The Curious Chocolatier - Macarons

I've been wanting to get hold of some French Macarons from The Curious Chocolatier, who also makes beautiful packaged designer chocolate bars, for a long time. I kept putting it off because i couldn't bring myself to go to The Old Depot Markets (which only opens on Sundays) and get some - for those who know how the Sunday Bus timetable operates in Canberra will understand why. Fortunate enough, there was a Handmade Market held at the National Convention Centre (in CBD) this month and getting my hands on those highly wanted gems was now possible.

As soon as i got there, my only aim was to find where The Curious Chocolatier was and get my hands on some French macarons before they ran out. I learnt my lesson from the previous Handmade Market where i decided not to buy them earlier but to leave them for later...and yes, i went home empty-handed.

On this visit, I got seven flavours in total and these included: chocolate, lime & coconut, passionfruit, raspberry cheesecake, salted caramel, hazelnut and dark chocolate & raspberry.

 

Lonsdale Street Roasters

For quite a while, Milk & Honey (M&H) had been my favorite place to go after lunches or dinners to just chillax and catch up with friends. I have to say that it didn't take long before Lonsdale Street Roasters (LSR) attained an equal standing in my heart. But since LSR doesn't open at night, M&H is still the place to go after dinners =)

There isn't much of a wow factor when you look from the outside of LSR (although i found the coffee-sack-cushions-on-empty-milk-crate seats quite cute) but when you step into that place, you feel like you are in a funky art gallery. Bright colours, striking patterned wallpapers, bicycles hanging off the walls and random 'hazard signs' stuck to the ceiling all come together surprisingly harmonious with the plain solid wooden tables in the cafe. I also quite liked the fact that they took the time to pick out interesting cushions to adorn the wall seatings, check them out!

HK: Australia Dairy Company (澳洲牛奶公司)

Australia Dairy Company is a popular Hong Kong style cafe in Hong Kong, it is the kind of place where you'd expect a long queue before going in. The cafe is quite busy and crammed; consider yourself lucky if you don't end up sharing a table with someone you don't know. The pace at Australia Dairy Company is fast: you order, eat, pay and leave...all in about 20 minutes or so. It's not the type of place where you can sit down, chat and relax or else you will start getting 'the stares'. Why Australia Dairy Company? Honestly, I have no idea. It has nothing 'Australian' about it in terms of the decor and food...perhaps the milk they use?

HK: Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong (公和荳品廠）

Tofu pudding ( 豆腐花) is one of my favourite Chinese desserts made of very soft tofu which can be served hot or cold. While in Hong Kong this time, i had a mission to find an awesome place that served tofu pudding. After some 'research', i was directed to Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong in Sham Sui Po. This little tofu place still retains the essence of the old style Hong Kong eateries with folding tables, round wooden stools and large fans all around. It even has a large ceramic dragon-embossed pot where the tofu pudding is made and subsequently scooped out into smaller bowls.

Kong Wo sells all things made of soy beans such as soy milk, tofu pudding fried tofu and stuffed beancurd. Since it was hot, i ordered a bowl of cold tofu pudding (HKD7) and a cup of soy milk (HKD4). The soy milk was delicious and not overly sweet - perfect for the hot weather; the tofu pudding had a nice silky texture (hot version is even silkier) and was slightly sweetened. You can always add the 'yellow sugar' that is readily available if you prefer the tofu pudding to be sweeter. 

Overall, i enjoyed my dessert time at Kong Wo and will certainly be coming back. Delicious soy milk and silken tofu pudding definitely made my day! Apart from being a healthy and inexpensive dessert (both items added up to HKD11 which is only around AUD1.5!), i got to 'experience' an old style Hong Kong eatery!

Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong
G/F, 118 Pei Ho Street, Sham Sui Po
Kowloon, Hong Kong
tel: (852) 2386 6871

HK: Ovenhouse Deluxe

Sorry for the lack of updates but now that i am back in the capital, there will be more blog posts. I've been away for close to 5 weeks in the land of awesome shopping and eating, Hong Kong (especially now that Australian dollar is so strong!)! It's good to be back and enjoy the not-so-hectic pace that Canberra has to offer but not so keen on the freezing weather though =P

Anyways, here is my first Hong Kong blog post for 2011.
 ***

We found Ovenhouse Deluxe purely by accident as we were walking around Tsim Sha Tsui. It mainly does cakes, breads and cookies for take-away because it doesn't have many seats in it (8 seats max., i think). It also has quite a vast collection of wines from what i saw. Ovenhouse has a simple and classy decor which gives it a bit of a high-end feel. The cakes are placed neatly behind the cake counters and the cookies are nicely packed in bags. There is a small section at the end of the counter where you can sample their cookies. On this visit, we tried the two cakes that looked the most appealing to us: Lady Peach and Charcoal.

Lady Peach is a sponge cake filled with white peach mousse and white peach champagne coulis in between. The name definitely suits the cake's pretty appearance and it was the 'looks' that sold it for me. Taste-wise it was a bit weak on the peach flavour and the mousse felt a bit 'hard' (probably had a bit too much gelatine).

Green Tea Daifuku with Red Bean Filling

I heart Daifukus!
I love their chewy texture and the different types of fillings that they can come in.
Daifuku, meaning 'great luck' in Japanese, is a confection comprised of mochi (glutinous rice cake) stuffed with a sweet filling. I've always been hesitant to make daifuku as i was scared to stuff things up. The closest thing I've ever made was Tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) with sesame filling which only involves boiling and not steaming and handling hot mochi.

Gold Coast: Mme Grenouille

It was a great surprise to find the French Bakery Mme Grenouille (Meriton Building, Shop 1, 2669 Gold Coast Hwy, Broachbeach, (07)5538 3111) during my last visit to Gold Coast. It is one of those places that you don't expect to find until you've reach the status of a local, if you know what i mean. I came across it purely by chance, when i unconsciously glanced at a magazine where their colourful macarons were featured. It must have been the macarons, somehow we are connected.

It was a hot day when we went to Mme Grenouille, so i decided to order an ice coffee to start with while i chose my cakes and enjoyed its chic ambience. The cafe does feel like a small Parisian Boutique with interesting macaron-inspired prints on their walls and a display with a variety of beautiful cakes and sweets for you to choose from. I was certainly  spoiled for choice and it took me a while to choose something from it. I ended up ordering the Strawberry Charlotte - a soft sponge surrounded by finger biscuits and topped with fresh strawberries and a Black Forest - consisted of two different layers of mousse decorated with a chocolate spoon and macerated cherries.

Ice Coffee

The ice coffee tasted really good, it wasn't overly sweet (like in many places) and the ice coffee didn't taste as if it was made from commercialized coffee syrups. Judging by other customers' reaction, i think Mme Grenouille makes pretty decent coffee. Let me know what you think about their coffee if you've been there!

My first cake choice was the Strawberry Charlotte simply because i love strawberries and also because it was one of the cakes that was going fast. The sponge was soft and moist, the finger biscuits were good and the strawberries were deliciously fresh. All components came well together not only in taste but also in presentation.

Black Forest was my favorite in terms of presentation. That chocolate spoon holding a cherry alone was enough for me to order it. Yes, i am a sucker for pretty and gimmicky things. Looks aside, the chocolate mousse was light and silky smooth and the bottom layer of macerated cherries complemented it very well. I guess it's not just looks, afterall.

Black Forest - recommend it!

I certainly enjoyed my time at Mme Grenouille's for both the food and ambience. The staff was friendly and very helpful in helping me choose the cakes we had. I will definitely be back (when i can) to try their breakfast menu and other cakes. You might be asking me...where are the macarons? Don't worry, i didn't leave without them! I bought a few flavours including Hazelnut, Pistachio, Rum & Raisin and Coffee - the filling was good but i was a bit disappointed with the macaron shells for its coarse texture. Apart from that, all good!

Don't forget to pay Mme Grenouille a visit on your next trip to Gold Coast!

*I reckon their little logo featuring a frog with a crown is tres chic, no?

Green Tea Buttermilk Cake

I decided to make a buttermilk cake a few weeks ago (after being in a baking hiatus) as i had almost 3/4 of a carton of buttermilk left in the fridge. This time i decided to wing it just to see what i would get and also because i was too lazy to google for a nice buttermilk cake recipe. I added some green tea powder but unfortunately there wasn't much green tea flavour in the cake - will have to add more next time! The cake is fairly easy to make and to my delight it turned out soft, moist and deliciously rich in buttermilk taste. I can't recall the exact amounts but here are the rough estimates:

Green Tea Buttermilk Cake

-1 1/2 cup of self-raising flour, sifted

- 2 eggs

- 3/4 cup of buttermilk

- 125g of unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1 tsp of cream of tartar

- 1/2 cup of caster sugar

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

- pinch of salt

- green tea powder, as desired

1. Sift together self-raising flour, cream of tartar, salt and green tea powder together

2. Beat butter and sugar until you reach a creamy consistency, add in vanilla essence and mix.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well

4. Divide buttermilk and flour into three batches and beat into the butter mixture alternately. If the batter is rather dry, add a bit of buttermilk OR if the batter is too runny, add a bit of flour.

5. Pour the batter into a 9" loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated oven (~170 C) for 45 - 60 minutes. if the skewer that is inserted in the centre of the cake and comes out clean, the cake is cooked.

Enjoy~

Dream Cuisine

Sorry for the lack of updates here in my blog but it has been a rather busy period around the Christmas. I hope you have finished your Christmas shopping by now, if not...oh well, you've got one day left =P

Just a quick post about Dream Cuisine which you may have already read about from my past post. Why blogging about it again? Apart from making one of the best macarons in Canberra, i was extremely excited when i found out that they are now selling their delicious macarons in a little coffee shop called Bean in the City (28/36 Ainslie Ave, Civic - (02) 6162 0866). I have been indulging (not alone) in macarons for the past few days and i've already eaten the following flavours: Strawberry & Champagne, Pistachio & Lime, a yellow one which i couldn't quite figure out what it was (wasn't passionfruit though), Cherry Ripe and Salted Caramel - so far my favorite ones are the Strawberry & Champagne and the Salted Caramel ones! Can't wait to try more from their Summer and Christmas range =)

Here is a picture of their macarons, taken when i visited them at the EPIC Markets a while ago:

Green: Pistachio & Lime / Purple: Lavender & Honey / Yellow: Passionfruit / Cream: Salted Caramel / Dark Pink: Cherry Ripe / Petit Macaron: Strawberry & Champgne 

Pay Bean in the City a visit for some awesome coffee and delicious macarons! If you would like to visit Dream Cuisine itself, you can find it at the Canberra's Capital Region Farmers Market at EPIC in Mitchell on Saturday until 11am or Sunday at the Woden CIT!

A Floral 21st Birthday Cake

One of the major things that i was doing during the month of October was planning, designing, doing taste-trials for my friend's 21st birthday cake. Gladly, i wasn't doing all of these by myself; i had J to share the load and keep me company (since it was a shared project). The whole process was a fun and worthy experience, even though it took away some of our sleep time and energy. Despite being faced with some uncertainties and failures on the way, those 31 hours of hard work definitely paid off. The cake turned out very pretty (both of us couldn't stop saying '...so pretty, so pretty') and the birthday girl really liked it too.

I also decided to submit this blog post as part of The Nuffnang October Blogger Challenge because i thought that the cake & cupcakes were so pretty that i would totally take them to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The cupcakes have beautiful pastel colours and delicate flower decorations that especially suits a spring season tea party.

The journey started when we accepted the birthday girl's request to make her 21st birthday cake. At first, it sounded cool and fun but when we actually stopped to think about it we were like "Wait...it's her 21st birthday cake, not any other cake that we usually make". The birthday girl was going to hold a sit-down dinner for 50 or so guests, so we couldn't just make any Michel-Patisserie-like cake. It had to be displayed during the dinner, pretty, tasty and something that would feed 50+ guests. I immediately knew what we were dealing with...Fondant Cakes! Neither J or myself had ever made a fondant cake before, so we started to do heaps of research and watch Youtube videos about fondant cakes.

The birthday girl wanted green tea-flavoured cakes so we ended up making a White Chocolate Green Tea Mud Cake (main cake) and Green Tea cupcakes. We adapted the recipes from the book Planet Cake - A beginner's guide to decorating incredible cakes by Paris Cutler. We basically just added green tea powder to the recipes and reduced the amount of sugar needed in them. It's definitely a great book for beginners (like us) who are interested in cake decorating!

With everything ready and set to go, it took us 3 days to finish our little work of art! Let the journey begin...

Day One

We made the mud cake (as it can be stored longer) and coloured 6kgs of fondant to the colours needed: pale green and four shades of pink. That was a lot of muscle work involved! We were both pretty exhausted by the end of day...

Mud Cake Batter

The different coloured fondants

Day Two

That's when we made 6 batches of cupcakes (86 cupcakes in total), brushed them with syrup and covered all of them with white chocolate ganache.

Testing the batch of green tea cupcakes

Brushing the green tea cupcakes with syrup before ganaching them

Day Three

This day was entirely dedicated for decorating the mud cake and the cupcakes. We rolled out some pale green fondant and cut them into circles to cover the cupcakes. We also rolled out a massive 'sheet' of pale green fondant to cover the main cake and then, we put edible pale gold ribbon around the bottom rim of the mud cake. 

Cupcakes covered by pale green fondant

Covering the White Chocolate Green Tea Mudcake with Fondant. It wasn't as daunting as we thought afterall...

Covered mud cake with edible pale gold ribbon

We cut out a few hundreds of flower-shaped decorations to be used on cupcakes and the mud cake. All flowers were brushed with white shimmering glitter for a prettier finish and some flowers were decorated with metallic cachous.

Cutting flower-shaped decorations

More pretty flower decorations

In process of decorating the main cake

Finished cupcakes! I think it was past midnight when we finished all  them...

Day Three was probably the most fun and rewarding day for both of us as we got to see the final product! Yey!
It was such an accomplishment for us, i have to say. *tears...J also tears...

More photos of the finishing product...

Sorry for the long post, just felt like a proud mum!

Handmade Market Canberra

I was so happy when i made it to the Handmade Market Canberra last Saturday, even though i could only spend half an hour there. Handmade Market takes place every three months and the next one is set to be on the 4th December. You can still check out some of the designers at Shop Handmade Canberra (City Walk Blvd Canberra City) if you missed out on the market and can't wait until December.

The weather was so perfect on Saturday and i do regret for not being able to stay longer. There were so many stalls with lovely handmade jewelry, crafts, clothing, dolls and the most important of all...FOOD! With only half an hour in my hand, i managed to visit Real Chai, Dream Cuisine, Batemans Bay Nut Roasting Company and Sweet Petite. I think that is quite an achievement!

At first, i was trying to spot the area where most food stalls would be and once i got there i was instantly attacted by the beautiful cupcake tower from Sweet Petite.

All the cupcakes were beautifully decorated and totally fit the theme "Sexy and Luscious". I got a Sexy Red Velvet cupcake and a Sultry Black Forest cupcake. Loved the Sultry Black Forest Cupcake for its moist chocolate base, lovely chewy cherry goodness in the centre and the pretty and not overly sweet frosting *wants more now...

The Sexy Red Velvet cupcake wasn't as moist and the icing was a bit sweet for my liking, but it still looked gorgeous.

After this, i was looking forward to try Dream Cuisine's macarons. On my way to find it, i managed to taste a small cup of the RealChai Original (with milk and honey) and some freshly roasted Honey Macademias from Batemans Bay Nut Roasting Company. The Chai was good and macademias were lovely. I definitely have to try the RealChai Chocolate and other roasted nuts next time!

My final stop was Dream Cuisine - a simple stall with lovely macarons, tarts, florentines and brownies. I tried a bit of the Raspberry macaron, the Passionfruit macaron and small slice of brownie (nice!) there and bought another four macarons to take home. I got Cherry, Salted Caramel, Honey & Lavender and Pistachio & Lime macarons. I liked all the macarons but my favorite ones were the Cherry and the Pistachio & Lime.

I liked the Cherry macaron as it had a bit of cherry in the middle and filled with a delicious milk chocolate ganache; liked the Pistachio & Lime for its refreshing and light taste. Honey & Lavender was quite unique but it took me a second bite to like it and lastly, loved the saltiness that accentuated the caramel in the Salted Caramel macaron.

Ever since my visit to the market, i've been having cravings for cherries...what is your latest crave?

HK: 金華冰廳 Kam Wah Cafe

"They are famous for their egg tarts and pineapple buns" - mom tells me, pointing to a cafe. The next thing i realize, is that we are inside Kam Wah Cafe (G/F, 47 Bute Street, Prince Edward) waiting to be seated. By now, mom and all the members of my family are used to me taking photos of food whenever we go out to eat. It is almost like a ritual now. They even suggest places to go so that i can blog about them later.

Kam Wah Cafe has been around for a few decades (at least 30-40 years) according to mom, and they serve famous egg tarts, pineapple buns and good HK-style milk tea. It is located in the busy streets of Hong Kong and i guess their big blue name plaque helps one to find the place.

Left: Other HK style cakes and pastries; Right: a tray full of freshly baked Pineapple Buns!*drools

On all the occasions that i visited Kam Wah Cafe, the place was always full. Thus, if you are going there by yourself, don't find it weird if they put you in the same table with someone else. If you are thinking to take away some of their famous egg tarts and pineapple buns instead, expect a queue as well. Freshly baked pineapple buns and egg tarts come out quite often...maybe every 10-15 minutes (from what i've noticed).

As soon as we got seated, we knew what to get: pineapple buns (波羅包), egg tarts, 猪仔包 (some kind of bun) and HK-style milk tea. The egg tarts were quite disappointing, to be honest. It didn't have the WOW-factor that i was expecting but they were not bad. The freshly baked pineapple buns, on the other hand, were hands down! The crust was awesome and the bun was soft. NOTE: It is highly recommended to have the pineapple bun with a slab of cold butter! Definitely the highlight of the afternoon tea together with the Milk Tea. The blend of tea was nice and the use of 'Black & White Evaporated Milk' makes the milk tea very flavoursome with a super 'smooth' texture.

The highly-acclaimed Egg Tarts

The awesome Pineapple Bun w/o butter.

猪仔包 was ordered for granny since she doesn't like eating 'unhealthy' food - it just tastes like plain bread, if you must know its taste.

Deliciously smooth and flavoursome HK-style Milk Tea

Kam Wah Cafe is small, crammed and busy, but you can truly experience a typical HK-style afternoon tea. The food is inexpensive and the service is fast, definitely worth a visit for its Pineapple buns and the Milk tea. What was cool? Seeing the same 'old uncle' coming out every 10-15 minutes with a tray of freshly baked goodies and shouting 'Please Suu-cue-suu me'!

Cupp'd - Cupcakes and Dreams

The first time that i learnt about Cupp'd - Cupcakes and Dreams was when a friend of mine became a fan of it on Facebook. As a person who likes cupcakes, i decided to see what was Cupp'd Cupcakes all about. To my delight, Cupp'd is based in Canberra and offers cupcakes that are made-to-order. I immediately e-mailed Malanda letting her know that I was interested in trying out her cupcakes. She was so kind to make me some chococate and vanilla cupcakes and i picked them up right after work. It's my fault that the cupcakes don't look as nice (the icing melted a tad bit) because i ended up spending more time than i expected shopping. It's the end-of-financial-year-sales time! *hehehe

Cupcakes with smarties and cachous: chocolate cupcakes
Cupcake with cachous: vanilla cupcakes

The good thing about Cupp'd Cupcakes is that they don't have that commercial taste that you'll find in a lot of the mass-produced cupcakes. I simply adored the vanilla ones, they were moist and soft *thumbs up. The chocolate cupcakes were nice (a bit less moist than the vanilla ones) but i think they needed a bit more of chocolate in the base since they didn't have a chocolate icing. Overall, nice and lovely cupcakes and i might even order a batch of 'Cookies & Cream' sometime soon!

For more information and details on cupcake flavours, visit Cupp'd facebook page. If you would like to order some Cupp'd Cupcakes contact Malanda on malanda@cuppd.com

Macarons from Croissant D'Or

Macarons. Macarons. Macarons...how i love them!

Pretty and delicate little gems that just make you go 'Awww...' I have yet to perfect them but as for now, i'm pretty happy to just buy some. As far i am aware, the only places that sells macarons here in Canberra are Croissant D'Or and Flute Bakery (let me know if there are other places in Canberra that sells them!).

Croissant D'Or (33 East Row, Civic) is a small French Patisserie located just in the heart of city that offers a great range of bread rolls, cake slices, pies, tarts, petit fours (which includes macarons), cake-to-order and coffee. One of my favorite bread rolls is the Spinach & Fetta Roll which is probably the one that i get the most often from Croissant D'Or. I've tried a cake or two from Croissant D'Or before i had this blog (so no photos!!!) and as far as i can remember, my memory tells that the cakes were quite moist and delicious! *hoping to do a Croissant D'Or cakes blog post - recruiting tasting partners now!*

Well, well, well...after so many visits to Croissant D'Or, i finally decided to try their macarons - also because i was craving for them - and the flavours that were available on the day were: Cointreau, Noisettes (hazelnut flavoured), Raspberry, Chocolate, Coffe and Pistachio. Obviously, i bought one of each flavour and finished them all on the same day! Talk about greedy, huh? The macarons were not as 'wow' as i was expecting and the sizes were not very even. Some macarons had very hollow shells whereas some were perfect but the most disappointing thing was that in most of the macarons, the fillings were not enough...leaving the impression that they were not made with the utmost care. Taste wise, they were okay and my favorite of the bunch was probably the Raspberry Macaron followed by the Chocolate Macaron.

I like Croissant D'Or for its cakes and bread rolls but not sure if i would go back for the macarons though. *sad

High Tea @ Rydges Capital Hill

Winter is certainly coming with temperatures hitting lower each day and gradually seeing the transition from autumn to winter reflected in the beautiful trees of Canberra. High teas are nice around this time of the year because that cup of lovely tea will just warm you up! Not to mention all the delicious finger foods and tea cakes that comes in that beautiful two or three-tiered cake stands. Having read in the magazine that  Rydges Capital Hill (Corner of Canberra Ave & National Cct, Forrest) was bringing the tradition of British High Tea to Canberra, i became utterly excited and made a booking for the grand opening day!

Upon arriving at High Tea, we were immediately greeted with a smile by a friendly staff. We were seated next to the window which was really great for taking photos! All the tables were nicely laid with white tablecloths and pretty floral plates; the atmosphere was nice, relaxing and with beautiful music played by a harpist.

We started our afternoon High Tea by choosing our teas from the selection of fine teas that they had. We decided to go for Earl Grey and Green Tea & Jasmine tea. The three-tiered set selection of sweet cakes, savoury pasties, finger sandwiches, homemade scones came not too long after the tea. Here is the selection of food that we had:

Egg & Chive Finger Sandwich
Classic Salmon & Cucumber Finger Sandwich

Spinach & Tomato Quiche

Chicken & Brie Petit Tart

Buttermilk & Fruit Scone with Jam and Cream

Fresh Fruit Tart
Elegant miniature Tea Cake
Indulgent Chocolate Petit Four
Dainty Cup Cake

I liked the sultana scones as they were nice and soft and they obviously complemented really well with the jam and cream. I also liked the chicken & brie tart combination and would have liked it more if it was served warm. The passionfruit cupcake was lovely and not too sweet.

I found that there wasn’t a good balance of sweets and savouries. There were way too many sweets (i know some people wouldn't mind this) and i would have preferred to have a bit more of savoury bites. I would have also preferred the quiche and the tart to be served warm as supposed to cold. Apart from those things, i had a good time and the service was great.

Since it was High Tea at Rydges Capital Hill’s grand opening, we were given a little box of truffles as a thank you gift. High Tea at Rydges Capital Hill is available every Sunday from 12pm to 4pm for $38 per person. If you do happen to go to Rydges for High Tea, don’t forget to read the little section on ‘High Tea Etiquette’ at back of the menu...i found it interesting!

Mini Macha Chiffon Cake

Having recently bought a chiffon cake tin from a Japanese shop, i finally decided to use it. I decided to make a macha chiffon cake because i was craving for it and also because here in Canberra, macha cakes are not as common as Sydney. Yes, macha cakes are a luxury here!

The recipe yields two mini macha chiffon cakes and they turned out spongy and soft; it wasn't as sweet as i would have liked it to be because i ran out of caster sugar (fail!). I covered the cakes with whipped cream, sifted some macha powder on top and decorated with some multi-coloured cachous pearls. The cake tastes the best without being refrigerated because once you put it in the fridge, it turns dense (as you can see from the photos). I had to refrigerate the second cake as it was covered with cream and i was too full to eat it after finishing the first one.

Mini Macha Chiffon Cake (yields two 10cm cakes)

Ingredients

-100ml of full cream milk

-1 1/2 tbsp of macha powder

- 75g of unsalted butter

- 90g of low protein plain flour, sifted

- 4 eggs, separated

- 100g of caster sugar (this should give you the right sweetness)

- 300ml of whipping cream

- 2 tbsp of caster sugar

Method:

1) Whisk macha powder and milk in a saucepan until well blended. Make sure you there are no macha clumps left in the mixture.

2) Add in butter and put the mixture over a stove. Stir until butter is melted and allow the mixture to cool.

3) Pour the macha mixture into a big bowl and beat in the flour and the egg yolk alternately (do this in 3 batches).

4) In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, add in caster sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

5) Fold in 1/3 of the whites mixture into the macha mixture, mix well. Then, fold in the rest of the egg white mixture and mix well.

6) Pour mixture into two chiffon cake tins and bake in a preheated oven of 170C for 25 minutes or until set.

7) Remove the cakes from the oven and invert them immediately on a cake rack.

8) Whip the cream with caster sugar and cover the macha chiffon cake with it. (Remember to only cover the cake with whipping cream once the cake has been completely cooled down)

Ready to be served!