Easy Butter Fruit Cake

Just an addition to the normal plain fruit cake that I have shared previously. It gives the cake a bit sophisticated fruity flavour rather than plain butter cake. Toss some dried fruit of your choice and make your own fruit cake in no time and everyone gonna love it :-)

Ingredients:

250 grams Unsalted butter, softened
225 grams Cake flour
225 grams Sugar
1 1/4 cup Dried mixed fruits (I used raisins, glace cherries, orange peel and sultanas)
5 Eggs
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3/4 tsp Salt

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC. Grease and line a 8" round cake tin.

Sift together cake flour (leaving 1 tbsp to coat the dried mixed fruits), salt and baking powder. Using a balloon whisk, simply stir to combine.

Cream the softened butter until it is creamy. Add in sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Once it is done, add in the eggs, one at a time and mixed well after each addition to prevent the mixture from curdle.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches. Fold well after each batch. Add in the mixed fruits and fold to combine.

Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and lightly swirl the tin in circular motion to evenly distribute the cake batter in the tin. Lightly tap the tin on the table to get rid of large air bubble trap inside the batter.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes and turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool. This cake is best served warm.

Butter Bread Pudding

Having a lot left-over bread? Why not turn it into something simple yet delicious treat for the family on weekend.

Ingredients:

6     slices     Day-old bread (left-over bread)
30   grams    Butter, melted
100 grams    Raisins (you may use a mixed dried fruits or any other dried fruit you prefer)
4                   Eggs, beaten
500 ml          Milk
150 grams    Caster sugar
1     tsp         Ground cinnamon
1     tsp         Ground nutmeg (optional)
1     tsp         Vanilla extract

How to do it?

Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC. Lightly grease a 8" loaf tin.

Cut the bread into small pieces. Put the bread in the loaf tin and drizzle over the melted butter. Sprinkle in the raisins. Toss to combine.

In a mixing bowl, combine beaten eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour it over the bread and lightly press down the bread with a spatula or fork until the bread is covered with the mixture. Leave for 3 - 5 minutes for the bread to soak up the liquid mixture.

Bake the pudding in the oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

This pudding best serve warm.

:-)

Pandan (Screwpine) Chiffon Cake

This cake really gives me a hard time to perfect it. I have tried this cake many times before  I am able to perfect this cake. The first time  I made it, boy - it don't even look like a chiffon cake or cake alike texture after all. It is more like a bake pandan pudding.

I tried to look for the recipe online for this but non turn out to the result that I wanted. After many failures, I am able to fixed the problem and comes out with my own recipe.

Try my recipe if you are like me struggling to get the right pandan cake.

Ingredients:

(A) Pandan batter

225 grams         Cake flour, sifted
250 grams         Caster sugar
1     tbsp            Baking powder
1/2  tsp              Salt
2     tbsp            Pandan juice (blend 5 pandan leave and 2 tbsp of water)
1     tsp              Pandan paste
6                       Egg yolk
150 ml              Coconut milk
120 ml              Vegetable oil (I use corn oil)

(B) Egg whites

7                        Egg whites
50  grams          Caster sugar
3/4 tsp               Cream of tartar (or white vinegar)

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 170ºC. You will need a 10" tube pan (ungreased) for this  recipe.

In a mixing bowl, combined flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a balloon whisk, whisk every to combine. After that, make a well in the centre. To the well, add in egg yolks, oil, coconut milk, pandan juice and pandan paste. Beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth and combine. It should only take 1-2 minutes.

Using separate clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed until it is foamy. Add in the cream of tartar and continue to beat until it form soft peaks. Gradually, add in the sugar slowly and beat until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites formed stiff peaks.

Using a large spatula, fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the pandan batter to lighten the batter. Add in the remaining egg whites and fold gently. Do it gently if not your cake batter will deflate.

Pour the combined batter into the tube pan and bake for 50 - 60 minutes until the skewer comes out clean when inserted and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Invert the cake immediate once it is come out of the oven. Let the cake cooled completely before removing from the pan.

Notes:

To test whether the sugar has dissolved in your eggs whites,  simple place a little egg whites on to your thumb and rub it against you index finger. It should not feel grainy. If it does,  you might need to beat it for another moment.

Do not open your oven once the batter put in. Only open after at least 45 minutes.

Mix the batter as gently as possible so as not to deflate the air bubble inside the batter.

If you can not find fresh pandan leave, use 2 tsp of pandan paste and add another 30 ml of coconut milk to the mixture.

Happy baking :-) You will not regret this..... If you can further improve this recipe please share with me....

 

Butter Cake

A simple yet delicious afternoon tea treat. The best part of all, its easy to make.

Ingredients:

250 grams          Unsalted butter, softened
225 grams          Cake flour
225 grams          Sugar
5                         Eggs
1 tsp                   Baking powder
1 tsp                   Vanilla extract
3/4 tsp                Salt

How to do it?

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC. Grease and line a 8" round cake tin.

Sift together cake flour, salt and baking powder. Using a balloon whisk, simply stir to combine.

Cream the softened butter until it is creamy. Add in sugar and continue  to beat until light and fluffy. Once it is done, add in the eggs, one at a time and mixed well after each addition to prevent the mixture from curdle.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches. Fold well after each batch.

Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and lightly swirl the tin in circular motion to evenly distribute  the cake batter in the tin. Lightly tap the tin on the table to get rid of large air bubble trap inside the batter.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes and turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool. This cake is best served warm.

Try it!! You gonna love this :-)

Rich Fruit Cake Recipe - Christmas Fruit Cake

This is cake is very rich and flavourful. The taste and smells of the fruits, spices  and alcohol really make this cake a must have during festive season. This can be store for months and the tastes improved as it aged therefore you can make this cake a month or two ahead.

Ingredients:

(A) Dried Fruits & Nuts

250 grams          Raisins
150 grams          Sultanas
150 grams          Apricots, chopped
85   grams          Cranberries
85   grams          Dates
70   grams          Orange peel
70   grams          Glacé cherries, chopped
60   grams          Blanched almond strips
50   grams          Glacé ginger

(B) Soaking Liquid

2 teabag (2 g each)   Earl grey tea
2 cup boiling water
4 tbsp dark rum / sherry / brandy, plus extra for flavouring

(C) Cake batter

227 grams          Unsalted butter, room temperature
227 grams          Muscovado sugar (molasses sugar)
202 grams          Plain Flour
4                         Eggs
1 tsp                   Ground mixed spice

How to do it?

Immerse 2 teabags of Earl Grey in a hot boiling water for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, put all the dried fruits in a mixing bowl except the almonds. Mixed well. Pour the tea over the mixed dried fruits and let it cool. Once cooled, put the dried fruit mixture in fridge cover with cling film and let it to soak overnight.

The next day, strain the mixed fruit and reserve the excess liquid. Put the mixed fruit in to the bowl and drizzle in 4 tbsp of liquor (you may skip this step if you like non-alcohol cake). Mix well and let it sit in the bowl for at least 6 hours, overnight is preferable.

Preheat the oven to 140ºC. Grease and line a round deep 8" cake tin.

To make the cake batter, sift  together plain flour and ground mixed spice in a clean and dry mixing bowl. Mix well.

In another large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric hand mixer. Slowly, add in the eggs, one at a time, mix well after each addition. Slowly fold in the flour mixture and mix well. Stir in all the dried fruits, nuts and 1 tbsp of reserved liquid and stir slowly and everything is well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the surface, making a  slight depression in the centre with the back of the spoon.

Bake in preheated oven for 2 - 2 3/4 hours, or until the cake is beginning to shrink away from the sides and skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool completely in the tin.

Turn out the cake and remove the lining paper. To add richer flavour, prick the cake with a skewer and drizzle more liquor over. Wrap in greaseproof  paper, and store for at least one to two month before use. Check the cake every two weeks and add few teaspoons of liquor if the cake is dry.

Notes:

You may differ the fruits mixtures proportions according to your taste.

If you cannot find muscovado/molasses sugar, use soft brown sugar instead.

If you unable to find mixed spice, make it on your own. All you need is ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and ground clove. Use ratio 2:1:1.

If your cake brown quickly on the top, try cover it with aluminum foil. Depend on the size of your oven, you may need to vary your oven slightly. The temperature given above is base on the oven with the capacity of 50L. If you have bigger oven,  you may increase the oven temperature to
150ºC.

Instead of drizzling liquor, you may soak a cheese cloth with  liquor and wrap it on the cake before storing.

Happy Baking :-)