Strawberry Charlotte with Mixed Fruits

To Y's Por Por



I have now become the official cake provider to Y's family. Today is the birthday of Y's granny (por por). Por por is the most bubbly, cheerful and welcoming elderly person I have ever met: she likes going out; she likes joking and she likes teasing Y and me every time we visit her! I came up with the idea of making a charlotte because I felt this is the sunniest cake to make for the sunniest granny! This cake, was made on behalf of all her 7 children, hence the word 'mom' on the cake.

As you can see, the ladyfingers (Savoiardi) around the rim look very untidy. I have already tried my best but ladyfingers are delicate little babies that are extremely difficult to make. Next time I think I would use shop bought ones...

(P.S. regarding the last post, I realise one comment has gone missing after I moderated it...dunno why...)

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
For the ladyfinger biscuits

1. 4 eggs, separated
2. 50g + 50g caster sugar
3. 60g plain flour
4. 40g cornflour

For the sponge

1. 175g margarine (I used Stork)
2. 175g caster sugar
3. 175g self-raising flour
4. 3 eggs, beaten
5. 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the strawberry mousse

1. 330g strawberries
2. 4 tablespoons sugar
3. 12g gelatine leaves
4. 300g double cream
5. 2 tablespoons icing sugar

Method:

• For this cake, you will need a 8' inch springform cake tin and two 7' inch cake tins.
• To make the ladyfingers: Preheat the oven to 200c and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. You should draw lines on the other side of the parchment paper so that you can pipe uniform ladyfingers (about 4 inch long) easily. Use an electric mixer to beat egg yolks with 50g of sugar until thick and pale yellow in a mixer bowl(about 5 minutes). Transfer the egg yolks and sugar mixture to another bowl and sieve plain flour and cornflour onto the mixture. Do not fold at this stage. Wash the mixer bowl and beaters thoroughly. Then put in the egg whites in the clean, dry mixer bowl and whip on low speed setting until foamy. Use a medium-high setting to whip the whites while add in the remaining 50g of sugar in 3 additions. Whip until stiff peaks form. Pour the whites into the egg yolk and flour mixture, again in 3 additions while folding very lightly. Stop when the batter is just incorporated. DO NOT OVER-FOLD. Put the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter onto the parchment. Bake for 10 minutes or until the ladyfingers are slightly browned. Take out the baking trays and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove the ladyfingers from the parchment while they are still warm. Let them cool completely on a baking tray.
• To make the sponge: Preheat oven to 180c. Line 2 7 inch cake tins and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a large bowl, put in margarine, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder and use a hand whisk until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour the batter into the 2 tins, spreading evenly. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool cakes on wire racks for 10 minutes. Turn out the cakes carefully and use a cake leveler or a serrated knife to trim the top of the sponge slices.
• To make the strawberry mousse: Soak the gelatine leaf in some cold water for 5 minutes. Whizz the strawberries in a food processor until it becomes puree. In a pan on medium heat, put in the puree and the sugar and let it come to a boil. Remove from heat and add in the softened gelatine (drain the gelatine and discard the water). Stir until the gelatine is dissolved. Leave aside to cool. In another bowl, whip the doublecream and icing sugar until peaks form. Fold the cooled puree mixture into the doublecream.
• To assemble the cake: Put an 8' inch springform tin (just the ring, not the base) on a cardboard circle. Line parchment paper around the ring (I stapled the ends of parchment paper so that they form a circle around the cake ring). Then, line the ladyfingers carefully around the cake ring. Place one layer of the sponge cake at the bottom, then pour in 1/2 or 2/3 of the strawberry mousse. Put the cake in the fridge to set for 30 minutes. Take out and put on a second layer of sponge cake. Then pour another layer of strawberry mousse on top (you may want to pour all in, but I prefer a thinner layer of mousse on top). Again, put in the fridge to set. Remove the springform ring carefully while the parchment is still holding the cake. Take a big ribbon to tie around the cake while you remove the parchment. Decorate the cake with fruits.

Birthday brownies

To the July birthday stars: Alice, Christine, Eric, Jenny, Judy, Sze Wing and Pik To

Happy birthday! With this post you can claim a dozen of brownies from me if you drop by London...hehe...

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients:

1. 200g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 68% dark chocolate)
2. 175g unsalted butter
3. 300g caster sugar
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
5. 120g plain flour
6. 3 large eggs

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170c and place a piece of parchment paper on the 33 x 23 x 5 cm baking tray. Grease the sides of the tray.
• Roughly chop the chocolate and the butter and put in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (be careful: don't let the base of the bowl touch the water) until fully melted. Remove the bowl and let cool.
• Add sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir well.
• Sieve in flour and fold until fully incorporated.
• Finally fold in all the eggs and the vanilla mixture.
• Pour the brownie mixture on the prepared baking tray and bake for 30 minutes. By then, the top should set but the centre is still soft.
• Take the whole tray out to cool. Cut into 12 slices when the brownie are still warm. When the brownies are completely cooled, dust with icing sugar to decorate.

Labour of Love

I have to admit I don't cook much these days: Y's father is back so is his good food! yoohoo! So, this time I don't have a recipe to share but I can share with you a story of Y and his mistresses. A few months ago, Y has started seeing his mistresses. First thing in the morning he goes out to visit them; first thing when he comes back from work he visits them...and sometimes in the weekend, he visits them once every 2 hours!!! You can see how much TLC (tender loving care) he has put in these beauties... So let me introduce to you the MISTRESSES...

Tomatoes. His favourite mistress, obviously... Not quite ready to eat yet, but seeing them grow in size makes Y very happy. 'Look, it has grown larger today!'

Potatoes. You can just see the green shoots of the potatoes. We tried digging the spuds out last month, but they were like so tiny to be eaten... So we will wait until September.

Spring onions. Still small but they proved very handy two days ago when Y's father forgot to buy spring onions for the lobster noodle...

Sage and rosemary. Still at their baby stages, takes forever to grow...

Basil. Their tender fragrant leaves are sooooo much better than the shop-bought basil plant!

Salad leaves. It was the quickest to grow among all plants we had... We just had 3 little pots, so there was never enough to make a salad...well but as garnish they do their job properly. Sadly they have flowered and look pretty dull now. This is a picture taken when they were first picked...

Golden Prawns

To Y who dubbed this as his no.1 favourite dish

The person who invented this dish is a genius - there is no higher cholesterol food than this (LOL!) But yet, the tastiness of this far surpasses any fear for the cholesterol level, and let's be frank, we are not having this every week or even every month, so I don't think it's gonna harm our health as such.

Ingredients:

1. 4 very big king prawns
2. 3 salted duck egg yolks
3. 1 tablespoon xiaoshing wine
4. 1 teaspoon salt plus more for washing the prawns
5. 2 + 2 tablespoons oil
6. Chopped coriander/spring onion, to garnish

Method:

• Separate 3 salted duck eggs into whites and yolks. Place the yolks on a shallow dish and steam for about 15 minutes or until fully cooked. Mash the yolks with a fork and leave to cool. The whites can be used in other dishes or add to Chinese soups to enhance flavour.
• Devein and trim the prawns while keeping the shells intact. Put the prawns under running tap while take some salt in your hand to 'wash' the prawns. Drain and put in a dish. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt to marinate the prawns for 10 minutes.
• In a hot wok/frying pan, use 2 tablespoons of oil to fry the prawns until they are 80% cooked. Take out the prawns and clean the wok/frying pan.
• Again, heat up the wok/frying pan and put in 2 tablespoons of oil. Add in the mashed yolks and use a spatula to stir diligently. When the mashed yolks are foaming, add in the prawns and stir for about 1 minute. Then, add wine (pour it around the rim of the wok/frying pan) and stir for another 1 minute. Plate up and garnish with coriander/spring onion.
  

Mini Peach cakes

To Enoch

This, when eaten cold, reminds me of Sara Lee frozen pound cake. I had fond memories of eating Sara Lee pound cake for breakfast when I was little... I am sure my brother has this kind of nostalgia too - he buys Sara Lee for breakfast whenever my parents are holidaying!

Makes 15

Ingredients:

1. 70g plain flour
2. 30g cornflour
3. 4 eggs, separated
4. 70g +40g sugar
5. 50g butter, at room temperature
6. 140g double cream
7. 1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
8. zest from 1 lemon
9. peach slices
10. apricot jam to glaze

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c.
• Mix plain flour and cornflour and sieve for 3 times. Set aside.
• In a bowl, whisk the 4 egg yolks and 70g of sugar together until pale and thick.
• Add butter to the bowl and whisk well.
• Microwave the doublecream for 20 seconds and add it into the bowl together with lemon juice and zest.
• In a separate bowl (make sure it's squeaky clean), whisk the 4 egg whites and 40g of sugar until stiff peaks form.
• Fold in the beaten whites with the yolks and flour mixtures. Fold lightly until just combined.
• Fill fairy cake cases with the mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Take out the cakes to cool on wire rack.
• In the meantime, place a slice of peach on top and brush apricot jam to glaze.