The Food Monologues

Fluffy Cream Filled Cakes with Fruit Topping

4 egg yolks
20 g castor sugar (or substitute with sweetner like stevia if going lower sugar)
35 g corn / vegetable oil
45 g full-fat milk
60 g self raising flour

4 egg whites
40 g castor sugar (can substitute with half sweetener - put the sweetner with the yolk mixture instead)

200ml whipping cream
1 tbsp castor sugar (or sweetener to taste)
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Fruit and Icing Sugar or Jam Glaze for garnish

Method
Line a 12 hole muffin cake pan with cake cases.
Preheat oven to 165°C ot about Gas Mark 3.

Separate the eggs into yolks and whites (making sure that the whites are in a large bowl that is greasefree and there is absolutely no yolk mixed in with the whites)
Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until stiff and you can turn the bowl upside down and the whites do not fall out

Then in a second bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and foamy, then add the oil and milk and then stir in the flour, making sure is it well mixed but do not over beat.  The start folding in the egg whites, a third at a time until you get a light foamy batter.

Spoon the batter into the cake cases and then bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the cakes are very well risen, golden brown and should feel very springy.

Take the cakes out of the oven and allow to cool.  The cakes will collapse down and sink and look wrinkly - but don't worry, they plump up once they are filled with cream.

Once the cakes are cool, whip the cream until a soft pipeable consistency with the vanilla extract and sugar to taste. Fill a piping bag, fitted with a nozzle with the cream and pump cream into the centre of each of the cup cakes.  The cakes should puff up with the cream.  Top with a little more cream and arrange fruit on top.

Labels: cake, cupcake, eggs, Recipe

I made a Miffy the rabbit cake for my niece.  Its just a simple chocolate cake covered in whipped Elmlea with dark chocolate eyes and a kiss for the mouth.  I was pretty pleased with the result and so was my niece.

Labels: Baking, birthday cake, cake, miffy, rabbit

My dad called me last night and asked if there was going to be bringing cakes round as it was my niece's birthday this week.  My sister told me that she was going to buy some cake to bring round, but I thought I had better make some low sugar cakes too, as my mum is diabetic and shouldn't really be eating cake, but as its a birthday treat I didn't want her to miss out.  So at eleven o'clock at night, I set about baking some Hokkaido cupcakes, which are filled mini chiffon cakes which are super light and fairly low in sugar.  I used this recipe, Hokkaido Cup Cake Recipe and tweaked the recipe a bit by using stevia sweetener for half the sugar in the recipe and scaled the recipe to a four egg recipe so that I could make 12 muffin sized cakes.

They rose beautifully in the oven and I had to wait for them to cool down before I could fill them and as soon as they cool down, they will deflate.  As it was past midnight when the cakes were done, I thought I would call it a night and would fill the cakes in the morning.

The early the next morning, as it was snowing outside, I really didn't fancy a trip to the local convenience store to see if they might have any cream, which is what I normally fill Hokkaido cupcakes with so I looked up a recipe for cream patissiere. that was not too sweet and that I had the ingredients for.  I found this Cream Patissiere Recipe that fit my bill.  Substituting with semi skimmed milk (because that was all I had) and replacing half the sugar with stevia again, I added a whole scraped vanilla pod in with the milk as well.  I have never made cream patisserie before but it was very straightforward and I was very pleased with the smooth rich taste - though with the stevia added it tasted a little too sweet, so maybe next time I will reduce the amount I add a little.

Chinese cream cakes, like the ones you get from a Chinese bakery are often topped with a vast array of fruit, and these cupcakes are a little bit like mini Chinese cream cakes.  In my fridge I had some blueberries and kiwi fruit and in my cupboard I had some tinned peaches, so I was good to go and prepped the fruit and was ready to assemble to cakes.  Filling the cakes with the cooled cream patissiere plumps the cakes back up and then topping with lots of fruit to complete the look.  Finally, I finished the cakes off with a small amount of apricot glaze made from apricot jam mixed with a splash of apple juice.

I was pretty pleased with the end result and they went down well with my family, my mum was happy to be able to have a little bit of cake and my dad insisted on keeping any of the remaining cakes for later .  I worked out that each cake contained about 150 calories each and contained about 6g of sugar in total.

Labels: Baking, cake, Using Sweeteners

One of Hubby's favourite cakes is Battenburg cake, and as I was in a baking mood this weekend, I agreed to make him some little cakes.  I followed the Hairy Biker's Battenburg Cake Recipe, but scaled back the recipe to two eggs as I was baking some other cakes as well this weekend.  The result were some petit four sized little cakes, perfect for afternoon tea on Sunday.

Labels: Baking, cake