Apple pie: go homemade, or go home.

Happy Sunday, everyone! I'm feeling quite sedate at the moment, owing to the fact that I did the City2Surf this morning! 14. freaking. kilometres. With 2 kilometres of continuous ascent up 'Heartbreak Hill' *faints*. I think the few slices of apple pie I had last night won't cause too much damage in the waistline department, wouldn't you agree?

Apple pie is one of my favourite desserts, and despite what the title of this post may suggest, I'm no pie-snob. I'm a sucker for all kinds of apple pie. The one from the Golden Arches with the thin, tacky crust and the gluey insides? Love it. The pre-made, frozen ones that go all soggy when you reheat it at home? Love those too. I haven't had the privilege of trying the sky-high 'pie that ate Newtown' version from The Pie Tin, but just looking at pictures of it is enough to elicit a Pavlovian flood of drool outta me. 

When it comes to pies, the thing which people seem to obsess over is the crust. More specifically, that it be "flaky". Personally, I don't mind a doughy or soggy crust on a meat pie, but when it comes to dessert pies, I like a crumbly, buttery, so-flaky-it-shatters crust as much as the next pie enthusiast. 

I do believe I've mastered the art of the flaky pie crust with this apple pie. The bakers out there would have heard this a million times, but for those who are looking to make the pie crust from scratch for the very first time - here are a few pointers for the perfect, flaky pie crust:

1. Keep the butter COLD. I took mine out of the fridge right before I incorporated into the dough. It's probably easier to use a food processor to "cut" the butter into the flour, but I just used my fingers to rub it in. Cold fingers help! Or just use one of them fancy hand-held pastry cutters.

2. Do not overwork the dough! After you add in the water, you will need to knead the dough slightly get it all into one heap, but kneading it too much isn't a good idea because it 1) encourages gluten formation, which will make your crust hard and tacky and 2) all the handling will make those precious lumps of butter in the dough melt, which leads to my next point...

3. Visible lumps of butter in the dough is good! It means that, when you bake it, the butter will melt and leave distinct layers of pastry behind (manifesting as the "flakes"). 

4. Lastly, adding in a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar per pie crust helps to prevent gluten formation. You learn something new everyday.

For the pie filling, I forwent the usual Granny Smiths and opted for Fujis instead, as we have a whole box of those to get through from when we visited the Flemington Markets a fortnight ago. Contrary to popular belief, those are not too sweet to use in an apple pie. If an overly sweet pie filling is what you're worried about, simply add less sugar to it. The Fujis yielded a good texture once baked - soft, but not mushy. I used Joy the Baker's recipe for the filling (I love her site!), and it turned out great. 

I had to roll my pastry out very thinly because the recipe I used was for an open-faced pie (should have thought of that beforehand!), but I managed to get everything sealed, and even put some decorative markings along the sides. The love heart cut-out ended up looking apple-shaped by the time it was done baking, which is just as well! :D

Classic Apple Pie, with the perfect flaky crust

Makes one 29cm pie

Ingredients

For the pie crust: (adapted from The Purple Foodie)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons white granulated sugar

170g cold butter, cut into 2cm cubes
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup ice water

1 egg yolk (to glaze the crust)

For the pie filling: (adapted from Joy the Baker)

800g apples of the baking variety (Granny Smith, Fuji, Pink Lady, etc,), peeled, cored and cut into 5mm slices

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup white granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Method

1. Start by making the dough for the pie crust. Stir together the flour and sugar. Add the cubes of butter, and using your hands/pastry cutter, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs, with a few odd chunks of butter here and there. Add the apple cider vinegar. Add the water spoonful by spoonful (using your hands to gather together the dough) until the dough forms one cohesive mass.

2. Divide the dough into two pieces: 2/3 of the dough for one piece and 1/3 for the other. Flatten both pieces into discs. Wrap with cling wrap, and put it into the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.

3. To make the pie filling: In a large bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and salt, and stir to mix. Cover the bowl and and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. After that time, there should be a puddle of juices at the bottom of the bowl. Strain the apples (keep the juice!). Put the juice in a small saucepan with the 2 butter, and heat it over medium heat until it starts to boil. Turn down the heat, and let it bubble away until you have about 3/4 the original volume. Take off heat, and set aside.

4. Toss the apples in the cornstarch until well-coated. Pour in the reduced butter and juice mixture. Stir to coat.

5. (You can start this step while the apples are still straining): Take the large dough disc out of the fridge, and roll it out to around 3mm thick. Transfer it into the pie dish, and push the dough into the edges of the dish. Return the dish to the fridge for about 10 minutes.

6. Take the pie dish which has been lined with dough out of the fridge, and pour in the apple filling. Take the smaller dough disc out of the fridge, and roll it out to form the top crust. Cut a hole in the centre, or make a few slits along the sides so that hot air which builds up inside the pie during baking can get out. Drape the top crust over the apple filling, and seal the edges. Use a fork to make some decorative markings. 

7. Cover the unbaked pie loosely with cling wrap, and return to the fridge to chill for an hour.

8. At least 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit). Place the baking rack towards the bottom of the oven. Take the pie out of the fridge, remove the cling wrap cover, and brush the top crust with egg yolk. Place in oven, and bake for 45-50 minutes. Halfway through baking, you may have to cover the top of the pie with a piece of foil to stop it from burning. The pie is done baking when the apples are nice and soft.

9. Remove pie from oven, and allow to cool on a cooling rack for at least 4 hours before serving.

Best Banana Bread recipe!

I love banana bread. Always have, always will! And no matter how many times the health-conscious out there remind me that its sugar and fat content qualify it more as "cake" than any recognisable form of bread, I still prefer to call it by its alliterative moniker.

The humble banana bread has seen me through some stressful times indeed: a particularly taxing day at school (i.e. PD/H/PE classes!) would be incomplete without a trip to the canteen for a thick slice of warm, toasted banana bread. And because calories simply didn't matter when you're a grubby teenager like I was, I would ask for it to be spread with margarine. The margarine (far inferior to butter, but that was what was available) would melt and seep into the airy pores of the fragrant banana bread, and I would savour it bit by bit from the greasy paper bag, breaking pieces off with my fingers.

I unashamedly consider myself to be an expert on banana bread, having eaten and indeed baked so many different versions. I've encountered some truly disgusting permutations (apple sauce! oatmeal! flaxseed!) to an absolute gem like this recipe. I can say with confidence that this is the best banana bread I have ever tasted. No, really, I've made this recipe three times now, and each time it has gone like a flash! And, despite my best of intentions, this banana bread has been the reason why I keep falling off my 'diet'. One taste of it and I'm a goner. I won't scare you with how much of the most recent loaf I ate by myself, but suffice it to say that the only reason I'm holding off on the next loaf is because I'm, er, running out of pants that fit ;D

I should mention that I used coconut oil and macadamia oil to bake this loaf of banana bread. However, I have also made it using only coconut oil. And they've all turned out great. The subtle scent of coconut was present only in the loaf made with purely coconut oil. What I'm saying is that please don't go out of your way to purchase coconut oil especially for this recipe. Any oil will do, and you may even experiment with stronger flavoured oils like hazelnut or olive oil. Do let me know how they turn out :) It's the proportions of ingredients in this recipe that matter.


Best Banana Bread recipe


Adapted from Served with love

Makes one 22cm x 12cm loaf

Ingredients

2 cups mashed bananas (use overripe ones)
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup of oil (I used 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup macadamia oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
3 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper or aluminium foil.

2. Mix together cake flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat together the eggs and sugar until fluffy and a pale yellow in colour. Whisk in the mashed bananas. Sprinkle the baking soda over this mixture and whisk it in.

4. Drizzle in the oil and mix it well into the batter. Whisk in the vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Fold in the flour mixture in three additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined loaf tin and bake for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, checking with a skewer for doneness around 1.5 hours into baking, and every 10 minutes thereafter (since baking times vary with ovens). If you find that the top of the loaf is browning very quickly, you may have to cover it with a piece of foil an hour into baking to stop the top from burning. The banana bread is done baking when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (no wet batter).

6. Remove from oven and cool slightly in tin before cooling completely on a baking rack. For best results, wrap with cling wrap once completely cooled, and let it sit for two days before serving in order to allow flavours to fully develop.

Valentine's Day Madeleines

Facebook was positively a-buzz yesterday with updates about Valentine's Day, with accompanying pictures of impressive arrays of flowers sent by the Significant Other of the owner of the updates. Being my usual competitive self, I parried the onslaught of nauseating expressions of luuurve with photos of these:

That's right, they're Valentine's Day Madeleines! I did start off referring to them as "red velvet Madeleines", but have decided to switch tags since, upon careful consideration, these aren't really "red velvet" as they lack the usual ingredients of cocoa powder. They're still red, though. Clearly!

To be honest, I only made some of the batch red as an after-thought; the real objective was to try out my new Madeleine pan, purchased impulsively during a recent shopping spree in Balmain.

Most of the madeleines were of the natural hue, as I feared that the artificial colouring may turn people off. To get the red colour, I simply dissolved a bit of powdered colouring in water, and added that to the remaining batter.

That's some powerful stuff! Like love. Okay, I'll stop it.

The natural-coloured ones I dusted with a bit of icing sugar, to great effect:

Making these also presented another opportunity to use my beloved, new KitchenAid. As you can see from the picture below, I added lime zest to the madeleine batter. The original recipe called for lemon zest, but I found that the lime flavour went very well with the honey in the batter. And anyway, green zest is fun-ner than yellow zest!

The recipe was for 12 big madeleines, or 72 small ones, but I ended up with enough batter for 15 big ones, meaning that I had to bake the final 3 in a second batch. And, even though I adhered to exactly the same baking times and methods as the first batch, my red madeleines came out browned around the edges. Definitely not as pretty as the first batch:

First batch on the bottom; the more browned, second batch is on the top.

Perhaps it had something to do with temperature adjustment? My oven has been acting up lately. However, regardless of the disparity in visual appeal, all the madeleines had the same, wonderful lime fragrance standing out against the richness of the butter, eggs and honey. The lime and honey combination is a definite winner; I'm excited to apply it to future recipes. Madeleines are best eaten fresh out of the oven, since that is when they're crunchy on the outside but moist within. They do have a tendency to become a bit chewy after cooling completely, but are still great as a snack. My siblings certainly gobbled them up when they came home from school. There almost wasn't enough for me to make a gift package out of them - for my friend, of course, rather than a genuine Valentine xD

Hope those of us with romantic attachments had a great Valentine's Day!

Recipe for Lime & Honey Madeleines

Adapted from From Donuts to Delirium

Makes 12-15 large madeleines

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose/plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

Finely grated zest of 2 small limes

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Red food colouring (dissolve in few drops of water if in powder form): Optional

Confectioners'/icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer or hand mixer to whisk together the eggs, honey, white and brown sugar, and lime zest. 

The eggs, honey, white and brown sugar, and lime zest

3. Beat until mixture is creamy and light in colour. Add the dry ingredients from step 1, and whisk until just combined. Pour in the melted butter, and stir in until well-incorporated. Cover the mixture in the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

The madeleine batter

4. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit), and place the baking rack towards the bottom of the oven. Grease well a 12 mold madeleine pan. Use about 2 tablespoons of batter for each madeleine, or fill mold until two-thirds full. If you want to make some red like I did, reserve some batter to mix with the food colouring.

Madeleine pan, about to be filled with the chilled batter.

5. Bake for 5 minutes, before reducing heat to 150 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit), and baking for another 5 minutes. 

Fresh from the oven.

6. Remove from oven, and remove madeleines either by inverting the pan and tapping it against the counter, or gently prying the madeleines loose (don't burn yourself!) 

Serve madeleines warm, dusted with confectioners' sugar. If packaging in plastic, wait until completely cool. 

Mango and Cream Swiss Roll

Despite being on summer break from uni at the moment, I don't have nearly as much time to spend on baking and pastry-making as I would like. Yesterday evening provided a rare opportunity for me to carry out two wishes I've had for a while now: 1) try out my flashy new KitchenAid stand mixer and 2) make a Swiss roll.

I've made a Swiss cake roll only one time previously, around a year ago, and the result was not very good. There were visible lumps of flour in the cake part, and the filling made everything soggy. I am pleased to say that this Swiss roll turned out very well. Due to either a superior recipe for the sponge cake, or the use of gelatine-stabilised whipped cream for the filling, or the assistance I received from my KitchenAid, or a combination of the three, this Mango and Cream Swiss Roll had it all in terms of flavour and looks. Okay, almost had it all in terms of looks. But it tasted great, and when baking for friends and family, flavour trumps appearance, yes?

Before I forget - allow me to show off my KitchenAid! Which I've already formed an emotional attachment to xD Whenever I feel depressed about having to go to work, I look to it as a reminder that only some of the good things in life are for free, lol :D

Apart from a minor incident in which I managed to electrocute myself when I touched the mixer bowl because I'd plugged the KitchenAid into an extension cord socket (which wasn't properly grounded), my first baking project involving the mixer went very smoothly. Prior to this, I've always used a hand mixer to make the meringue base for a sponge cake, whip cream for frosting, mix the batter, etc., and I was so surprised at how much effort I was saving myself by using the stand mixer. In fact, I felt kinda guilty and lazy just standing by the sidelines and watching, while my Yellow Pepper-hued beauty did all the work for me. All I had to do was clean the bowl and the whisk intermittently! And assemble the cake roll, of course.

Now, some key pointers when making the sponge cake sheet: 

• Firstly, make sure you have the correct sized pan for the recipe you're using. I've made the mistake of spreading the batter too thinly before, and I ended up with a toffee-coloured sheet which shattered when I tried to manipulate it into some semblance of a roll. I used the sponge cake recipe I found at What's For Dessert Today!, which was perfect for a 9" x 12" (23 x 30cm) pan. 

• Secondly, roll up your cake fresh out of the oven, being careful not to burn your hands. The reason for this is that, if you allow your cake to cool before trying to roll it up, you'll end up with cracks all over. So roll it up while it's still warm. Without the filling, of course. Keep it rolled up while it cools slightly, then unroll, spread out the filling, roll it back up, and put it in the fridge to chill for a few hours.

• Thirdly (and this is a general tip for all sponge cakes), I find that flour lumps are easily avoided by using the "chiffon method" when making the batter. This is where you mix the flour and other dry ingredients with the egg yolks, whip the egg whites and sugar into a meringue separately, then combine the two. This is in contrast to what I did before, which was to sift in the dry ingredients into the wet. 

I mentioned that I used gelatine-stabilised cream for the filling. This is simply a fancy name for cream whipped after gelatine had been added to it. After chilling for a bit in the fridge, it takes on a mousse-like consistency which is perfect for spreading or piping. The gelatine helps it to hold its shape, and stops the moisture from the cream from leeching into the surrounding cake. 

The whipped cream filling holding its shape, thanks to the addition of gelatine

Next time, I may puree whatever fruit I choose to use and mix it with the cream to form a pretty, uniformly-coloured filling. I do quite like the distinct chunks of mango in this roll, though :D 

Here's the recipe!

Recipe for Mango and Cream Swiss Roll

Adapted from What's For Dessert Today!

Makes one 23cm long swiss roll

Ingredients

For the sponge cake:

4 large eggs, separated into yolks and whites

70g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)

10g corn flour (sifted)

70g all-purpose/plain flour

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

40ml canola oil

40g milk

For the gelatine-stabilised whipped cream:

1 cup whipping cream

3 tablespoons confectioner's/icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (again, I used vanilla bean paste)

1 teaspoon powdered gelatine

1 tablespoon cold water

And, of course...:

Flesh of half a large mango, sliced into 5cm sticks

Method

To make the gelatine-stabilised whipped cream (do this first):

1. Combine the cold water and powdered gelatine, stir together, and set aside until the gelatine has absorbed the water to make a goo. Microwave this goo for 15 seconds or until liquid. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, combine whipping cream, confectioner's/icing sugar, and vanilla extract. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, start whipping the cream. When soft peaks start to form, add in the liquid gelatine mixture. Continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Do not over-beat or cream will separate and curdle. Transfer into a container, and refrigerate until needed.

To make the sponge cake sheet:

1. Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Line a 9" x 12" (23 x 30cm) sheet pan or baking tray with non-stick parchment paper, and place the baking rack towards the middle of the oven, closer to the bottom. 

2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 35g of the caster sugar until light and creamy. Sift in the all-purpose/plain flour, corn flour, and baking soda and whisk until smooth and lumps-free. Add in the vanilla extract, and whisk it in well.

3. In a separate bowl (here's where my KitchenAid came to the rescue), add the cream of tartar to the egg whites, and whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the remaining 35g of caster sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon, and beat until stiff peaks form. 

4. Add 1/3 of the beaten egg white mixture from step 3 to the egg yolk mixture from step 2. Stir in with whisk, so that the batter is more liquid. Pour this batter into the remaining egg whites, and fold in gently with a rubber spatula. Be careful as to not deflate the batter.

5. Pour batter into the lined sheet pan and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Place in oven, and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the surface is a light, golden brown. 

6. Remove from oven, and straight away, cover the top with a pieces of parchment paper and roll up the cake. Allow to cool slightly, for around 5 minutes, then unroll and fill with the whipped cream and mango. Roll back up, wrap with cling wrap, and put in the fridge to chill for a few hours before slicing and serving.

A (very SPECIAL) pound cake

A few days ago, I attended the 2012 Food Bloggers' Picnic, organised by Grab Your Fork and Chocolatesuze. I feel slightly embarrassed admitting just how excited and honoured I was to have been invited. Although I've had this blog for over a year now, I'm still slightly hesitant to introduce it to people as a 'food blog', simply because I see it more as a mish-mash of random tid-bits from my life. But since I was invited, I bloody well was going to attend! I spent the week leading up to the even brain-storming what I wanted to bring, and decided on some form of cake. A few more clicks around the net for inspiration, and I came up with...a pound cake!

How was that for an anti-climax? In one moment of madness, I did consider whipping up this awe-inspiring meringue and mango construction that I saw on the cover of one issue of Delicious magazine. And then the voice of reason took over - I mean, whipped egg whites and fresh fruit in the humidity of the Australian summer? It's a virtual recipe for disaster (pun intended!). But the pound cake - good, ol' trusty pound cake with its dense, dense crumb and seemingly interminable shelf life - was perfect for the occasion by contrast.

Not that there's anything wrong with vanilla, or chocolate, or even orange and poppyseed, but since this was to be a very SPECIAL picnic, it was obvious I had to deviate slightly from the well-trodden path. I did this by substituting the butter in the recipe for browned butter, an ingredient that seemed all the rage a while back but has somewhat disappeared from the foodie scene lately. In addition, I incorporated some stewed apple into the batter, and topped it all off with cream cheese frosting spiked with real maple syrup.

What is "browned butter"? The "browned" bit refers to the fact that the butter is heated until the milk solids and butter fat separate, and taken off the flame when both components acquire a nutty aroma, and a deep, oaken-brown hue. It is also known as beurre noisette. In this case, "noisette" (literally: "hazelnut" in French) obviously derives from the scent of roasted hazelnuts that appear when the butter is done browning. 

Solidified browned butter, bearing a striking resemblance to a golden iceberg!

When I took my first bite of the cake at the picnic, my heart sank in disappointment. The crumb was very dry, and for all intents and purposes, it appeared that I had over-mixed the batter. The saving grace was definitely the cream cheese frosting. The maple flavour was not prominent, apart from adding sweetness, but the soft, sweetened cream cheese mixed with a dash of cinnamon made me want to lick the whole surface off of the cake.

Tasting a slice of my cake at the picnic.

HOWEVER, when I tasted it again the next day, when I took over some of the leftovers (and trust me, there was a lot) to a friend's tea party, the cake was unbelievably moist. Whereas the previous day I'd been reluctant to finish even that tiny square I cut for myself, I couldn't help but go back for forkful after guilty forkful at my friend's party. My theory is that the time it spent chilling in the fridge overnight somehow helped it to develop moisture, or because that first slice I tried at the picnic was an edge piece, and was dried out from being in contact with the cake tin. Whatever the reason was, I was wrong to dismiss this recipe. I only hope that some of my fellow bloggers got to try a bit that was closer to the middle :D

A visibly moister crumb. Picture taken the day after the picnic, two days after baking.

Before I move onto the recipe, I would like to direct your attention to the pattern over the frosting. Pretty, is it not? It's obvious that I used a stencil for it, but did you know that I carved out the stencil by myself? After I copied down the pattern by hand from a picture I saw on the internet? Without tracing paper? Okay, okay, I'll stop bragging. I am awfully proud of it, though.

Okay, so moving onto the recipe! There are quite a few separate steps, but they're all very straight-forward. Hopefully you'll find this tutorial useful, and have a go at making this (very SPECIAL) pound cake yourself! Click the "Read More" link below for a full tutorial on making the cake.

Happy Mother's Day, 2011!

It's Mother's Day here in Australia today! We held our celebrations last night with a sumptuous feast at Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant in Hurstville. There were so many dishes to eat that we ended up taking home more than half of what we ordered. Which is really saying something, since we had the whole family + extended family there :D

I made a cake to celebrate the occasion. It was the least I could do to thank all wonderful mothers in our family. My mum has sacrificed so much so that we kids can have the best of everything, and all the opportunities that we would ever need to grow into confident and capable individuals. And our grandmothers basically raised us along with our mother from birth, as Chinese grandmothers do. Our aunty is like a second mother to us, and someone who we can always depend on for support and guidance.

All in all, a cake is nothing compared with all that they have given us. But it is very tasty! And looked quite impressive too :D

My mum is always complaining about how sweet the stuff I make is. "Put less sugar in!", she'd say when she saw how much icing sugar went into a batch of buttercream frosting. I try to explain that the proportions have been set by people with much more baking experience and knowledge than I have, and any less would interfere with the various chemical processes going on. Her response? "I don't care! Make it less sweet!"

So for this cake, I went with a Japanese cheesecake as the basis of my cake. For those who have never tried Japanese cheesecake before - you've been missing out. Big time! It's nowhere near as cloying and rich as a New York-style cheesecake (which I'm not dissing in any way, shape or form; I do love my NY cheesecake), but it still retains the aroma of cream cheese beautifully, while only using half the amount of cream cheese than would normally go into a cheesecake. The addition of a minimal amount of flour and corn flour gives it that sponge cake texture, but it'll never end up dry (unless you burn it in the oven). And did I mention it's not too sweet? Simply put - the perfect dessert for my mummy dearest.

For the filling, I was inspired by the birthday cakes we've ordered from Chinese bakeries. You know, the ones made with eggy sponge cake and filled with fresh cream and fruits. I prepared a strawberry mousse using pureed fresh strawberries, whipped double cream and gelatin leaves, and simply spread it on between the layers of cheesecake after the mousse had some time to set, as you would with a buttercream. I added a bit of sugar because I found it slightly too tart without.

I had enough mousse to fill three layers of cake, and to roughly crumb-coat the whole thing. And believe me, it was a very rough crumb-coat. I'm afraid that I didn't take much care aesthetics-wise with the inside of the cake (although all the flavours were there!) because I knew it would be covered anyway with the decorations on the outside. The only thing that suffered was the cross-sectional presentation. Oh well.

To decorate, I used chocolate-filled wafer rolls to form a sort of 'basket' around the side (something I had seen done through Foodgawker), and filled the inside of this delectable basket with grapes, banana slices and STRAWBERRIES. Great, big, juicy fresh ones. I love fresh fruit decorations. Nowhere near as time-consuming as preparing and piping buttercream, and so much healthier too :D

And, just for good measure, I made a whole heap of Chinese almond cookies. My siblings are always clamouring for them when they're served for dessert at a Chinese restaurant, to the point where there's embarrassingly very little left for the adults to have some. Not that they would ever think to deprive those greedy, little ones of their sweets :D Well, there was enough this time round for everyone to go back for seconds...and thirds!

So, on this Mother's Day, make sure to give your mum (or any other mother-figures in your life) a great big hug!

(And a piece of cake too).

Sources

Japanese-style Cheesecake: For ingredients, method and tips on baking the perfect Japanese-style cheesecake, please refer to this wonderfully-detailed post by The Little Teochew.

Fresh strawberry mousse filling: I adapted the recipe provided here by Academia Barilla, halving the quantities listed.

Chinese almond cookies: I used the recipe from Bel's blog, Ooh, Look.... I love the vibrancy of her pictures, and she posts the most delicious-looking recipes, not to mention the occasional review of Adriano Zumbo's latest cake creations :D