Post Christmas Feasts

After some Christmas Feasting at my mother's house - a yearly tradition for Christmas Day Turkey lunch and Boxing Day Chinese Feast (lobster/crab in Spring Onion and Ginger, Chinese Roast Duck, Roast Crispy Pork are definite contenders), we were lucky enough to be invited to two other feasts over the weekend.

I recently learned that one of my cousins will be going away to work in February and it's been long talked of having a Steamboat Feast.  One of our other cousins hosted the meal at their place and as I like to bring a little something along, I baked a Green Tea Chiffon for dessert.  Post for that one is here.  I have discovered that I omitted to take photos of our feast :(   But I will tease you by telling you that we had three different kinds of noodles; 3 different greens (pak choi/cos lettuce/chrysanthemum greens); 3 different meat balls (fish/pork and beef); thinly sliced beef rolls; fresh prawns; fresh clams; mushrooms (brown chestnut and golden needle-enoki).  The Steamboat pot was split in two compartments and we had two types of broth, one was a herbal tonic, the other plain.  The herbal one was delicately flavoured with nutmeg, cardamon, and dong quai.  It was a delicious and filling feast indeed!

Sunday, we went to visit Mr Leaf's family.  We went out for lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Loong Kee on Kingsland Road, Hackney.  It's one of the few places that serve Steamed Rice Rolls Bánh cuốn which is a favourite with Mr Leaf.  They are similar to Cheung Fun but the rice skins are thinner, more translucent and not as soft.  The filling was a scarce scattering of minced pork and minced black wood ear fungus.  Was not very flavourful on its own and needed the Nước chấm sauce to give it some life.

Mr Leaf's brother likes Frog's Legs so we ordered a starter of Fried Frog's Leg's with Salt and Chilli.  The frog meat tastes between fish and chicken.  

Mr Leaf and his brother always eat this noodle salad dish Bún Thịt Nướng which is topped with grilled pork.  It's rice vermicelli with shredded salad, herbs and whatever topping you select and sprinkled with roasted crushed peanuts (which they did not have in this place.) You moisten it with Nước chấm  mix it up and chomp away.  This is not where we usually go for our Vietnamese meals and Mr Leaf reported the pork not the same cut and taste as his usual choice of restaurant.

I opted for stir-fried rice noodles with mixed meat.  Expecting Ho Fun wide, flat rice noodles like I would in a Chinese Restaurant I was surprised to get very thin rehydrated noodles.  It had a pleasant chew to them and I had all manner of different vegetables stir fried with it (no bad thing in my book).  Son managed to eat a few mouthfuls too so that was a bonus as he is a very discernible diner.

Sister in Law (Mrs Leaf) had Beef Phở.  Noodle Soup in a beef broth with sliced onion, herbs, thinly sliced beef.  It's served with a plate of accompaniments, herbs, raw beansprouts and a lemon wedge.  

In the evening we went to my SiL cousin's house for a pre-New Year Dinner.  We had Coquille St Jacques to start (oops - no photo) which is a French dish of scallops in a white wine sauce served in the half shell topped with mashed potato and grilled. Mains were Steak or Thai Chicken Curry.

Here are a few photos I did remember to take!

Pan-Fried Steak with mixed salad and mashed potato.

 

I had the Thai Curry, there was Red and Green Curry and I had a little of both.  The Green Curry was particularly fiery hot but wonderfully fragranced with kaffir lime leaves, I couldn't tell you how the Red Curry tasted as my mouth was on fire after that!

We had Christmas Cake for dessert (which I had made and decorated) as well as Strawberry Gateau (I believe it was a shop-bought frozen dessert).


I hope you all had a lovely time celebrating the festivities with your nearest and dearest!  

The hostess pictured with my son and his cousin. 

(Apologies for poor photo quality - my camera phone does not perform well.)

Green Tea Chiffon

We were invited to my cousin's for a Post-Christmas Steamboat/Hot Pot dinner so I thought I'd whip up a cake.  I decided on a chiffon cake as I wanted it to be light, fluffy and not overly sweet.  I decided on Japanese Green Tea as my flavouring and set to work on looking for a recipe.  I used this one here to base my recipe on.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake 

6 large free-range eggs (separated)

150g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

60ml sunflower oil

30ml cold water

30ml milk

120g self-raising flour

3 level tsp ground green tea powder

Sift the flour and green tea powder together 3 times and set aside.  Weigh out 100g the caster sugar and place in a small dish/saucer.

Place the 6 eggs whites in a scrupulously clean, grease-free bowl and whisk until large bubbles form.  Sprinkle in the cream of tartar and continue to beat (I use the whisk attachment of my hand blender) until white and fluffy.


Add 100g of the caster sugar a quarter at a time into the whites and beat in fully before adding another quarter.  When the 100g sugar is added, continue to beat until the whites are glossy white and are fairly stiff. The whites need to be able to hold their shape and will not fall out of the bowl if the bowl is upturned.

Add the remaining 50g caster sugar to the 6 egg yolks and beat until thick.  Add in the oil and beat for a couple of minutes more until it is incorporated.  Add the milk and water and mix in (it does turn back to liquid.)  Sift in the flour and green tea powder and mix in until there are no traces of flour left.

Scoop a quarter of the egg white mix into the cake batter and mix in to loosen the batter.  Take another quarter and fold in lightly with a large metal spoon.  (I use a large plastic serving spoon.) Continue with the remaining egg whites folding in so that the whites mix into the batter but be careful not to knock the air out.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased chiffon tin (mine is 23cm wide at the top and 20cm wide at its base).
Bake at 170 C for 45-55 minutes.  The chiffon will be ready when a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean with not wet sticky mix on it.  If cake browns too quickly, lower the temperature slightly and continue to cook.

Invert the cake immediately to cool.  (I balanced the central tube of the pan on a small tin.) Remove the chiffon cake when it has fully cooled.

***Notes:
I would reduce the sugar next time to 130g and increase the green tea powder to 5 level teaspoons as although it looked nice, the taste was quite mild.

Chiffon Cake Photos II

These are taken from the digital camera - hopefully better picture quality than the camera phone!

Here is a Gluten-Free Lemon Chiffon. I have a gluten intolerant friend and I made this cake as a treat for her.  She was having a stressful day decorating a 2-tier surprise birthday cake for her mum and I wanted to bring a smile to her.

This is the Mango Chiffon I created for my birthday.  It still stands fairly tall baked in a round springform tin despite not having a central tube to climb up on during baking.  I think this was a 9" cake.  It was also another gluten-free chiffon.

Ideally, I should've used more cream to top cake with but I wanted it to be not as sinful as I had a friend who was on a diet - too much cream and she may not even try it!

My gluten intolerant friend enjoyed the lemon chiffon so much she asked me to make another but fill it with cream, raspberries and strawberries for her partner's birthday.  I would like to have glazed the fruits but sometimes you have to go with what the customer wants!

Chiffon Cake Photos

These are a selection of photos taken from my camera phone (hence not great pictures and lighting).  Most have these have been celebration cakes and dressed with fruit and cream.

I made this as a surprise for a friend's 30th Birthday (July 2011)

This was for my niece's 3rd Birthday in March 2012. A Vanilla Chiffon, split in 3 layers.

Just to show you how tall my chiffon cakes usually rise - 4 egg mix in a 9" springform pan.

Mango Chiffon made for my birthday (April 2012).  Only a skimpy amount of cream as a friend was on a diet!

A Banana Chiffon I made for my mum's work - smells so good my son wants some!

Lovely, tall and airy.  I think I didn't invert this one quick enough as the top has dipped slightly and you can see the bubbles are squashed.  (Cake is inverted to serve so top of cake is actually on the bottom.)

Chiffon cakes can be successfully made using gluten-free flour! A lemon chiffon filled with fresh raspberries and cream as per my friend's request.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes is the number one cake I turn to if making a celebration cake with fruit and cream.  Its light airy layers are simply a delight to eat and sandwiched between luxuriant cream and fragrant fruit it gives you a feeling of real indulgence!  Of course you can eat chiffon cakes as they are - plain.  The moist yet light, springy texture slips down easily and you crave for another wedge! ;)

I saw several chiffon cakes posted recently (well, as in within past 3 months :p ) and it re-ignited an urge to bake a chiffon cake.  Since then I have lost count of how many I made.  Let's think now...  There was a vanilla one with cream and fruit for my niece's 3rd birthday... a chocolate one with chocolate cream for my mumma friend's birthday... I had a mango one with mango and cream... I made a plain lemon gluten-free one as a treat for a friend (she in turn asked me to make one for her partner's birthday, another gluten free lemon chiffon but decorated with cream and fruit)... I made a plain banana one for my mum to enjoy at work... and today I hastily whipped a chocolate one for my neighbour's birthday.  They had invited us to a BBQ at theirs and I don't like going to friend's places empty-handed.

It's my trusted chiffon recipe that I now tweak here and there to suit the flavour I'm making.  I think I rushed this one as it did fall out of the tin whilst cooling (which incidentally, NEVER happens).  I could have been upset about it but frankly, it was going to be filled with cream and topped with chocolate - it wasn't going to be a show-stopper but I believed I could patch it with cream and it'd be OK - edible at least. :)

Cream and ganache - a wonderful duo for hiding inconsistencies!

The recipe is originally from Sea Dragon: as I say, I tweak bits, but essentially, it's based on his recipe.  I have tried to take photos along the way to describe the stages as I know some people are daunted by chiffon cakes.  Below is what I used today.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Cake:
4 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
85ml sunflower oil
30g cocoa powder
125ml water
100g plain flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Filling and topping:
50ml double cream
100g milk chocolate (broken into squares)
150ml double cream
2 small (37g) bags of Malteasers (chocolate covered honeycomb balls

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.  I used a 10" round springform tin as I was willing to sacrifice depth of size of cake.

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder 3 times and set aside.

Using a stand-alone mixer, or an electric hand-whisk, whisk egg whites until foamy (think large washing up bubbles).  Add cream of tartar and continue to whisk until thick and white. Add the 120g sugar a quarter at a time while whisking until meringue is glossy and thick. The mixture should be able to hold its shape but not be too stiff or dry, the whites will not fall out of the bowl if inverted either.  If the whites are too stiff and dry, it will take a little more effort to combine them into the cake batter.

Whisk egg yolks and 60g of sugar until pale, thick and creamy.  The mix should leave a trail for a couple of seconds before disappearing into the mix when the whisk is raised.  Slowly add the oil as you continue to whisk - it will still stay lovely and thick.  Mix in the water.  Sift in the flour mix in 3 batches and fold in until combined.

Add 1/4 of the meringue into the cake batter and using a large spoon (I use a serving spoon), mix in the meringue to loosen the batter.  Add another 1/4 of the meringue and fold gently until combined.  Repeat until all meringue is incorporated into the cake batter.

Pour into the cake tin.  (If making a plain chiffon I use a chiffon tube pan, if decorating with cream I tend to use a 9" or 10" round springform tin so I don't get a hole in my cake from the tube.) Lift the cake tin about 2 inches above the counter top and drop tin on counter.  This helps remove any large air bubbles.

Bake for about 40 - 55 minutes until a skewer inserted in middle comes out clean.  Immediately turn the tin upside down with the cake still in it to cool.  You can support the tin on the edge on tin cans to allow air to circulate under the cake.  If using a chiffon tube, I insert the hole of the tube onto a wine bottle (with liquid in it!!!) and allow the cake to balance on the neck of the wine bottle to cool.  Leave to cool completely.

Put 50ml cream in a microwaveable bowl.  Heat in microwave for 30-40 seconds until cream is hot but not boiling.  Add the squares of chocolate and stir.  If there are still lumps of chocolate that won't melt, place in microwave for further 10 seconds.  Stir until smooth, then leave aside.  This is chocolate ganache.

Whisk the remaining cream until firm but not stiff peaks.  Using the side of a large bladed knife or a rolling pin, crush one bag of Malteasers until broken.  Fold Malteaser pieces into the cream and chill.
When cake is completely cold to the touch, split into 2 layers and sandwich with the Malteaser cream.

Give the ganache a stir before pouring ontop of cake and spread to cover.  Decorate with remaining bag of Malteasers.  Chill before serving.

The chiffon is usually higher than this but I think I measured my flour out wrong!

As I mentioned, my cake fell out of the tine during cooling.  I flipped the tin the right way up and tried to put the cake back into the tin.  The cake somehow cracked into 3 wedges!  I ran a thin spatula round the inside of the tin to loosen the edges before removing the springform collar.  I then slid the spatula under the cake to remove it from the base of the tin.  I assembled the wedges the best I could before proceeding to split, fill and decorate the cake.  I was hopingthe cream and ganache would patch and hide the cracks!  It wasn't the best looking chiffon I'd made but resembled a whole cake at least!

I'll do a post with step-by-step pictures and a separate post of chiffon cakes I've made - some decorated - some plain. :)

Looking back through my chiffon pictures on my blog - you can see where I have made a more successful Chocolate Chiffon!

Birthday Cake - Mango & Strawberry Flower

I've just finished making the birthday cake for my niece's 2nd birthday.  The celebration will be tomorrow.  Technically, in around 12hrs time, but I always call it tomorrow if it's the early hours and I've not had my sleep yet.

I'll try and remember to take pictures of the yummy Vietnamese food my SIL & her auntie will prepare, but I often forget!

Here's the finished cake!

Don't even ask me where I'm going to put the candles!!!!

As you can see, I'm quite glad I didn't put the candles in yet as the cake only j-u-s-t managed to fit into the fridge!!!!

I took plenty of photos whilst cake making - including the errors I made and I'll do a post soon of how I made this cake.

Happy Virtual Feasting!

Double Celebration - Minh's Full Month Party & Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

The little guest of honor - Minh

Yesterday was a day of Double Celebration in the Diep Household.  We were holding a Full-Month Banquet for out little "Junior" and it coincided with our Fifth Wedding Anniversary!  Yes, sentimental ol' me picked the date in advance of Junior's birth and decided that would be the day to hold his party.  Recently, I have heard these parties called Red & Ginger parties as they are eaten at these events.  Red is an auspicious colour for chinese and vietnamese alike and the egg symbolises fertility.  Ginger is considered good for the new mum as it dispels wind from the body.

Minh is exactly 6 weeks old tomorrow and he was was the guest of honour at his party.  We had a small banquet at a Chinese restaurant for family, relatives and a few close friends.  It was a fun affair as there were several children present -all under the age of seven - so it certainly was lively!  Minh did not mind being passed out for hugs and cuddles amongst the guests and it was great!  Some mums are very protective towards their children and seem happy to hug and hold them all the time.  Don't get me wrong!  I love my hugs and cuddles with my son but as I can get that anytime at home I'm more than willing to share him out for hugs whenever there are friends present!

We certainly had a food feast and I was too busy eating to take photos!  I missed the first three dishes of: Red Eggs & Ginger; Seafood & Tofu Chowder; Braised lobster on a bed of noodles (now, this was a delicious dish and I'm glad I didn't miss any lobster chomping and noodle slurping time by snapping photos!  Heh heh heh!);

Sweet and Sour Sea Bass Fillets;

Steamed chicken with Ginger and Spring Onion;

Yam coated Prawns (yummy!);

Seafood Rice;

Stir-fried Scallop and Asparagus in Noodle Nest;

Braised Chinese Mushrooms with Pak Choi

and Pork fillets in Chinese Style Sauce;

Dessert was a platter of Ice-Cream, Mango Pudding and Toffee coated Banana Fritters.  I also made two sponge cakes.  One was an Orange Sponge filled with white-flesh nectarine and mango cream, topped with a mango rose and strawberry starflower.  The other was a chocolate chiffon with a filling of berry cream and finished with blackberry, strawberry and blueberry.

Mango Rose & Strawberry Starflower

Berry Nice Chiffon

It was a fabulous afternoon which went quickly in the company of good friends and family.  It was worth the past two weeks of stressing over guest lists and seating plans and the nervousness of decorating the cakes the night before the event!

Mya & Minh

Lastly, I got the most beautiful gift from my husband, a pair of diamond encrusted entwined heart earrings, and 18 long-stemmed red roses.  My gift to him?  A beautiful baby boy!

My favourite - Red Roses

Another one of my favourites - Sparkly Things!

Another Birthday Cake!

I made 2 birthday cakes in the space of a week!  The first was a chocolate chiffon, the second, an orange chiffon with fruit and cream.

My manager at work has reached a milestone birthday and asked if I would make a cake for the occasion.  I had every intention of making one anyway, but he insisted that he would pay me to make the cake!  Well, I couldn't say "N-o-o" could I?  It was so that it could be eaten at work with fellow colleagues. 

This is the creation I came up with....

It's an orange flavoured chiffon with 3 layers.  It has a jam and cream layer, strawberries and cream layer and topped with yet more cream, peaches, kiwi fruit, strawberries and grapes.

Cutting the three layers was a little tricky and it seemed uneven in places but once it was sandwiched up and the sides hidden with cream, white choc shavings and milk chocolate splodges, it was fine!

It was beautifully light and moist and certainly very moreish!  My manager was very pleased with his cake and even had to confiscate it at one point in order for there to be something to take home for his family!

I'm delighted to have come across chiffon recipes and know they make beautifully light, airy, pillow soft cakes that melt in mouth leaving you wanting more!  I'm hoping that I get more requests to make cakes from my work colleagues in the near future!

Birthday Cake!!! Chocolate & Raspberry Cream

Happy Birthday To Me!!!!!

It was my birthday on Saturday and we were away on hols - Cornwall.  We were fortunate to have sun for the duration but if we'd had our way, we would've been soaking up the rays on the sunny mediterranean island of Cyprus.  With the hoo-hah about the volcanic ash cloud having over Europe, we were grounded like the planes.  Luckily we were booked on a package deal and were able to get a full refund.  I was bitterly upset as it was to be my our last holiday abroad for a little while as I am now 25weeks pregnant with our first baby.  I'd even arranged for my mum to have time off with us - she very rarely takes time out from the take-away so it was going to be an extra special holiday too!  Still, we managed to get a break for the duration of the time off we'd booked from work so it wasn't all bad.

However, on my return to work, I'd promised to bring in a joint birthday cake as it was my birthday on Saturday, and a colleague's on Monday.  I'd decided it was going to be a chocolate chiffon filled with raspberry cream.

I was really pleased with the outcome as I wasn't confident a chiffon cake would rise properly in a non-stick cake pan that didn't have a central tube for the cake batter to cling on up.  It rose well and even stayed in the pan during cooling.  The raspberry cream was a bit on the soft side as I should have beaten it to stiff peaks before folding the raspberry puree through it.  It wouldn't stiffen further after that point.  Nevertheless, I sandwiched the layers with raspberry jam and the raspberry cream.  It was topped with more raspberry cream and decorated with raspberries.

It was devoured by my work colleagues and I even managed to get a slice myself -as well as making sure I took a wedge home for my hubby! ;0)

It's a fantastic recipe and the result is a very light cake with plenty of bubbles and is moist too! 

I'm busy baking again in the kitchen today as it's my manager's milestone birthday tomorrow and he's asked me to make a cake for work!  I'm baking an orange chiffon and it will be decorated with cream and fresh fruit.

Fresh Fruit Birthday Cake

I also made the cake for the birthday party.  I baked a mandarin chiffon cake topped with vanilla cream and fresh fruit.

The cake was sliced into three layers and had fresh pineapple compote in the bottom layer and mango cream.  It was topped off with more cream and decorated with fresh pineapple; nectarine; kiwi fruit; mango strawberry; blueberry and finally a mandarin glaze! 

Cake decoration and assembly did take quite a while I can tell you!  Doubt if patisserie shops would be as slow as me!  If did cause a sensation at the party and I'm glad to say it was all eaten!