Double Baked Gruyère Soufflés (Bake-Along Part Two)

I do feel a little guilty after I cheated... Please don't be too imaginative as I'm referring to my "cheating" chocolate soufflés for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings and wish to persuade baking another soufflé again.

With all my soufflés reading and baking, I've learned that all soufflés can't wait. Even after less than a minute of cooling, they can shrink very quickly and lose their height, appeal, texture and taste. Although soufflés seems to be nerve-racking dish or dessert to bake and serve, its level of difficulty will guarantee to impress dinner guests when light and fluffy soufflés are eventually served.

Fear not! There are always twice baked soufflés recipes that can save the day! This double baked gruyère soufflé that I choose is from Gourmet traveller, based on Stephanie Alexander's The Cook’s Companion. This recipe is cleverly written in the way that I can bake the soufflés first (even a day or two before) and bake them again with a creamy and cheesy molten sauce when they are ready to serve.

Ironically, I wasn't baking these to impress any dinner guests... These were baked for my family and are they impressed?

Man: What is this?
Me: Cheese soufflés.
Man: You know that I don't like soufflés.
Me: This is double baked gruyère soufflé.
Man: hmm... not bad...

... LOL! Please note that this man is quite difficult to please.

Double baked gruyère soufflé

Ingredients to cook the béchamel base

Cooking béchamel base - seems technical but was fun cooking it.

This was what happened to the eggs...

The first bake

Good that this recipe produced pretty-stable soufflés

Assembling for the second bake

Very nice to eat with the creamy cheesy sauce...

Here's the recipe from Gourmet traveller based on Stephanie Alexander’s recipe in The Cook’s Companion.

Serves 6
80 gm butter, coarsely chopped
80 gm plain flour
380 ml warm milk
140 gm finely grated Gruyère
4 eggs, separated
500 ml (2 cups) pouring cream
(I used the light cream with 18% fat)

Preheat oven to 180°C (or 170°C fan forced). Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add flour and stir continuously until sandy coloured (2-3 mins). 

Gradually add milk, beating continuously until smooth, then stir continuously until thick (2-3 mins).

Add 80gm Gruyère, stir to combine, remove from heat and stand to cool slightly (2-3 mins)

Stir in egg yolks until smooth and combined, season to taste.

Whisk egg white and a pinch of salt until firm peaks form, then fold one-third of egg white into cheese mixture. Fold cheese mixture through remaining egg white and divide among 6 buttered and floured 200ml metal dariole moulds, smoothing tops.

Place moulds in a roasting pan, pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up sides, then bake until soufflés are puffed and golden (25-30 mins). Cool in moulds for 10 mins, then run a small knife around sides of moulds and turn out onto a tray lined with baking paper. Cover and refrigerate until required. Soufflés will keep refrigerated for 2 days. (I used mine after 3 hrs later.)

Transfer soufflés to heatproof bowls, pour over cream, scatter with remaining Gruyère and bake until risen and golden (20-25 mins). Serve hot. 

Note: Using 3/4 of the recipe, I've baked 4 of soufflés at 170°C fan forced for 30 mins and baked them again with the cream and cheese at 180°C fan forced for 15 mins.

Happy Baking

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their soufflés baking.

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 30 Jan to 8 Feb 2013.

For our next bake-along, we are baking Banana Nut Bread (Recipe from here) which is to be posted on 4 Mar 2013. Please bake-along with us! All you need to do is to bake this recipe and blog hop with us on this day or within the next 10 days.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code  

Before using this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Bake-Along in your post and link back to any of our hosts' Bake-Along post, (Joyce, Lena or Zoe). (3) Appreciate if you can display the Bake-Along badge in your post when linking up with us. Cheers!

Chocolate Cake Soufflés (Bake-Along Part One)

I away remember the moment that I tasted my first soufflé at a Yarra Valley winery restaurant...

I didn't like eating the soufflé dessert at all. All because I didn't like its overpowering egg-y smell and mashy texture. To be fair, it wasn't the restaurant's fault. Being soufflé, I reckon this would be the typical kind of taste and texture that I should be expecting. As it was my first, I wasn't ready to accept the fact that a typical soufflé is like that.

Since then, I have no intention of baking or eating any soufflé. Now knowing that I have to bake a soufflé with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings for our bake-along, I begin to gain interest in soufflé baking...

Accordingly to Wikipedia, a soufflé is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients. It can be served as a savory dish or a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb, souffler which means "to blow up" and this word is mainly used to describe what happens to the combination of custard and egg whites.

There are so many kinds of soufflé recipes everywhere. Some are savories. Some are the classics ones being fruity or chocolaty. Some contain cream but some don't. Some are in the form of cakes and interestingly being fallen soufflé cake. Even, the savories ones have lots of variations... Some are twice baked or even cooked in a form of soufflé omelette.

Having so many soufflé recipes to choose... Seriously, which one is best one to bake? I keep asking myself... Is this going to eggy? Mashy? Not sure... I was confused... Giving up? How about me eeni meeni mini moh? - LOL!

With all these deep crazy soufflé thinking, I have finally decided to bake two different soufflés. The part one of my soufflés baking (this post) is the dessert-kind and as always, I choose to bake with our favourite ingredient, chocolate! Part two (the next post) is the savoury-kind soufflés and so please stay tune for my next soufflés post within the next 10 days...

Like my previous Crème Brûlée bake-along, I have to apologise that I sort of "cheated" again. I have chosen to bake a chocolate-cake-like soufflés because I know that it has lesser egg to other ingredients proportion and will be most unlikely to have any eggy smell or mashy taste. I felt safe baking this and know that nothing is going into waste...

Man: What is this?
Me: Chocolate soufflés.
Man: You know that I don't like soufflés. 
Me: This is soufflé but doesn't taste like soufflé.
Man: You are right! This is a moist chocolate cake! I can eat this.

... LOL! Our soufflé conversation sounds a little silly, isn't it?

This chocolate-cake soufflé is not eggy or mashy at all.

This is like making a chocolate cake batter.

Before and after baking

Best to serve this while they are freshly baked.

Yum!

Here are the easy chocolate soufflés that I used from Taste.com.au
(with my modfication and notes in blue)

200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
(I used Callebaut chocolate with 70% cocoa)
100g butter, chopped
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature, separated
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
(I used Dutch processed)
1/4 cup caster sugar
thickened cream and icing sugar mixture, to serve

Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) 8-cup capacity square ovenproof dish.

Combine chocolate and butter in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) for 2 min, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, until almost melted. Stir until smooth. Stir in brown sugar. Set aside for 10 min to cool.

Beat egg yolks with a fork to combine.Stir into chocolate mixture. Sift flour and cocoa together over chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, beating until thick and glossy.

Add 1 tbsp egg white to chocolate mixture. Mix well. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold in remaining egg white. Spoon mixture into prepared dish. Bake for 35 min or until just firm to touch. Dust with icing sugar.

Serve warm with cream.

Note: Using 2/5 of the recipe, I have baked 3 soufflés using well-greased ramekins (each is about 200 ml) and baked them at 160°C fan forced for 25 min.

Happy Baking

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their soufflés baking.

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 30 Jan to 8 Feb 2013.

For our next bake-along, we are baking Banana Nut Bread (Recipe from here) which is to be posted on 4 Mar 2013. Please bake-along with us! All you need to do is to bake this recipe and blog hop with us on this day or within the next 10 days.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code  

Before using this linky tool, please make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post. (2) Please mention Bake-Along in your post and link back to any of our hosts' Bake-Along post, (Joyce, Lena or Zoe). (3) Appreciate if you can display the Bake-Along badge in your post when linking up with us. Cheers!

Chocolate Streusel-ribboned Bundt Cakes

Glad that it's summer in Australia now!

With this warmer weather, butter can be easily softened at room temperature. And, with this condition, this means that I can be "retro" again using my wooden spoon to beat the batter of these The Home Bakers cakes...

I'm baking these mini chocolate streusel-ribboned bundt cakes for THB and this is the 14th bake for this event. THB is an baking event organised by my friend, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. With a group of gorgeous ladies, we are baking all recipes from the book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas until every recipe has been baked from this book.

After baking 10 bakes from "Coffee Cakes", I can't help to have a tendency to generalise Lou's cakes. I reckon that most of the bakes in Lou's book are typically compact and crumbly. They can be moist but not usually soft or fluffy... 

Then, why am I still baking Lou's recipes? To support Joyce, of course! LOL! Seriously, I really like to bake with all my THB friends. Though some of Lou's recipes didn't work well for me, I really enjoy baking with my friends. Sorry ladies if I sound to be a little opinionated with some of the my THB cakes. To me, I reckon that all cakes or bakes can be delicious due to case-to-case basis. What is not ideal to me might be good to others... and vice versa. Nevertheless, I would like to stay on the positive side by continuing my THB baking and hope to discover more recipes like these that really work very well for me:

Apple-Walnut Mosaic Cake
Danish Chocolate Streusel-swirled Coffee Cake
Strawberry Coffee Cake

This recipe yields a firm and thick cake batter so that it is stable enough for the chocolate streusel to be nicely sandwiched inside. Like most of Lou's cakes, these bundt cakes are typically compact in its texture. They are lightly moist and nutty with a crusty finish but again... definitely not our preferred kind of cake as their texture are very similar to the chocolate marble cake that I have baked from the same book.

My nice-looking bundt cakes but a little disappointing in their texture and taste

Making the cake batter with my wooden spoon

The chocolate streusel

Assembling the cake

Typically Lou's coffee cakes - compact with a crusty finish

Being the rule of this event, only the host of the chosen bake can post the recipe in her blog post. Please visit Louanne from Louanne's Kitchen for the detailed recipe of this bake.

And, here are the notes and modifications that I made for my bake.

My ingredients list (which is 1/2 amount of the original recipe)

Chocolate Streusel

15g cold unsalted butter
14g all purpose flour
30g light brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
45g chopped walnuts (pre-roasted at 160°C fan forced for 5 mins)

Cake
50g butter

50g sugar

1 extra-large egg (80g)

vanilla seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla pod
150g all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

1/2 cup sour cream

Using this amount of ingredients of the above recipe, I've baked 4 mini Bundt cakes at 160°C fan forced for 20 min.

Modifications that I have made from the original:

• I have pre-roasted the nuts and cooled them to room temperature before using them to make the chocolate streusel. 
• I have reduced the sugar content of the cake from about 80g to 50g for 1/2 amount of the recipe.
• I have also reduced the amount of eggs from 1 1/2 large to 1 extra-large for 1/2 amount of the recipe.
• Instead of using vanilla extract, I have replaced it with vanilla seeds scraped from vanilla pod.
• I didn't add any almond extract into my cake mixture.
• Instead of sprinkle the remaining half of the streusel at the last step of the cakes assembling, I have sprinkled all of the streusel after spreading half amount of the cake batter and covered the streusel with the remaining cake batter.

Happy Baking

Honey-baked Chicken Wings with Sambal Belacan

I must thank Doreen from my little favourite DIY for this wonderful gift...

Doreen and I know each other through blogging. Like friends like Mich (Piece of Cake), Alice (I Love. I Cook. I Bake.), Joyce (Kitchen Flavours) and Lena (Frozen wings), our friendship grow as we cook, bake and blog together. Last Christmas, Doreen is very generous to send us a huge present and part of the present is this book, Malaysian Menu by Andrew Koh.

This super-easy chicken wing recipe is fantastic! All I need to do is to combine all ingredients and bake... That's all! To my husband, enjoying chicken wings is never fulfilling without a good chilli sauce. To please our big boss - *sign*, I've used another super-easy recipe to make my own sambal belcan and I reckon too that this chilli sauce is a must to compliment these delicious chicken wings.

To make this sambal belcan, all I need is fresh chillies, pre-toasted belcan (shrimp paste), kaffir lime leaves and salt and sugar to season and blend them all together... That's all! For extra convenience, I've made this sauce in a big batch and freeze them in portions for my later uses. Now, I have to harvest more chillies and kaffir lime leaves... Ciao!

Honey-baked Chicken Wings (Recipe from the book, Malaysian Menu)

Marinating the chicken wings for at least 2 hrs

Remember to brush the chicken wings with lots of marinade before baking...

Here's our chilli plant and ...

... kaffir lime tree

Everything that we need to make this easy sambal belacan

A squeeze of lime on both chicken wings and sambal belcan further complete this dish!

Here's a little reminder before proceeding to the recipes... 

Doreen from my little favourite DIY and I are organising an new event named Little Thumbs ups.

I will be the hostess for the event with PINEAPPLE theme for Feb 2013 and Doreen is the next hostess with TOMATO theme for Mar 2013. All the upcoming ingredient themes and hostesses for the forthcoming months are listed at "Little Thumbs Up" side bar of my blog and hope that you can join in the fun by participating this event. This event starts on 5 Feb and ends in 2 weeks on 18 Feb 2013. Simply cook or bake any recipe with pineapple and link up with my first pineapple post. For more details of this event, please refer to this.

We are looking for HOSTESS for Little Thumbs Up! 

Please email us at zoebakeforhappykids[at]gmail[dot]com or Doreen at muihiong71[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested to host any coming Little Thumb Up events. Please feel free to let us know your chosen ingredient and the month that you would like to host this event and we can discuss further via email.

Here are the recipes (with my notes and modification in blue)

Honey-baked Chicken Wing
from the book, Malaysian Menu by Andrew Koh

20 chicken wings (I reduced to 15)
2 tbsp char siew sauce (replaced with hoi sin sauce)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp hua-daio wine
1/2 tbsp honey (increase to 2 tbsp)
1/2 tbsp lime juice
 
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 160°C fan forced

Combine all and marinate for at least 2 hrs.

Line trays with aluminum foil and arrange marinated chicken wings onto it / them. 

Brush the chicken wings with marinade and bake in preheated oven at 180°C (or 160°C fan forced) for 20-30 mins.

Note: After 15 mins of baking, I took the chicken wings out of the oven, turned and brushed them with marinade and continue to bake for another 10 mins. Then, I took them out again, turned and brushed them with marinade and continue to bake for another finial 10 mins. Total baking time is 30 mins.

Sambal Belacan
from the book, The best of Singapore Recipes: Nonya Specialties by Mrs Leong Yee Soo

4, optional kaffir lime leaves
225g red chilies
115g shrimp paste (belacan), toasted and broken into small pieces
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Remove central vein of lime leaves, shred finely, then pound until very fine. (I didn't pound the leaves)

Remove stems (and seeds) from chillies and dip in water. Place wet chilies in blender, add toasted shrimp paste, (I added the leaves at this stage) salt and sugar and blend well. Remove from blender. Mix with the pounded lime leaves (added earlier to blend with chillies).

Divide into portions. Pack into plastic containers or zip-lock bags and freeze.

Happy Baking and remember to enjoy the chicken wings with this chilli sauce!

Golden Sandwich Bread

As mentioned in this recipe, this bread is indeed a good bread for toast, sandwiches, and French toast. It is even delicious on its own and un-toasted. As said, this bread is indeed golden in colour and its smell alone can makes us salivate when it was baking in the oven. It is brioche-tasting and yet soft, spongy and less guilty to indulge.

This bread recipe is from the book, Bread by Nick Malgieri. I must thank my two baking buddies, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings for suggesting this recipe to me because my family and I really enjoy eating it. Lucky that I can predict that this is going to be a good recipe and baked two loaves according to the exact quantity mentioned in the recipe. We ate one loaf when it was freshly baked and froze the other one for later use. The frozen ones were eventually thawed and consumed as toast. They were very light and crispy when toasted. Yum!

Before proceeding onto the recipe, here are a few tips to share about baking this bread:
This recipe yields a sticky dough and so it is best to mix and knead using an electric mixer or a bread-maker.

• Try to resist using too much flour while shaping the dough into loaf as the increase of flour content might toughen the texture of the finishing breads.
• Use a 21 cm x 11 cm baking tin to bake your loaf. I baked one of mine in a slightly smaller tin and it looks like a balloon baking in such a small tin.
• This recipe uses three fermentation steps but I did mine in just two and it still works... 

Cottony soft golden sandwich bread

Making my bread using bread-maker

The breads rose very nicely after their final proving and baking.

Mum, are we baking a balloon? - To avoid this comment, use the right baking tin. LOL!

Buttery soft bread... Yum!

This post is linked at:
BYOB, Bake Your Own Bread hosted by Roxana's Home Baking
Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes

Here's the recipe from the book, Bread by Nick Malgieri
(with my modification and notes in blue)

Makes two 9-inch loaves

800g bread flour
30g sugar
170g room-temperature tap water, about 75°F
3 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1 cup or 225g whole milk, scalded and cooled
(replaced with 30g milk powder and 250ml water)
3 large eggs at room temperature
60g butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened
18g fine sea salt (reduced to 10g)

Two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans, buttered and the bottoms lined with parchment paper
(I have one 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan and one 11 cm x 21 cm loaf pan, both buttered but didn't line them with any baking paper)

1. Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Pour the water into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk in the yeast. Wait 5 mins, then whisk again. Whisk in the cooled milk and eggs.

3. Use a large rubber spatula to stir the flour mixture into the liquid a little at a time, stirring to combine between additions.

4. Place the bowl on the mixer with the dough hook and scatter pieces of butter on the surface of the dough; mix on the lowest speed for 1 min. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 15 min.

5. Increase the speed to medium, sprinkle in the salt, and beat the dough until it is smooth and elastic, for 2- 3 mins longer. Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and turn it over so that the top is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment until almost doubled in bulk, about 45 mins.

Note: For step 1-5, I've used a bread-maker instead of the electric mixer. I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr. 

6. Invert the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Flatten the dough to a disk. Fold the two sides in to overlap at the middle, then roll the top toward you all the way to the end, jelly-roll style. Invert, flatten, and repeat. Return the dough to the bowl (oil the bowl again if necessary), cover, and let ferment until fully doubled, 30-45 mins. Note: I've skipped step 6.

7. Invert the dough to a floured work surface and shape it into a rough square. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into 2 equal rectangles, each about 715g. Pull the narrow ends of 1 rectangle of dough outward to widen. From one of the wide ends fold the sides in about 1 inch or so, then roll down from the top as for turning the dough. Drop the roll into one of the pans, seam side down. Repeat with the second loaf and pan.

8. Cover with oiled or sprayed plastic wrap and let the loaves proof until they have risen about 1/2 inch above the rim of the pan. Once they're close to the top of the pan, set a rack a notch below the middle level and preheat the oven to 400°F (or 180°C fan forced). Note: My second proving took about 1 hr.

9. Place the loaves in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 375°F. Bake until well risen and deep golden, with an internal temperature of at least 200°F, 30 to 40 mins. Note: My loaves were baked at 180°C fan forced for 30 min.

10. Unmold the loaves and cool on a rack on their sides. Wrap and keep at room temperature, or double wrap and freeze.

Happy Baking

Sorry for being "nag" but here are some reminders about the coming events... This must be typical mummy-cultivated syndrome... LOL!

• Cook Like a Star event with Nigella Lawson theme is postponed to June 2013.
• Two events coming up...

One is my Little Thumbs Up event with pineapple theme.

 

This event starts on 5 Feb and ends in 2 weeks on 18 Feb 2013. Simply cook or bake any recipe with pineapple and link up with my first pineapple post. For more details of this event, please refer to this.

Two is Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event starting on 1st Mar 2013. This event is hosted by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. We are looking for a trend-setter of this event! Fore more details about trend setter, please refer to my previous post.

Last but not least, we are looking for HOSTESS for Little Thumbs Up!

Please email us at zoebakeforhappykids[at]gmail[dot]com or Doreen at muihiong71[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested to host any coming Little Thumb Up events. Please feel free to let us know your chosen ingredient and the month that you would like to host this event and we can discuss further via email. Ciao!

No Added Fat or Sugar Date Banana and Rum Loaf (Gluten free)

All I can say is that this cake is unbelievable!

It has NO added FAT or SUGAR! And, it is GLUTEN-FREE! And amazingly, it is moist and delicious!

We have a cake list in our office and it is my turn now to bake a diabetic-friendly cake for my colleague's birthday. I want to bake something gluten-free as well and so I found this recipe at the BBC GoodFood website via my BBC GoodFood app.

I was very skeptical at first seeing this recipe... No added fat and sugar? Tasty? Is this possible? Prior baking, I showed this recipe to the birthday boy to seek for his approval and he said... "If there is no sugar added, can you please remember to add rum?" LOL!

After baking and tasting this cake, I'm totally surprised and fully convinced. It tastes like a fruit cake with slight crunchy walnut and banana chips topping. All my colleagues including the birthday boy rated this cake 10 out of 10!!! Perfect!? Can you imagine?

No fat or sugar added! Yet, this cake is amazingly delicious!

Simmer the dates at low heat

Making the cake batter - Steve, I didn't forget to add the rum :D

Baking the cake

I have a few things to mention before proceeding on to show this amazing recipe...

First of all, I would like to apologise for not having pictures that show slices of this cake. I had to bring the unsliced cake for the birthday celebration and didn't have a chance to take any picture when it was served. Sorry! 

Second, I will be away in May 2013 for 2-3 weeks and for this reason, Cook Like a Star event with Nigella Lawson theme is postponed to June 2013. 

Third, please don't forget that there will be two events coming up...

One is my Little Thumbs Up event with pineapple theme. 

 

This event starts on 5 Feb and ends in 2 weeks on 18 Feb 2013. Simply cook or bake any recipe with pineapple and link up with my first pineapple post. For more details of this event, please refer to this.

Two is Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event starting on 1st Mar 2013. This event is hosted by me, Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. We are looking for a trend-setter of this event! Fore more details about trend setter, please refer to my previous post.

Last but not least, we are looking for HOSTESS for Little Thumbs Up! INTERESTED?

Please email us at zoebakeforhappykids[at]gmail[dot]com or Doreen at muihiong71[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested to host any coming Little Thumb Up events. Please feel free to let us know your chosen ingredient and the month that you would like to host this event and we can discuss further via email.

Now, here's the recipe from BBC GoodFood
(with my modification and notes in blue)

250g pack stoned, ready-to-eat dates
2 small or 1 large bananas (140g in weight)
(I used 2 small bananas)
100g pecans, 85g roughly chopped, rest left whole
(I used whole walnuts and didn't chop them at all)
200g sultanas
200g raisins
(I replaced this with extra sultanas, total amount of sultanas added is 400g) 100g fine polenta
2 tsp mixed spice
(I replaced this with 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp ground cardamon) 
2 tsp baking powder (use gluten-free if needed)
(I did use the gluten free one)
3 tbsp dark rum
2 egg whites
a few banana chips and 1 tsp sugar (optional), to decorate
(I didn't use any sugar for my cake topping)

Heat oven to 180°C or fan forced 160°C or gas 4.

Line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with non-stick baking paper, using a little oil to make it stick.  
Note: I have used a 11cm x 21cm loaf tin.

Put the dates into a small pan with 200ml boiling water and simmer for 5 mins. Drain the liquid into a jug, then put the dates into a food processor. 

Add the bananas and 100ml of the date liquid and whizz until smooth. Mix the nuts, dried fruit, polenta, spice and baking powder in a bowl, then add the date purée and rum, and stir until combined

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and fold into the cake mix. Tip into the tin (it will be quite full), then top with the remaining pecans and the banana chips and sugar (I didn't add this), if using. Bake for 1 hr until golden and crusty and a skewer comes out clean. (I baked mine for 25 min at 160°C fan forced, covered loosely with foil and baked for another 35 min.) Cool completely before cutting into slices.

Happy Baking

Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake

"Baking this pound cake in a cold oven gives it time to rise to great heights while developing a beautiful golden brown crust. The cream cheese gives it an unbelievably velvety crumb." - Lauren Chattman.

Based on Lauren's description and seeing how a few of my blogging friends that had baked this cake, I know that this cake is going to be beautiful but big! In this case, this size does really matter to me as I reckon this huge cake might be a little too much for our small family consumption. 

Thus, these are my concerns baking this cake...

(1) Can this unique cold-oven method still work if the cake is baked in the form of mini bundts?

(2) This cake has a total content of 250g butter plus 250g cream cheese (35% fat content). I don't want to be a sinner feeding the three of us with this massive amount of fat. Can I use cream cheese with lower fat content to bake this cake?

Will these two major modifications affect the taste and texture of my cake? Now, let's find out!

I'm baking this cake with my two baking buddies, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings for our 38th bake-along. After baking and tasting my cake, I can see exactly what Lauren describes. I'm happy that my mini cakes seems to be as good as Lauren described. The cakes had nicely developed a golden crust with moist and velvety crumbs inside. Texture-wise, I reckon that my cake seems to have looser crumbs than the larger one baked by Lulu the Baker and Emily's Cooking. Taste-wise, I reckon that my cakes are fantastic even in their smaller portions and slightly-less-guilty versions.

Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Making the cake batter - notice that cream cheese (14% fat) can't totally blend into butter.

Baking the cakes

Baking these mini cakes took only 25 min!

Can't wait to taste the cake... Here's its inside.

Extra lemon and vanilla for these beauties?

This looks like a yummy donut to me...

Here's the recipe from the book, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman.
(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients
3 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
(I used the slightly lower fat one with 14% fat)
2 1/2 cup caster sugar 
(reduced to 1 1/2 cup)
6 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
(I didn't add this)
1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Method

Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position. Grease a 12 cup Bundt pan and dust with flour. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 mins, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, ginger (I didn't add this) and lemon zest.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Then mix of 30 secs on medium speed.

Place the cake in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 325°F (or 150°C fan forced) and bake, without opening the oven door, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 65 to 80 mins.

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 mins, then invert it onto a rack. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Note: Using 1/3 of the recipe, I have baked 6 mini bundts with extra vanilla seeds scraped from half of a vanilla pod. The cakes were baked at 150°C fan forced (cold oven method) for 25 mins.

Happy Baking

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake baking.

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