my kitchen's journey

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Chocolate Cake

This is a fault free, simple and yummy chocolate cake. I make this when I need to have a dessert for my guests. I made this last christmas, just in case you notice the watermark on the picture.

Since I didn't have a sweet tooth when I was a child; I blame it on all the people that said sweet things will destroy your teeth.
Just in case you are wondering: Yes, I don't like candy, I am not a big fan of Ice Cream and I prefer dark chocolate over the milk one.
This situation is bearable until I have my own children and they said I am weird and I can sense that they start to think that I was an alien before I met with their Dad.

Ingredient:

100g unsalted butter (if you use salted butter, skip the salt)
100g bar dark chocolate, chopped
2 medium eggs and 1 yolk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
80gr golden caster sugar
25gr plain flour
25gr ground almonds
a pinch of salt
cocoa and sugar powder, for dusting

Method:

Heat oven to 180C. Butter and line the base and sides of a loaf tin. Put the butter and chocolate into a pan and gently melt together until smooth. Meanwhile, using an electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar together for 5 mins until billowy and about the thickness of old-fashioned custard.

Pour the chocolate and butter mix into the whisked egg and sugar, then fold it in very carefully using a spatula. Mix the flour, almonds and salt together, then fold into the mix until even. Spoon into the tin and bake for 35-40 mins until evenly set with a slight crust all over the top. Leave the cake to cool until warm, then release from the tin. Dust with cocoa, then cut into wedges.

Ayam Bumbu Rujak (Grilled Chicken marinate in Spicy Sauce)

*sigh* It takes ages to update my blog and I still remember that i tried to cook more western than Indonesian food. Sooo sorry, that i will post another Indonesian food again.

Anyway, lately I tried so hard to lose some weight so I do really try to make my meal as tasty as I can because I won't eat as much as I used to be.

But, I will never ever eat some plain food or become vegetarian for the sake of my diet (unless doc said so). I'd rather eat a small piece of this tasty chicken than to have a big bowl of raw spinach.

I won't really mind to work out longer just because I want to eat a full plate of some yummy food with complete condiments. Well, at least this one is grilled instead of my favourite frying method.

Ingredients

· 1 whole chicken (800-1000 gr)

· 2 bay leaves

· 5 kaffir lime leaves, teared

· 2 lemongrasses, bruised

· 4 cm long galangal, bruised

· 400 ml coconut milk

· 4 tbsp oil

· 2 red chilies (seeded if you don’t really like spicy food or add a couple of birds eye chilies if you like it more spicy)

· 100 gr shallots

· 25 gr garlic

· 30gr candlenuts (you can substitute this with walnuts)

· 1 tsp turmeric powder

· 1 tbsp dark brown sugar

· 1.5 tsp salt

· 3gr tamarind, dissolved in 2tbsp water

Method

· Butterfly the chicken or cut it into 6 or 8 pieces if you like.

· Drizzle the chicken with fresh lime juice and let it sit for 15 minutes, then rinse the chicken and pat dry.

· Preheat the oven at 200C.

· Blend the chilies, shallots, garlic, candlenuts, turmeric into paste.

· Heat the oil in the skillet and sauté the spice paste, bay leaves, lemongrass, galangal until fragrant.

· Add the chicken to the skillet and cook it for 5 minutes, flip it over and cook it for another 5 minutes.

· Add the coconut milk, brown sugar,tamarind water, and salt; bring to a boil.

· Lower the heat and continue to cook for 30 minutes until the chicken absorbs the sauce and the sauce is reduced and becomes oily.

· Remove the chicken from the skillet and move it to oven rack.

· Baste the chicken with the leftover sauce and roast for 15 minutes, basting the chicken with the sauce one more time and roast it for another 15 minutes.

· Reserve the leftover sauce and pour the sauce when serving.

· Serve the chicken with rice, vegetable salad (such as cucumber, baby spinach, cabbage) and sambal (Indonesian chilli sauce).

Modified from Aroma from Alley Kitchen

Monday, October 26, 2015

The Birthday Cake

Even though I am not a big fan of cake, since I have children this type of food is a must to master. Not just for the birthday cake, but it's also handy for charity bake and sale in the school and my office too. K always wants to have different types of birthday cake and as a cheap mom, I'd rather make it myself than paying €€ for the cake. ~~So i can buy that cool shoes instead!~~ Don't you think that just because you want to make their wishes come true, it pushes you to do something that you have never done before?

I am not a big fan of eating the cake though; and somehow nobody at home really is a big fan of cake, but somehow everybody will always queue for the dough!
And yes, i love to decorate the cake!!! It's just fun, it's a great excuse to play with "Play-Doh" since I don't remember that I did that when I was a kid.

I was an outdoor kid and staying at home was the last thing I wanna do. I'd rather go swimming in the river or climb a tree not to mention how upset my Mom was because I climbed the neighbours' tree and stole the fruit from the neighbours' tree. Hey! I only help them to harvest the fruits. If the branches are hanging outside their walls, that means it's public property, right?

So here is the Chocolate Cake recipe that I always use for the birthday cake and usually I make the frosting in advance so it will be easier for me to add it to the cake. Robyn labelled this as the best chocolate cake ever, and yeeessss!!! I totally agree with her. Not just most of my friends like it, but also it's bearable for me to eat this cake. The cake texture and the taste are more like brownie than the spongey kind of cake.

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons bicarbonate soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon espresso powder (i used nescafe coffee powder diluted with 1 tbsp hot water)

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract ( i used ½ vanilla pod)

1 cup boiling water

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 160º C. Prepare two 20 cm cake pans by buttering and lightly flouring. For the oven temperature, my oven is a fan oven and I always use 160º C to avoid the cake is raised too much. You can adjust your oven temperature accordingly.

For the cake:

Shift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.

Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

Frost cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Since usually i will cover the cake with icing, I only make half of the original recipe. The recipe below is enough to cover the cake as on the picture.

INGREDIENTS

¾ cups butter (3 sticks), softened

½ cup unsweetened cocoa

2½ cups confectioner’s sugar

¹/4 cup milk

1 teaspoons vanilla extract ( i used ½ vanilla pod)

¹/4 teaspoon espresso powder (i used nescafe coffee powder diluted with 1 tbsp hot water)

INSTRUCTIONS

Shift cocoa to a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer.

Cream together butter and cocoa powder until well-combined.

Add sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a tablespoon of milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added.

Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.

If frosting appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reache s the right consistency.