My favourite recipes at the moment are those by Momofuku Milk Bar. I love their confetti birthday cake, the very cake which inspired me to come up with the Oreo Red Velvet Cake. Needless to say, when I was asked to bake a cake for my mum's birthday, I chose a recipe by Momofuku Milk Bar.
Apple pie cake is a safe choice since everybody enjoys an apple pie once in a while. This cake incorporates apple pie filling and half-baked cheesecake as the filling to the layer cake. You won't miss out on the crunch of the pie crust as pie crumbs are used in the filling and to top the cake. It's really an apple pie converted to a cake. It's genius!
It really isn't that troublesome to bake a Momofuku Milk Bar layer cake. Although their cake recipes require things like sheet pan, acetate sheet and 6" cake ring, you really don't need to go all out to buy those things to make one of their cakes. Firstly, the filling is thick and sturdy enough not to flow down the side of the cake even if you were to just spread the filling without the cake ring and acetate sheet. Secondly, I personally don't like my cake to be too tall. With the cake so tall, you'll only need a small wedge for one serving, especially for Momofuku type of cake which you can't eat a lot because it's so rich and sweet. It becomes problematic when you want to cut a high cake into small wedges. It doesn't stand. Everything just falls out into one big mess. I find that up sizing the pans to 7" or 8" gives you the best size and height for the cake. I bake mine in round cake pans rather than in a sheet pan.
I would never think of Oreo and red velvet as a good combination but some people commented on how their friends and family were raving about the red velvet cake with Oreo cream cheese frosting they've made. I shouldn't shut the door in the face of new things since experimenting with different and totally unexpected combination of flavours is necessary for creative growth. It shouldn't be so bad, after all, the experts at Kraft did produce a limited edition red velvet Oreo cookie. I think it's genius because, if you notice, red velvet doesn't have much flavour. It's basically a red cake with a little cocoa powder. So Oreo will be a breath of fresh air to plain old red velvet.
I'm baking this red velvet because it's a special request from a friend. I've been baking so many red velvet and it's quite off putting to be baking yet another red velvet cake, but I also didn't want to give her a different cake when she was clearly looking forward to a slice of red velvet. This spruced up red velvet would be a nice halfway point. It's always nice to be baking something for someone, makes it more meaningful.
I didn't want this red velvet to be just another red velvet with Oreo frosting. There must be something more to make it special. I'm still in my "Momofuku Milk Bar phase" so I thought why not do a Milk Bar inspired red velvet cake?
The construction of the cake involves making cookie crumbs from Oreo, buttercream frosting for the top of the cake and half-bake a cheesecake for the filling. And, just for fun, mix chocolate sprinkles in the cake batter before baking.
I have never made a pumpkin pie before. It is not something that is popular on this side of the world. We have pumpkin dishes but it's not something that people would make into a dessert here, which is strange because we use yam and sweet potato which have a similar texture to pumpkin in our local dessert, bubur cha cha.
This pumpkin pie is super easy to make and I was surprised how delicious it turned out even though it's my first time making a pumpkin pie.
I love the creamy and sweet taste of pumpkin. It tastes great whether as a savoury dish or made into a dessert.
Though pumpkin pie is commonly eaten during Thanksgiving in North America, it would make a nice Christmas dessert as well. Don't you think cinnamon and ginger taste very christmassy?
It's that time of the year. It really isn't Christmas without mince pie. I always have a mince pie or two when Christmas is near. It's something I picked up while studying in the UK and it stuck ever since. This year I decided to bake my own. Home made pies always taste great because you get to use as much butter as you want and control what goes into the pies. These mince pies are rich and buttery and filled with boozy fruits. Go ahead, tis the season to indulge.
I used store bought mixed fruits for the "mince meat" (it's called mince meat even though there's no meat in the filling -_-). If you're up for it, make your own mince meat. I think Mary Berry's or David Lebovit's recipes are good. Traditionally, suet ( pork fat) is used to make the filling. If you can't find suet, don't sweat, just use butter. These mince pies are super easy to make.
Birthdays to me are reminiscent of butter cake filled with cheap vanilla buttercream frosting. Back in the days, that was the kind of cake we got from the bakery to celebrate birthdays at home. This Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake is exactly what birthdays taste like to me. The first bite I took really brought back old memories of birthday celebrations when we were still kids. We used to have some friends over for home cooked noodles, red eggs and chicken nuggets, and after hours of video games, we would get bored and it was time to sing the birthday song and cut the cake. The fun filled celebration always ends with a sweet note with a slice of creamy birthday cake for everyone.
My "baked main course challenge" would have to take a back seat for awhile to accommodate my current obsession with red velvet cake. Earlier, I baked a red velvet from a recipe by the man who came up with the "best ever red velvet cake", Cake Man Raven, but I found the cake to be very oily. I thought that I would not bother baking another red velvet again but I was wrong. Clearly, there is something intriguing about its taste. I tried three different recipes in order to come up with the red velvet that I like, one that is light and fluffy compared to the usual red velvet which is dense and has fine crumbs. For the third recipe, I use two different frosting and that explains the four cakes above.
If my hubby sees an interesting cooking video on youtube he will share it with me. Just the other day he showed me a video on how to make scotch eggs by Cooking With Dog. If you haven't heard already, CWD is a popular Japanese cuisine cooking show on youtube hosted by a grey talking poodle, Francis. He sits on the table next to the portable stove and narrate the cooking instructions in a funny but adorable accent. All the cooking is done by a pleasant looking Japanese lady known as Chef.
I've tried the dorayaki recipe from Cooking With Dog and it was a flop so I was a bit skeptical when it came to trying another recipe by them. But the scotch eggs look so good and I just had to have a go at it. If the recipe is good then it would be a keeper, if it's not then the eggs will end up in the bin. What's the worst that could happen, right?
It's almost midnight, you're already in your pjs and you're craving for Doritos. You go downstairs to your kitchen to look for a snack to satisfy your cheese cravings. You open your pantry. No Doritos in sight, but you see a box of cornmeal. You knew from preparing the club sandwich this afternoon that there is leftover mature cheddar in the fridge. What do you do?
Being the little Masterchef you are, you decide to bake some cheese muffins to munch which could double as breakfast the next morning. Without further ado, you pulled out the Sweet Chilli Cheese Muffin recipe from mum's recipe box.
Being a lover of white chocolate and strawberries, I wanted to come up with not just a good, but a great white chocolate and strawberry muffin recipe. I won't say I'm there yet but this muffin recipe which is adapted from Bouchon Bakery blueberry muffins is definitely a keeper.
If you have not tried making Bouchon blueberry muffins, you absolutely must try this weekend. It is the best muffin recipe. This recipe is perfect if you prefer your cake light and fluffy compared to denser fine crumbed cakes. If you want a different flavour, try my version which uses the same basic cake recipe but with strawberries and white chocolate.
There will
be a temporary shift of direction in the type of food I bake as I will be
baking/cooking food to pack to work. This means you'll be seeing a lot more posts on savoury baked goods.
If you're sick of having leftover dinner for tomorrow's lunch, I suggest you jump on the bandwagon and start preparing tasty little baked treats for lunch at work. It's fun to plan a menu and workday lunch can never be as satisfying as enjoying your own tasty creation in your office pantry. If you have other people living with you, such as family or housemates, share your creations with them. Nothing like putting a smile on their faces and reminding them of what a sweetheart you are when they open up their lunch boxes.
It will be a challenge to look for main courses to bake. The first baked main that comes to mind is quiche. So here's the curry quiche recipe I made to kick start my "baked main course challenge".
