Sour Cream - Blueberry Crumb Cake

"Sour cream and lots of butter make the cake tender and moist and offset the bold, tangy flavor of gleaming fresh, juicy blueberries. A crunchy cinnamon-infused crumb topping cloaks the cake, adding a buttery caramel flavour"

And yes, as described by Tish Boyle, these cakes had a crunchy top and they were really moist and tender. A quite unusual combination but they were quite welcomed by us... hehehehe...

I had replaced the sour cream with low fat yoghurt as my yoghurt was expiring soon, and this also explained why I had attempted this bake... Oopsie...hehehehe... I had also reduced the sugar level if you do not wish your cake to be too sweet like me.

Recipe as adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Yeilds a 9-inch square cake

Ingredients:

Crumb Topping

121g all purpose flour

50g caster sugar

80g firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

100g unsalted butter, melted

In a medium bowl, stir the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt until well blended. Add the melted butter and mix with the fork, stirring until the butter is absorbed and the dry ingredients are uniformly moistened. Set aside.

Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

181g all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

142g fresh or unthawed frozen blueberries

242g sour cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

142 unsalted butter, softened

200g sugar

2 large eggs

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 175C. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 inch square baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well blended.

3. In another bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 tbsp of flour mixture until the berries are coated; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and vanilla extract; set aside.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the side of the bowl as neccessary. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the sour cream in two additions. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries. Scrape the batter into the prepared pand and smooth the top with a spatula.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the batter, breaking up any large lumps with your fingers.

5. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Place the cake in the pan on a wire rack and cool completely.

6. Cut the cake into squares and serve from the pan.

Tres Leches Cake - Bake Along #43

Wait for me again....!!! Almost late but good enough just before the deadline... I had bought a new oven on Saturday and I was very thrilled as I had wanted to try baking this cake with it. But one of the oven "leg" had came come and I need to get the whole oven changed...:((

I have never known of this cake until I saw the bake theme for Bake-Along #43 by Joyce, Lena and Zoe.

Tres Leches Cake - A classic Latin American sweet is a light white cake soused with rum-flavoured milk and cream concoction and topped with dramastic swirls of meringue frosting served in squares.

 I had seen the rest of the bakes by the other members and seeing the light, soft, moist and milky texture made me want to attempt this bake.

 It was quite a great choice for a dessert as it was really sweet, even though I had cut down the sugar level. It had a similar cake texture like those baked cheesecake. Hmmm but I wouldn't fancy them too much due to the overly sweetness of its whole cake and milkness:-p 

Frosted with white chocolate topping made them heavenly sweet.

I was actually rushing for time to go for our Sunday Movie Treat  of Ironman 3. Hubby was rushing me and I was in a panicky stage... My cake wasn't cooled well for 10 mins. I quickly put in the cake into a bigger container and poured the soak onto the cake. I gotten a little worried as I saw Joyce, Lena and Zoe's cake had soaked up the milk mixture whereas mine was "floating"... 

Not enough time... my whole plattoon was waiting for me... I quickly poured in the milk mixture and refrigerate the cake, grabbing my recipe along as I dashed out of my house. I realised I hadn't poked the holes at the side of the cake:-p So I am not totally sure if the milk mixture had been totally absorbed by the cake... What a sotong I am...

Nevertheless, this cake still tasted very well though I personally will preferred them plain as what it was. What about you.

Recipe as adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Ingredients:

200g cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

113g unsalted butter

143g firmly packed light brown sugar(i use 100g)

180ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50g sugar

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.

2. Beat the butter and brown sugar at a mediym-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, combine milk and vanilla essence. At a low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter in 3 additions, alternating it with the milk mixture in 2 additions.

3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat at mediym high speed until soft peaks begin to form. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat at high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Scrape the batter into the greased pan and smooth it into an even layer.

4. Bake the cake for 30~45mins until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in pan on a wire rack for 10mins.

Meanwhile, make the Tres Leches Soak:

180ml light cream

One 12-ounce evaporated milk

One 14-ounce condensed milk

45ml dark rum

1 tsp vanilla essence

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. After the cake has cooled down for 10 mins, using a toothpick, pokes holes all over the cake at 1-inch intervals, going all the way down to the bottom. Slowly pour all the soak over the top of the cake, covering it completely. It will seem like a lot of liquid; the cake should be "floating". Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

As for the frosting, you may wish to use as desired:)

Do join along with our hosts; Joyce, Lena and Zoe and other members whom had joined us as well :))

(Sorry Hosts, I cant link up to you as I posting this using my phone:-p  Pardon me...:)

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake

I had previously baked a Black Sesame Chiffon Cake in year 2011, and I loved it very much... These Black Sesame Chiffon Cakes are one of my favourite too.. I love Black Sesames in any form of food...

Today I am trying a new recipe from OKASHI.

She had used black sesame paste which I was once told that by using black sesame paste will give the cake a better fragrant than using the powder. It is true indeed. However, this time round, I still did not managed to find any black sesame paste... Perhaps next time, if I ever get a chance...

This recipe turns out very well indeed. Getting a very soft, sponge-y & moist texture from the chiffon cake. You can even hear the "hissing" sound of the chiffon as you take a bite... Am I for real...??? kekekeke...

Try them and I'm sure you will like them as well..:-D

Recipe as adapted from OKASHI by Keiko Ishida

Ingredients:

(yeilds a 20-cm cake)

70g pastry flour/top flour

5 egg yolks

20g brown sugar (I used castor sugar)

20g black sesame paste (I used about 50g black sesame powder)

60g water

40g canola oil

20g black sesame seeds (optional)

90g sugar

10g rice flour/corn flour

5 egg whites

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Sift flour once.

2. Combine all egg yolks, brown sugar & black sesame paste in a bowl and mix well. Add water and canola oil and blend together. Add flour & mix well until batter becomes sticky, the fold in the black sesame seeds.

3. Make meringue. Combine sugar & rice/corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half the sugar and the flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add the remaining sugar & flour mixture and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks.

4. Add 1/3 of the meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely. Do not over mix as the sesame paste in the mixtur will cause the volume of the chiffon cake to decrease, thus making it heavy.

5. Pour the batter into an ungreased 20-cm chiffon cake tube pan. Bake for about 40-50 minutes. When the cake is done, remove from oven and turn the pan over. Leave cake to cool in the pan.

6. Once the cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

Banana, Macadamia Nut, And Coconut CupCakes

I was browsing my blog this morning and I had saw the THB was on.. I had missed a couple of the THB bakes and I didn't want to miss this again...I had gotten ready the conversion for this bake and I had quickly prepared all the ingredients.

 For those of you whom are unaware of this THB (The Home Bakers), it is a baking club set up by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours. For Bakers whom owned a "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas, and we will all be baking the same cake in each theme, sharing our experience & tips. 

If you will liked to join us along in this THB bakes, please CLICK HERE for more information.

This time round, Kit has chosen this bake, and it was really delicious...

Fresh from oven today, I had made them into cupcakes instead of cake as cupcakes are easily managed(eaten), and for my small little oven, it would be definitely better as my cupcakes will be easily "cooked" rather than cake form...:-p

 Followed all stated in the recipe, I had blended all the wet ingredients using my blender. Mixing everything in with the flour, and oh, I have used dessicated coconut instead of the flakes. Just before pouring the batter into the cupcake cases, I realised I had forgotten to add in my oil with the wet ingredients...!!! Oh my... Thank goodness, the cucpakes were still edible... hehehehe, silly me...:))

As you can see, I was still able to get a very moist nice texture of the cupcakes. The best part of the cupcakes, were of course the macadamia nuts topped with the cinnamon sugar... So crunchy & yummy:))

Would you like to have one too?

Please visit Kit from I-Lost-In-Austen for the full recipe.

To view the others members bake on this cake, do drop by The Home Bakers (THB).