Feeling Hot & Cross today???

I never thought that I can bake bread again as I was never quite successful with them. I was pretty wrong and this time, my bread was soft and fluffy and it lasted for 3 days. Yummy indeed!!!

I came across this Hot Cross Buns from the Prima Flour website. Over there, they have some good recipes for different types of flour.
And of course, with their recipes, I was finally able to bake a soft and fluffy bread.

The dough was let to proof for about 1 hour, and it doubled up in size

After which they were divided into 50g each, and left to proof for another 1 hour.

Egg wash them and pipe the crossing.

And here we have, the "Hot Cross Buns".
Well, for mine, it's probably the PLAIN Hot Cross Buns as I had omitted the raisins, sultanas and lemon peel for fear that the girls will not eat them. Hmmm, but I guessed these buns ain't their favourite as they did not touch any of them. Whereas, for my friend and I, were couldn't wait to try them after they were taken out from the oven... Boy do I love the aroma of the freshly baked buns...:))

Recipe as adapted from Prima Flour

Ingredients:

(yields about 8 buns)

HOT CROSS BUNSPart (A)
200 g PrimaFlour Bread Flour
135 ml Milk
30 g Sugar
25 g Margarine
8 g Intant Yeast
¾ tsp Cinnamon Powder
½ tsp Salt

Part (B)
40 g Raisins
20 g Sultanas
10 g Lemon Peel

Method:

Using a dough hook, mix (A) at low speed for 2 mins, then at medium speed for 12-15 mins until dough is developed. Add (B) and mix at low speed for 1 min. Knead and leave to ferment for 1 hour at room temperature. Divide dough into 8 pieces (about 60g each) and shape into balls. Place onto lightly greased baking pan. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 200°. Egg wash and pipe a cross on each bun just before baking. Bake for 13-15 mins.

Crossing100 g PrimaFlour Plain Flour
165 g Margarine
65 g Sugar

1. Soften margarine and mix with sugar for 5 mins at low speed.
   
2. Add PrimaFlour Plain Flour and mix well.

"Gingi" in my Pound Cake

I have a "Gingi" in my pound cake.. How about that???

Well, when I asked hubby to take a look at my cake.., I asked him, "Isn't this cute???"

So he replied me and asked me what was that? A star??? I told him, it's Gingerbread Man.. But he insisted that it looked more like a star instead of Gingerbread Man. So I decided to give "Gingi" a little makeover for photography purposes.. LOL...!!!! I gathered, I probably should have started with a heart shaped first before I became that adventurous...:-p

So this was what we need...

A chocolate pound cake. But you could do up with any flavour or colors that you preferred.

Cut them into your desired shapes using a cookie cutter.

You may wished to keep the leftover pound cake for making a cake pop???

I had spread some batter on the bottom of my baking pan, so that "Gingi" will stay in place. Once you had lined up the cutted cakes, topped the baking pan with the rest of the batter.

Here, another new loaf of pound cake with a surprise awaiting for you...

Ta-da...!!!!

"Gingi" is here!!!
As mentioned in the earlier part, hubby said it did not look much like "Gingi", so there's the makeover for it.

Looking sooo much better, wasn't it??

It was pretty much fun doing these pound cake.

But Mimi here, on the other hand, preferred only the deco sugar bits and eating ONLY the "Gingi" part...

-_-"

You may wish to use any pound cake recipe. As for me, I had used OKASHI's pound cake recipe.

Recipe as adapted from OKASHI
(yields 2 x 2"x7" rectangular loaf)
Ingredients:
150g top flour
(I used raising flour and omitted baking powder)
1/8 tsp baking powder
150g icing sugar
150g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 lemon zest

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170C. Sift flour and baking powder together twice.
2. Beat butter, icing sugar and salt together in an electric mixer until light , fluffy and pale. Takes about 10 minutes.
3. Add flour and baking powder mixture and fold through completely using a spatula. Surface of the batter should be smooth and glossy.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about 50 minutes.
5. When the cake is done, remove it from the loaf tin and place on a wire rack to cool. Wrap with cling film before storing.

"PPPC" - Perfect Plain Pound Cake

Never would I have expected that these pound cakes were so delicious.

We were all in a big treat. I had KIV this recipe from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle and finally took it out to try.. Yes!!! Absolutely one pound cake you would love as much as we did.

 It was similar to the usual butter cake we had baked but these pound cakes had an extremely soft and moist texture... What a pleasant surprise from this bake.... Hubby had eaten 2 of them and he said it was very nice...So did the gals...

Plus, I had also bakes these pound cakes in my new pan, 12 mini square pan...

I loved my new pan too!!! The batter was just nice for these 12 minis. It made the pound cake a fuss-free plus no crumble mess... And also, a just-nice portion for each person...

Don't they looked so pretty in little squarish bites???

Well, I think I will reduce my sugar amount as I thought they were a little too sweet for me.

Otherwise, it was definitely the "PPPC"!

Recipe as adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter

250g caster sugar

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp finely grated orange zest

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g cake flour (I use top flour)

1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
80ml heavy cream (I use yoghurt)

Method:

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine well, and set aside.
2. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter on medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add in the sugar and beat at medium-high speed for about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl occassionally. Beat in the citrus zest and vanilla extract. Add in the flour mixture at low speed in three additions, alternating it with the heavy cream in two additions and mixing just until the flour is incorporated. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
3. Bake the cake in a preheated oven of 325F for 60-70 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place the cake pan on a wire rack and let it cool for 20 minutes.
4. Unmould the cake and cool completely, right side up, before slicing.

Cold-Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I hope I didn't missed this Bake-Along again.. Ever since I lost my handphone, I seemed to have lost track of my own blog:-p.. kekekeke... Anyway, I happened browsed through everyone's blog and realised it's the Bake-Along #38-Cold-Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake. Looking at some of the bakes done by the girls, this pound cake seemed to be a "Must-Try" Bake...

And indeed it was... It had given a very great fragrance while baking. I hadn't had any cake flour, so I had replaced it with self-raising flour and omitted the baking powder. The pound cake rose nicely, even though it was not baked in a pre-heated oven.

Cutting down on the sugar amount, adding a little more lemon zest, this pound cake was awesome. It has a very smooth, soft velvet crumbly texture as Lauren Chattman had mentioned in her book.

The only boo-boo I made was I had overlooked on the temperature. I thought it was on a 375F so I baked it in a 190C, instead of a 325F & 160C...
Nevertheless, the pound cake came out well with its excellent texture as it should be..

Ooooh, and surprising, my girls liked this pound cake too... It was very unlikely that they will like due to the lemon zest & ginger, but Nic & Mimi told me that the cake was yummy:)
So what else can we asked for now....??? Start your bake now:-D

Ingredients as stated by the Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

(Using only 1/3 of the stated ingredients, yeilds a 15×5×5cm loaf)

3 cups cake flour (125g self raising flour)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder (omitted)

1 tsp salt (1/3 tsp)

1 cup(2 sticks) butter (75g)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (75g)

2 1/2 cup sugar (75g)

6 eggs, room temp. (2 eggs)

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (1/2 tbsp)

1 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger (1/2 tbsp)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest (1/2 tbsp)

 

Method:
1.Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position. Grease a 12 cup Bundt pan and dust with flour. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
2.Combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 mins, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3.With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, ginger and lemon zest.
4.Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Then mix of 30 secs on medium speed.
5.Place the cake in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 325°F and bake, without opening the oven door, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 65 to 80 mins.
6.Cool the cake in the pan for 15 mins, then invert it onto a rack. Cool completely before slicing and serving.
7.Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

You may wish to join us in the Bake-Along with our 3 fantastic Hosts: Joyce, Lena & Zoe and also let's take a look at the other bakers' pieces:-D

Feeling lemony... Lemon Cupcakes

Are you feeling lemony like me too? In fact, I am enjoying trying out my new recipes from my new books. And I realised that I do have a lot of books bought from the last Popular Fair in JB & the recent 8 books that I had gotten as well. And adding "The Cake Book" by Tish Boyle was one of them as well... Yipee!!!!@♥♥♥

This recipe is from "Easy Bake 女生都

喜欢的可爱甜点by梁家榕。

I love her recipes so far!!! As her recipes are in a fairly reasonable amount and a "just nice" portion. Most importantly, her recipes had been failed-proof and the bakes wrte delicious... 

These lemon cupcakes had a very soft texture. For those of you who like them more sourish, you might wanna add more lemon juice and lemon zest for a stronger lemon taste.

I love these lemon cupcakes. 

♡They were awesome♡.

Ingredients:

100g butter

80g sugar

2 eggs

100g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp lemon juice (i used 1 tbsp)

1 lemon zest (i used green lemon)

Lemon syrup

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

Boil the lemon juice & sugar in a small pan, using low fire until sugar had melted.

Method:

1. Cream butter & sugar until soft & creamy. Add in the egg one at a time, beat well until well combined.

2. Add in the sieved flour+baking powder, mix until well blended.

3. Add in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix well.

4. Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 30-45mins or untill golden brown.

5. Brush the lemon syrup on the cupcakes.

My Not-So-Red-Velvet Cupcakes

Two and half weeks more to Christmas Day, and I was thinking what gifts I should prepare... I thought I should try baking a Red Velvet Cupcakes with Frosted Cream Cheese as a gift, instead of stressing myself of what gifts I should get.

Browsing through a few recipes for these Red Velvet Cupcakes, I decided to use this recipe that I had came acroos from Baking Wonderland. This recipe did not use cocoa powder, and only red coloring. Modifying the recipe a little here and there gave me these cupcakes today...

But these cupcakes ain't that velvet as they should be... It was probably due to too much cocoa powder I had added in... However, the cupcakes texture were excellent, soft & moist:-)
As for the cream frosting, I thought they were a little too sweet for me, but they overall complimented well with the cupcakes as I had reduced the sugar amount.

Here if you may see, the Red Velvet Cupcakes looked more like Chocolate Cupcakes instead:-p

Never fear!!!! I will make another attempt soooooon..., hehehehe....:))

Meantime, do enjoy these little cuppies 1st.....!!!

Here is the actual recipe as adapted from Wai Soh Man from Baking Wonderland

(with slight modifications)

Ingredients:

165g flour (150g flour + 1.5 tbsps cocoa powder)

150g sugar (125g)

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 egg

150g corn oil (canola oil)

118g milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

dash of red coloring

Cheese topping

100g cream cheese

15g soft butter

50g icing sugar

Method:

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda & salt. Sieve & set aside.

2. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Fold in the flour mixture from step 1. Mix well till smooth & velvety.

3. Scoop batter into paper cups, 75% filled, and bake for about 25-30 mins in a preheated oven of 170C.

To prepare cheese topping, combine ingredients and mix well till smmoth. Place mixture into a piping bag and pipe as desired.

Have fun with these cuppies while I will attempt another cuppies soon:)