Coconut Chiffon Cake

This chiffon cake baking was totally unplanned unlike the spiral moonies. It like the spur of the moment kind of calling. Well, indirectly, my Mom's nagging. Perhaps, perhaps. Yes, its the storage space 'affair' again. I have 2 packets of coconut powder sitting in the kitchen cabinet. Oh, fret not, the expiry date is in 2009.

It wasnt a 'tall order' to make this cake but rather than using coconut milk as the original receipe from Jo's, I used Meiji fresh milk instead. In addition, I threw in a handful of washed and air dried black sesame seeds into the final mix before it was placed into the oven to bake.

To date, I have yet to get any of my friends or colleagues to get poppy seeds for me from JB and KL. Cant blame them coz they are not into baking and none seems to know what the item is. One even asked if it is 'drug', you know, the literal translation of poppy. Haiz. Innocent folk she is.

Though Aunty Yochana did 'warn' in her blog that using convection oven will 'brown' the chiffon cake faster as it is practically near the heating element, a fact I totally acknowledge. However, I am 'stuck' with the convection oven till I create space in the kitchen. Yes, you can see the browned' and even darkened sides and top of my chiffon cake.

Then again, the inner part of my chiffon cake is soft, light and bouncy. It rose nicely and the whiff of the coconut powder during the bake was 'beautiful' to inhale.

Lovely. I think I have 'nailed' the art of making chiffon cake. Yes !

Thousand Layer Spiral Moonies

I have been wanting to attempt the making of the Thousand Layer Spiral Moonies since I 'laid eyes' on them in Aunty Yochana's blogsite. Baking is a breeze with Aunty, and she is always encouraging passion 'learning' bakers like myself to try the bakes ourselves too.

In fact, I had been planning and contemplating between baking the spiral or the walnut moonies since Wednesday afternoon I practically 'enticed' a colleague of mine to join me in the 'craze' of moonies making. We went to KCT together during lunch time.

She seemed 'lured' into the food world. The variety of spices, moulds, foodstuff, flours etc. It was a rush to shop and dash within 30 mins as we had only the remaining 30 mins to 'devour' our lunch before work resumes. Receipe from Aunty Yochana's white snow skin was also introduced to her and she seems pretty confident to try making it over this weekend. We shall see the end products tomorrow. That was her promise.

Back to me, yes. The paste is the durian lotus paste from KCT. And boy, I was glad I got this paste earlier cos when we went on Wednesday, there were remaining stock. It was pure delight to do the practical swiss roll thingy. The process of rolling and seeing the layers forming and the learning progresses.

Well, proudly, my Mom praised the look of these moonies. And rather than deep frying them like the usual way, mine were all baked. Thats why the look is fairly white with a tinge of brown. But, i love the spiral look in most of them.

Aint they cute ?

Sponge Sandwich Cake

I have been coughing for the past 3 days and this is my 2nd day of medical leave. Restless as I am, during the 'break' of the coughs, I grabbed time to attempt baking sponge cake.

However, I do not think I have not acquired the skill to have the sponginess that I longed for. You can see from the pictures that there are unevenness in the bake and the texture is not soft. In fact, it seems dry.

Well, as the saying goes, just like the chiffon cake, it takes skill, time and patience to nail the lightness to perfecting the technique for these delicate bakes.

Meanwhile, the St Dalfour mixed berries jam is spread to sandwich the two layers. Not a bad attempt, theres room for improvement.