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.

Using up that pesky bag of almond meal

ETA: Guess what I spent the morning doing! If you look along the top the page, just under the banner, I've added a tab "About BeyondBourkeStreet", which links to an 'About Me' page. Feel free to check it out, and hope you like the pictures! :D

In this post, I shall share two dessert recipes that I recently employed in order to use up my stash of almond meal. I'm sure this isn't a commonly-occurring problem for most people, since no one goes out of their way buying almond meal in bulk, especially considering how expensive the stuff is. Unless you had plans on making macarons until you developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Too bad I fell out of love with macarons after I'd bought the 1kg bag of almond meal. Something to do with eating so many over a limited period of time that my teeth hurt, my throat smoked, and my sinuses seized up from the overwhelming sweetness. I need to learn moderation.

Orange and poppyseed frangipane tart

The first of the recipes - the orange and poppyseed frangipane tart - is an innovation of my very own. Why orange and poppyseed? Well, why not? :D Haha, actually, it was because I had a bag of poppyseed that also needed to be used up. The flavour combination is such a classic one that I was quite confident it would turn out well in this form. Like for my pound cake, I utilised orange extract instead of orange juice and zest.  I would like to try this with the real stuff some day. Flavour extract notwithstanding, this tart turned out really well. As you can see from the photos, the top was crusty while the insides remained gooey and yielding. Kinda like a macaron, actually! 

All the frangipane tarts I came across on the Internet included some sort of fruity component, whether it be pears poached in white wine, sliced and layered on top, or apple pieces spiced with cinnamon, and the whole thing resembling a postmodernist take on the humble apple pie. Since I was to be taking this to a dinner party the next day, I wanted a recipe that didn't consist of easily-perishable ingredients. Gourmet Traveller to the rescue! The magazine had an online recipe for a Galician almond tart which I used as a reference point for ingredient ratios.  Had I substituted almond meal or some other kind of gluten-free flour for the shortcrust pastry dough, the whole tart would have been gluten-free.

The second recipe is one we're all familiar with: the Flourless Chocolate Cake. Again, a classic. You can't go wrong with classics. I also brought this along to the same dinner party, and the guests were absolutely enamoured with the cake. There were moans upon tasting. One taster commented: "This is the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten. Perfect balance of sweetness." No doubt this was largely due the use of my precious Callebaut bittersweet chocolate, with a 60% cocoa mass.

Flourless chocolate cake

There are literally thousands of recipes for flourless chocolate cakes, some using nut flours as a substitute for wheat flour, while others using only eggs for structural integrity. Since the whole point of this exercise (apart from getting chocolate cake out of it, of course) was to use up my almond meal, I went with the recipe from The Cake Mistress. And I am so glad I did, because this was the best chocolate cake I myself have ever tasted. 

Fudgy, incredibly moist and so intensely chocolatey, I may very well never experiment with another flourless chocolate cake recipe.

Recipe for Orange and Poppyseed Frangipane tart

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

200g plain flour

75g white, granulated sugar

100g cold butter, coarsely chopped

1 egg

1-2 tablespoons cold water

For the tart filling:

4 eggs

250g white, granulated sugar

250g almond meal

3 tablespoons poppyseeds

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons orange extract

To serve: icing sugar

Method

1. To make the shortcrust pastry, combine flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture has the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and 1-2 tablespoons of cold water and pulse until the pastry just comes together. Alternatively, if you don't have a food processor, you can combined everything by hand. Just put the flour, sugar and butter in a bowel and rub together with (clean) finger tips. Add the egg, and cold water if necessary, and rub some more. Don't knead the dough, otherwise the crust will turn out tough.

2. Press the pastry into a 25cm-diameter tart or flan tin, pushing the pastry up the edges. Don't worry about trimming overhanging dough at this point. Cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. To make the filling, whisk eggs and sugar until pale and frothy (mixture reaching the 'ribbon stage'), and the mixture has doubled in volume. Fold in the almond meal, vanilla and orange extracts, and poppy seeds.

4. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit). Remove pastry from fridge, and trim the edges. Prick the base all over with a fork, and spoon the almond mixture into the tart tin lined with the pastry. Smooth top. Bake for 45 minutes or until top is golden, crusty, and hard to touch. Remove from oven, cool tart in pan. Once tart is completely cool, remove from pan and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Recipe for Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from The Cake Mistress

Ingredients

200g good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

125g unsalted butter, chopped

225g brown sugar

100g almond meal

5 large eggs, separated

1 pinch of cream of tartar

To serve: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (or 360 degrees Fahrenheit). Line the base and sides of a 20cm-diameter cake tin with non-stick baking paper.

2. Combine the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in microwave by heating in 10-second bursts for the first two times, then 5-second bursts subsequently. Stir in between heating. Be careful not to burn the chocolate! Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate and butter over a double-boiler. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Combine chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and place that bowl over the saucepan of boiling water. Stir while ingredients melt.

3. Once butter and chocolate have completely melted, stir in the brown sugar and almond meal until the mixture is smooth. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the egg yolks one by one, stirring after each addition.

4. In a dry, clean bowl, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat with a hand-held mixture until frothy, then gradually add the white, granulated sugar. Continue beating until firm peaks form. 

5. Fold one-third of the beaten egg whites into the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix well to make the chocolate mixture more liquid-y. Pour the chocolate mixture into the remaining two-thirds of the beaten egg whites, and fold together carefully with a rubber spatula, being careful not to deflate the mixture. Fold until the mixtures are just incorporated.

6. Pour into the lined cake tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes until a firm crusts forms on top. Remove from oven, and allow cake to cool in tin completely before removing. Once cake is completely cool, sift cocoa powder over the top.

Checkerboard cookies for Christmas

What's black and white, crumbly and buttery, and look so impressive as a gift for friends and family this Christmas?

Actually, these are brown and white. Or brown, and some sort of light beige. Oh, never mind.

Checkerboard cookies, of course!

I used to make cookies all the time - shortbread, choc chip, biscotti, gingerbread, oatmeal...you name it, I've probably tried my hand at making it. It was all thanks to this book I purchased a while back:

"More than 300 great cookie, biscuit, bar and brownie recipes". That's a lot of recipes to get through.

Recently though, cookies and bars have sort of taken the back-burner to more grandiose projects like swiss meringue buttercream-frosted triple-layer cakes, gingerbread houses, home-made ice creams, and traditional Chinese pastries. There are simply too many exciting, new things to try making, and the humble cookie, whilst delicious, just doesn't hold the same appeal.

But these checkerboard cookies aren't exactly humble, are they? In fact, there's something quite haute couture about these. Must be the chequered pattern.

Oh look, some pinwheels seem to have insinuated themselves into the lot.

I wish I could say these were a cinch to make, but in truth these were actually quite fiddly, and tested my patience and cool on more than one count. The key is to work fast. And mentally prep yourself beforehand. Read through the instructions multiple times, and plan how you're going to do things. If you're anything like me in the kitchen (disorganised, spontaneous, can't-find-the-essential-ingredient-when-you need it, etc.), these may take a bit of practice before you get them right. Not that mine are perfect by any means. If you want to see real nice ones, check out Elissa's at 17 and Baking and Vera's at Baking Obsession. Now those are some beautiful checkerboard cookies.

More pinwheels! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee... (geddit? xD)

I had some leftover dough trimmings, so I layered them up and made them into pinwheel cookies. No biggie.

And, to complete my Christmas cookie gift packages, I made some tiny, tiny gingerbread people. They're so cute!

The recipe for the checkerboard cookies can be found at Baking Obsession. Her cookies are so beautiful! 

Now, to hand out those edible gifts!

Bourke Street Bakery, Surry Hills

Just as people have certain dishes they consider as "comfort food", I view Bourke Street Bakery as my very own security blanket, and a home away from home, if it isn't too presumptuous to say so.

At times, I would purposefully get off the bus a few stops earlier, just so I can walk past the bakery on my way to wherever it is I am going. Sometimes I would go in and grab a few things for lunch or a snack. On the rare occasions that I am actually not hungry, I am content to simply admire the window display of gigantic sourdough loaves, raisin snails, and (my personal favourite) the pain au chocolat.

The said pain au chocolat.

My friend Pumpkin Pie, a self-confessed Bourke Street Bakery aficionado, gave a somewhat embarrassed recount of the time she and her mother polished off half a loaf of sourdough, just the bread on its own, at lightning speed while sitting inside their car. I countered her story with one of my very own: myself and another friend, each clutching an armful of brown paper bags filled with baked goods sweet and savoury, stumbling over to the park across the street and wolfing down half of our purchases before our brain could even process what it was we were eating. And when it did start to process, the scent, sight and atmosphere of the moment only served to stimulate our appetites further, and we finished everything off at a more leisurely pace, agreeing at the end that this was one of the best eating experiences we have shared.

Toby the dog, who left the side of his master to watch us eat. This was his expression throughout the length of our meal, and would return to his face each time he was done devouring whatever we gave him from our bounty.

Amongst our purchases were two sausage rolls, a variety of sweet tarts and a pain au chocolat to have then and there, as well as a few loaves of various sourdough to take home (or just in case we were still hungry afterwards).

We started with the savoury: the sausage rolls.

Pork & fennel sausage roll

The pastry of the pork & fennel sausage roll was very, very buttery and flaky, as evidenced by the state of my shirt afterwards, but did not taste greasy at all - a true indication of the freshness of the ingredients used and the rapid turnover of goods at the bakery. The pork and fennel filling was juicy, aromatic and very well seasoned. I can say with certainty that this was the best sausage roll I've tasted up to that point in time.

Inside the pork & fennel sausage roll. Look at the beautiful colours of the pastry and filling.



The lamb, almond & harrisa sausage roll was similarly fresh, flaky and delectable. A sprinkle of what looked to be poppyseeds on top gave this a distinctly gourmet look. It tasted gourmet too! ;D

Lamb, almond & harrisa sausage roll.

The insides of the lamb, almond & harrisa sausage roll.

The sausage rolls were quite substantial in size, but we had just completed a long run and still had more than sufficient stomach space to accommodate desserts. So, without the slightest reprieve, we moved onto the sweets!

Ginger brulee tart

There's certainly no skimping on the ginger in the ginger brulee tart. The caramelized top tasted of deeply burnt sugar and ginger (a good thing!) and the custard underneath was smooth, wonderfully chilled, and held echoes of the gingery flavour.

Chocolate tart

The chocolate tart reminded me of a Twix chocolate bar. I maintain that Bourke Street Bakery has the best sweet tart crust (the recipe for which, if I recall correctly, may be found in the bakery's cookbook). It's not crumbly like shortbread, but very brittle, like a freshly made cannoli shell or the casing of a brandy snap. And tastes best when chilled, I reckon.

 Passion fruit meringue tart

The passion fruit meringue tart was definitely the stunner out of all the tarts in appearance. Perfect balance between the acidity of the passion fruit curd, and fluffy sweetness of the meringue.

Chocolate mousse and raspberry tart

The mousse component of the chocolate mousse and raspberry tart was very chocolatey, but not too sweet. The raspberry part was quite sour. They paired very well together.

Lemon curd tart

On the brink of a sugar coma, it was a good thing this lemon curd tart lived up to its name. The curd is indeed very sour and lemon-y, and may not necessarily be everyone's cuppa tea, but if you like a bit of bite to your desserts, do try this!

Oho, if we haven't scared you off yet with our gluttony, you should know that somehow, we managed to fit in a chocolate croissant as well!

Surely I am not the only one who sees a cute little piggy snout in this?!

And that was the end of our feast, I promise :D

Bourke Street Bakery

633 Bourke Street, Surry Hills.

Phone: (02) 9699 1011

Website: http://www.bourkestreetbakery.com.au/

Opening Hours

Monday to Friday: 7am - 6pm

Saturday & Sunday: 8am - 5pm

Hello Happy, Strathfield

The uni course I'm currently doing is structured differently to most degrees, so we end up having weird, random "holidays" while all my friends (who study different things, or are at different unis) are in the midst of preparing for their mid-sem exams. One MAJOR consequence of this is that I don't have anyone to hang out with. Not that that ought to be an issue, since these holidays aren't meant to be real holidays anyway. (Can you sense my bitterness?) I've written about it before, but I have some HUGE exams coming up at the end of this year, and as far as I know, the more studious amongst us are spending these holidays with their heads burrowed in their textbooks. I should be doing the same, but each time I sit down to do anything uni-related, I always get distracted by something on the internet. And, most of the time, it's food-related. *sigh*

Choco mousse dome

Case in point - two weeks ago, I was locked in the throes of some intense preparation for my end-of-course exam. My day consisted of getting up at 6am in the morning, shovelling down breakfast (I'm one of those weird people who wake up starving), and then plonking myself down in front of my computer for the next 12 hours in a desperate attempt to cram as much knowledge as possible into my tiny brain. I know you're probably thinking, "Wow, that's some dedication you had going on!" Yeah, I wish. You see, I'd plonk myself in front of my laptop with full intentions of spending the next 12 hours studying, where as in actual fact I'd get distracted within the hour and end up stalking people on Facebook. Or reading food blogs. Or running down to the local Hello Happy bakery for "brain food" while my family is out (since my mother disapproves of my love affair with pastries. Please don't tell on me.)

New York Cheesecake

On this occasion, I purchased the choco mousse dome and a slice of the New York cheesecake. I can't remember the exact price of each, but their cakes average around $3.80 - $5.00 per serving. More expensive than the ones from Chinese/Vietnamese bakeries, but cheaper compared to the European-style ones. Quite reasonable, I suppose. The choco mousse dome was everything I hoped for - creamy, light as a cloud, sweet and chocolatey.

Cross-section of the mousse dome. Excuse the mess on my desk.

The cheesecake, on the other hand, was a major letdown, tasting very dry and crumbly from being overbaked. I was in the mood for cheesecake on that day, but if I'd been so inclined to purchase anything from bakery, I most certainly would have gone for the almond croissant. Which I don't have a picture of, but trust me when I say that it is THE BEST ALMOND CROISSANT I've ever tasted. The flaky pastry absolutely shatters when you bite into it, and the almond filling is so wonderfully creamy and nutty...must get another one sometime soon, just so I'll have pictures for this blog ;P

Mid-Autumn Festival in Spring...with home-made Moon Cakes to celebrate!

Such is the nature of living in the Antipodes; you never end up celebrating traditional Chinese festivals in the season they were named for. Mid-Autumn in Spring, the Spring Festival in Summer (although, that's more of a Lunar calendar thing)...oh well, it's the thought that counts. And the food!

The moon cake has been called the "Christmas fruitcake of China", forever being regifted and recirculated because people feel obligated to give them, but no one actually likes eating it. I don't know what they heck they're talking about, because I love, love, LOVE mooncakes. Boxes of luxury lotus seed moon cakes are given to us by relatives and friends as fast as we are polishing them off.  If it wasn't for the health concerns associated with eating moon cakes to excess (800 calories per moon cake!!!), I would capitalise on their ubiquity around this time of year, and eat them 24/7.

As it is, I try and limit myself to no more than a quarter of a mooncake per day. It's harder than it sounds, and there is alway that acute sense of disappointment with the last bite. *sigh*. I have full intentions of letting myself go completely once I reach 60 years of age, and eating as much moon cake as I want. I'm sure my aged pancreas would be ecstatic afterward.

Nothing impresses my family more than when I try to recreate a traditional dish/dessert in my very own kitchen. I stumbled upon a beautiful moon cake mould at a knives shop in Burwood, and handed over $38 for it with only a slight wince. Of course they're a lot cheaper in China (thank you, Grandmother, for repeatedly pointing that out to me), but it's not like I can just snap my fingers and and go shopping in Beijing. After some research, I decided on the recipe for the moon cake skin given by Florence at Do What I Like. The filling presented more of a problem since the canned lotus seed paste I acquired from a local Asian grocery store was very runny and insipid in flavour, and tasted nothing like the rich, nutty lotus paste in professionally-made moon cakes. I remedied that by mixing in some peanut oil and honey, and then drying the whole thing over a stove, until I got a thick paste with an almost dough-like consistency. And then it was a simple case of wrapping the dough over the filling, plopping it into the floured mould, and then banging the living daylights out of it over a counter to remove the now perfectly formed moon cake.

I decided to make another batch earlier this week, except this time...they were porcine-shaped!

Oink oink!



Recipe for Baked Mooncake with lotus seed paste filling

Adapted from Do What I Like

Ingredients (makes many small ones, or a few large ones ;P)

For the skin pastry dough:

500g all-purpose/plain flour
150g peanut oil
325g golden syrup
2.5 teaspoons lye water (available from Asian groceries)


For the filling:

2 cans of lotus seed paste, around 1150g in total
150ml peanut oil
2 tablespoons honey


For the egg wash:

1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water, lightly beaten and strained.



Method

To make the filling:

1. Combine everything, and mix until well incorporated. Heat over medium flame, stirring constantly, until a thick dough-like paste forms.

2. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place in fridge once cooled for 1 hour.


To make the pastry:

1. Combine peanut oil, golden syrup and lye water in a small bowl and heat over a pot of boiling water until everyting is combined. Allow to cool slightly (but not cold) and add to the flour. Mix into a dough, and set aside for 1 hour.


To make the mooncake:

Please refer to Florence's blog post :D

Recreating the Chinese Birthday Cake

I've always felt that I never got the credit I deserve for my baking from my family. All too often, I get told off for adding too much sugar, butter, or chocolate (...???...) to something, and as a result, my beautifully constructed, multi-layered cake would remain untouched on the kitchen bench. Untill I get sick of walking past it every time I go to grab a snack, and a) freeze it; b) chuck it away; or c) push it onto a far more grateful recipient (i.e. a good uni friend of mine).

Needless to say, I was very surprised when I received a phone call from my mum the other day asking me if I would like to make a cake for my grandpa's upcoming birthday. Me? Trusted with a grandparent's birthday cake? My pastry skills must be rising in my family's estimation. Of course I agreed, eagerly rising to the challenge of creating something that would appeal to my family member's picky palates.

It was clear from the outset that a Chinese-style sponge cake was the only way to go. I'm talking about the ones found at Chinese/Asian bakeries here in Sydney (and all around the world, I suppose). The one known as 鸡蛋糕 (ji dan gao); literally, 'chicken egg cake'. Quite aptly so, considering that eight eggs went into making this particular one. You hear correctly; I almost single-handedly cleared out the whole egg carton with this cake. But that's really the only thing this cake is heavy on. The only fats came from 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of milk. The amount of sugar was such that it was barely sweet - a mere hint only.

I have a love/hate relationship with sponge cakes. I hate how shitty they make me feel when they come out of the oven all deflated and pancake-like, but when I do get that ultimate fluffy texture, it's as good as getting full marks on an exam. This particular one was a mixed bag. One cake, made from half the batter, was decently spongy and aerated, while the other one turned out all dense and chewy. I presume it's to do with both my method and the bakingware I used. Sponge cake, I will conquer you one day!

Note the fairly dense middle layer. Hmmph.

Drawing from my vast experience in eating Chinese Birthday Cakes, I chose the conventional whipped cream and fresh fruits combo to fill the layers. Again, the cream was only slightly sweetened with confectioner's sugar, and flavoured with vanilla essence. Despite the copious amount of whipped cream used (I used the whole of the 600ml carton), it didn't taste gluggy. Even with excessive consumption, as I can personally attest to :D

I had initial thoughts of covering the cake with a layer of swiss meringue buttercream (my go-to frosting when it comes to decorative piping), but knew it would just be scraped off by everyone prior to eating. So, in the interest of minimizing waste, and keeping it as similar as possible to the real article, I simply covered it with some fresh fruit, and crumbles of honey-roasted macadamia nuts around the side.

So, how was my family's reception of the cake? I think they loved it! I certainly had no trouble with polishing off the huge slice I got. I heard murmurs of "mmm, it's good" and "tastes better than the ones from the bakeries" as everyone tucked in. Good work, Lucy, a nice job indeed :D

Recipe for Chinese Birthday Cake

Adapted from Tastydesu

Ingredients

For the cake (makes two 9" rounds)

1 cup cake flour

1 cup caster sugar

8 large eggs, at room temperature and separated into whites and yolks

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the whipped cream filling and frosting

600ml cream, suitable for whipping

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 tablespoons confectioner's/icing sugar (but can add more/less according to personal preference)

To assemble

Canned peaches in syrup

Fresh fruits of choice

Honey-roasted macadamia nuts, chopped

Glace cherries

Method

To make the cakes:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Line two 9" round baking pans with non-stick baking/parchment paper.

2. Mix 3/4 cup caster sugar with egg yolks and beat until pale yellow and thick. Add vanilla and beat to incorporate.

3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with electric beater until soft peaks form. Add in the remaining 1/4 cup of caster sugar gradually, in two or three separate additions, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

4. Combine half of the meringue from step 3 with the egg yolk mixture, and fold gently to incorporate (don't worry if they're not mixed thoroughly; there will be more mixing in the following steps).

5. Add oil and milk to the batter from step 4. Fold in the remaining half of the meringue from step 3.

6. Divide the batter between the two pans, and tap pans to release any air bubbles. Bake for abount 20-25 minutes, until the tops are lightly-browned, or a cake-tester stuck into the center comes out clean.

7. Turn oven off, open oven door slightly ajar and allow the cakes to cool inside the oven, as sudden exposure to cold air encourages rapid deflation.

To make the whipped cream filling:

1. Place cream, vanilla essence and confectioner's/icing sugar in a cold bowl and beat whip with electric beater on high speed until the beaters leave a trail in the cream. Be careful to not overbeat the cream! Overbeaten cream resembles a yellowish, lumpy soup - also known as butter primordium :D

To assemble:

1. Once cooled completely, divide each cake into two layers by slicing horizontally with a serrated knife or cake leveler. Brush each layer with syrup from the canned peaces.

2. Chop up the canned peaches (use as much as you want) and combine with three-quarters of the whipped cream. Fill the cake layers with this mixure.

3. With the remaining whipped cream, coat the sides and top of this cake, filling any cracks or indentations.

4. Slice fruits, chop the macadamia nuts, and have some fun decorating!