Swiss Roll (filled with cream and fresh fruit)

I don't make Swiss Rolls because I am awful at them.  My late Grandfather (mum's side) was a baker and would make Swiss Rolls filled with Buttercream and sell them to the local Chinese Supermarket.  When he came to visit us I would love to watch him whip eggs sugar and flour into fluffy creations.  I did not possess his skills.

Determined not to resort to a shop-bought cake for hubb's (Mr Leaf) birthday, I was trying to come up with a cake that wouldn't be too sweet or too large.  Whilst internet browsing I came across a Raspberry Swiss Roll recipe by one of my favourite chefs James Martin.  I had intended to make this at my mother's yesterday (hubb's actual birthday) but was too busy.  So I set to work in the kitchen today.

I was pleased with the outcome as it did not crack or split on rolling :)  I didn't see bubbles of flour on the base of the swiss roll (as in previous efforts).  I hope my Grandad would be proud of me :)

My mum has raspberry bushes in her garden and they are in season now - I was going to put fresh raspberries in the filling with the cream but seeing as I forgot to pick any to take home I had to rumble in the fridge to see what we had.  This Swiss Roll is filled with Homemade Raspberry Jam, Vanilla Cream, White peach and Mango.

The sponge for the swiss roll is simple, just 3 ingredients; eggs, caster sugar and self-raising flour.  It's very light and spongy but is fat-free so does not keep well.  It is not as moist and pillowy as a chiffon either - makes the addition of cream and fruit seem less guilty! Heh Heh Heh!

Recipe for the Swiss Roll is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/raspberry_swiss_roll_08757

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.

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!

We're Jammin', We're Jammin'.....

Have been meaning to make jam for a week now....

I  bought a mango a week or so ago and it was a bit firm although the sticker said 'Ripe and Ready', I asked hubbs whether I should cut it up for our fresh fruit dessert.  I did.  It was hard.  Tasted sour.  Not ripe.  Knew I should've trusted my nose and instincts.  Usually I would give the fruit a gentle squeeze in my palm and it should yield a little.  Next a sniff test.  Does it smell aromatic?  Yes?  Well it's ready! 

Well, what was I going to do now with an unripe mango? 

"Stir-fry it." Hubbs says. 

"Yuk!"  I say.  "I'm not into having fruits cooked with meat for stir-fry."  I have eaten kiwi with chicken and stir-fry beef with mango and it's not really my cup of tea.  Don't mind pineapple in a good ol' sweet and sour dish though! :0p

"Turn it into jam then."  Hubbs final suggestion.  Sounded good at the time.

So, it took me a week (or two) to finally get round to making the jam.  I saw 2 punnets of apricots on discount at the supermarket and bought those thinking apricot and mango sound divine!  Thought my sad little mango probably wouldn't be enough so  bought a cheap small one to join it. 

When it came to making the jam yesterday, my unripe mango (sitting sadly naked in the fridge - well, it was peeled and had nothing but clear cling film to shield it's modesty!) was beginning to look a little brown and squishy in places.  I cut the unsightly portions off and proceeded to sample the fruit.  Still did not taste good.  Still sour and now a nasty aftertaste (mango prob past its best).  OK, bin time for the poor mango!

Despite that, I prepared the apricots and the cheap mango.  Oh, note to self, cheap mango means it's the fibrous kind.  The one with more fibres round the central stone than flesh!  (Smells good though!)  Hmm...could do with more fruit?  I raided the fridge to see what else I could find.  I found a ripe peach and a few cherries.  What do I call the jam now?  Will think on this one.

The jam smelt so delicious when it was being made!  Such a rich, intoxicating aroma!  That is the best bit about jam making!  The taste?  It gave my tongue a punch full of fruit flavour!  Other jam successes have been raspberry jam made from raspberries picked from my mum's garden.  Once you've tasted home-made raspberry jam you'll be sorely disappointed in the supermarket offerings!  Blackberry is not such a hit (picked from local hedgerows so free food! Yay!), lacks the full fruity flavour - just offers a sweetness about it and more seeds than raspberries.  I made plum jam too earlier this year from cheap plums from Aldi.  Again, the fruit is sweet but lacks a depth of flavour.  I guess the secret might lie in using fruit which is rich and aromatic in flavour.  Saw some British Strawberries in Asda's yesterday.  They smell and taste delicious.  Would be tempted to jam these too if I hadn't used up my empty jam-jar collection!

Love the fabulous colour from my "Summer Fruit Jam" - Apricot with Mango, Peach and Cherry.  Sounds like a fairly accurate description? 

This batch of jam was largely made with little measuring.  My rule is usually 500g fruit plus 500g sugar equals jam - I got this from reading somewhere on the internet and followed this basis for raspberry jam I used granulated sugar so had to add 2 teaspoons of powdered pectin (helps the jam to set.).

Recipe

1085g prepared fruit (I used apricots - 14, cut into 1/8, stone removed; 1 peach, cut into 1/16, stone removed; 1 mango, flesh chopped, stone discarded; around 20 cherries, quartered and pitted)

1000g of jam sugar (has added pectin and is suitable for soft fruits such as strawberries, peaches...)

Juice of half a lemon

knob of butter

Method

I placed the chopped fruit and sugar in a large saucepan and added half a cup of water (maybe I shouldn't have added this?) to help the sugar dissolve.  I warmed the mixture gently over a low flame stirring to get the sugar to fully dissolve.  I also added the juice of half a lemon to improve the flavour.  I've found when doing this when making raspberry jam it prevents it from just being sweet, but have a very slight sharpness to it which makes it moreish.

When I was sure the sugar was dissolved (this is very important because if there are undissolved sugar crystals, they will stick and burn on the bottom of the pan when you do the next stage - boiling), I turned up the flame and let the mixture come to a rolling boil (that won't go down when stirred).  Careful!  Use a large pan to make the jam as boiling hot sugar is very hot and can scald!  Boiling jam does spit too!

Boil for 4-5 minutes.  Take pan off heat and put a teaspoon of jam onto a cold saucer (I put a saucer in the freezer when I start jam-making.)  Leave for a minute then push the cooled jam with your finger.  If the jam wrinkles, the jam is ready.  Add a small knob of butter to the jam and stir in.  It helps get rid of the bubbles in the jam so you get a clearer jam in the jar.  Leave the jam to cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before filling the jars - you don't want the glass to shatter!  Pour the jam into warmed sterilised jars.  To sterilise jars, wash in hot soapy water and rinse.  Place upside down in a low oven to dry.  Careful when handling as the jars will be hot out of the oven and also after being filled with hot jam.

I've given a jar to my mum as there's only so much jam 2 people can eat!  Only thing is, this morning, I've discovered the jam is rather soft-set and looking a bit runny in the jars.  Maybe as a result of adding water to the fruit and sugar mix?  I will have to re-boil the jam for 1-2 minutes and do the saucer test again.  Which is strange as I thought it was fine?  Odd thing is I have a ramekin of jam (all jars were filled) and this seems to have set fine?  I will just have to have some jam and toast and sample it!

Mmmm...!  It's surprisingly good!  An intense fruity hit of apricot and peach which is pleasantly sweet and tangy without the sweet sickliness of store-bought apricot jam.  I think the golden orange hue comes from the cherries I added!  :0)  I think this would delicious on warm buttery scones or even a simple swiss roll.  I'm pleased with this batch of jam!

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!