

I cannot say enough how yummy this loaf is, you probably need to bake one yourself to be fully convinced this is a truly delicious bread method. Even for the following day, the loaf stays soft and fluffy, definitely a plus over other recipes.

I would usually store my bread in the fridge on the 3rd day if there's still any left over. But trust me, it is still very good on the 3rd day, perhaps just needs to heat it up a little but I usually don't do it. :) Try it folks...its yum!

Before I end this post, I got an invitation for an Easter Party from Edith of Precious Moments. Really appreciate her inviting me. :) However I think Easter is already over and thus its probably a belated one? Anyways, just to join in the fun, here is the 5 food contributions from me for the party:

Pandan Chicken Wings

Chendol Agar Agar

Mung Bean, Yam & Peanut Ang Gu Kuehs

All American Chocolate Cake

Puen Kueh

Have a good week ahead all!