Strawberry

I love to eat fresh strawberry...only fresh strawberry..I don't really fancy whatever foods or drinks that is strawberry base. But in Malaysia the strawberry are very expensive particularly, the one that are imported. Yes, we do have our own strawberry plantation but the fruit is quite small compare to the imported one and I found that they are very sour. Little that I know at that time that its the weather & soil that make strawberry either sweet or sour. 

I first bought my strawberry plant more than 3 years ago. I started with just 3 baby strawberry plant. The harvest was not so great during the first year so I thought ok..nevermind.

This is our very own strawberry planter box, which we made from recycle materials from the barn. If you live in the countryside, you need to be handy and creative I guess. We decided that it may need a big planter box like this as the plant will spread all over through the years and what do you know, from 3 strawberry plant now I have more than 30 strawberry plant. Each year it gives me berries more than I can consume, which I made into a jam, berry juice, ice cream or as part of baking ingredients.

The strawberry plant is up and alive now as soon it will flower. 

Tadaaa....now all the plants have flower on it. When it start to flower that is the time that the plant need water the most. I normally water the plant twice a day, morning & evening. Not enough water will make the berry sour. When it started to bear berry, we will cover the whole planter box with netting to avoid other living creature eat it especially the deer as we do have quite a number of deer around here.

I will update you guys once the berry is visible.

  

Winter is coming

How time flies..now we are approaching the end of 2015 and as the end is coming..so is winter! Most of the tree has shed its leaves. Therefore, our compound are full of dead leaves..not really a beautiful sight..but what to do..

But I kindda love to see all the 'leaveless' tree...

This year, I must say, it is quite a mild autumn. We still experience sunshine most of the day and the temperature is still double digit. Normally, when it is November, the temperature hardly be more than 10C. We experience more rainy days as we enter the month of November but not so much as I has expected and not as much as compare to previous year.

One of those moment when the field is clear..so I can see my neighbour ...yes..that house over there is my nearest neighbour..huhuhu..

This is the time for HIBERNATION! Hhahah...I would love to run outside but nowadays, my body not as 'leathery' as it use to be. Age is catching up I guess and the cold just get to your bone. So better keep myself warm inside and just play with the lil' one. Since it is his first winter,I do not know how he will take it so I just want to be on the safe side and keep him warm inside. Hehhehe..

No gardening has been done this year for me as I arrived here at the end of summer. No point of planting anything besides potato because soon, they will all wither due to the cold weather. But my chilies and lemon plant are already indoor now. Won't want to leave it outside. So sure DIE!

 Therefore, explain the empty 'man made greenhouse'..I keep my tomato and chili plant inside but now..its all indoor.

This is my strawberry 'area'. This year it has bear me lots of berry and I hope next year, it will multiply its harvest. :)

Last night we experienced a strong storm, hence...this is what happen to my flower...hhhuhu...bunga kecundang...

Oh..since it is November...I guess it is time to get the house ready for CHRISTMAS! And we just purchase our first santa ..

Strawberry Lemon Torte

I have been planning to do a torte for weeks but I keep forgetting to get the lemon. So, when I finally bought the lemon, I get straight to work. I need to make the base, the mousse (main filling) and the ladyfingers (but I am not baking the ladyfinger, instead, I used the ready made one since I have some in the pantry).

First thing first, we need to do the base, which is also the same batter with the ladyfingers (that is if you're making it by yourself). To make ladyfingers batter, you need eggs, flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla and white sugar. U need to separate the yolk and white. Then beat the egg white and add 1 tsbp of the sugar. Beat it until it is stiff and shiny.

 Then beat the egg yolk in a separate mixing bowl with the remaining sugar. When mixing is pale yellow, add the whipped egg white and stirred. 

Finally add the flour and vanilla & continue on mixing for a minute or two.

Fill a pastry bag with the mixture and pipe it using a plain tip in a circle motion by moving inward to fill the circle. Make sure you grease and flour the baking sheet just after you measure the diameter ok. Bake the base for 10-15 minute in a 200C temperature.  Or until just firm on the outside but soft in the centre. So, the base will look something like this..heheh...

Put it aside and let it cool off for a few minutes.

Ingredient for the base (if you are making your own ladyfinger, you need to double this measurement ok):

• 1 tbsp butter for greasing
• 1/2cup of flour + 1tbsp for greasing
• 1 tbsp + 1/3 cup of sugar
• 2 egg, separated
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of vanilla

Now, it's time for the lemon mousse. We need to get the lemon zest first before we squeeze the juice. Normal measurement is 1tsp of lemon zest but I love the smell of lemon zest in my baking and I love the taste so I used a lot of it. For this mousse, I am using 1 whole lemon for the zest.

Then, get the juice. Add the lemon juice with 1/2 of the sugar & bring it to simmer.

In a separate mixing bowl, mix the egg yolks and the remaining sugar.

Mix until it is pale yellow..

I hope you keep an eye on your lemon syrup. Don't let it over boil yeah. Once it start to simmer, remove it from heat and pour into the egg mixture.

Continue on mixing the mixture for a few minutes then pour back the mixture into the pot, and heat it up until you see the first bubble start to appear. Don't forget to keep whisking it while heating.

Once the first bubble appear, remove from heat back to the mixing bowl. Whipped the mixture until cool. Then add the butter and lemon zest...

Mix it..

In another mixing bowl, whipped the cream until it is stiff and thick.

Then add the whipped cream into the egg & lemon syrup mixture in two batches..

Ingredient for lemon mousse;

• 1/4 cup of lemon juice ( equivalent to 1 large lemon)
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1 tsp of lemon zest or as much as you like
• 3/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1 cup of fresh strawberry

Next, we assemble the ladyfinger & the base. I am using a cake tray for this as I need something to support it. It look something like this..

If you want it to look perfect, you need to make sure the ladyfinger is the same height with the cake tray. But I do not want to cut too much so I just cut the bottom part of the ladyfinger just to give it stability. Next, pour half of the mousse batter and add some slices of strawberry.

Pour the other half of the mousse batter and even it up on top. 

Chill it over night. The longer the better actually. And it is ready to be serve.:)

Have fun trying!

Othello Layered Cake

Suddenly I wanted to bake something with marzipan. The first time I tried anything with marzipan, I really loathed it but slowly the taste creep on me and now I can accept it. I'm not saying I am a huge fan but at least, when I eat it I don't fill like eating a poison! Hahha..There are lots of cake/biscuit that I can bake with marzipan but when I accidentally came across a picture of this cake in one of the supermarket brochure, I knew I want to bake it.

This cake is very tedious to make and for that reason, I only bake it when I reallllllyyy want to eat it. And I need to find other people to eat it too because I only need a slice or two to satisfied my craving. Why do I said it is tedious? Well, because there are so many step to go through in order to complete the whole cake. The making of each part of the cake is pretty simple and the ingredients also not that many. But because I will not buy things I can bake/cook unless I am super duper lazy that is..so I ignore the hard part & looking forward to eat a slice!!

There are seven step in making this cake and seven different part that you need to do and assemble to get the complete cake. Now, I will show the 1-7 steps, plus the ingredient of each part so you can get rough idea of the whole process.

First, I make the marzipan base. I prefer to do this first as that is the base of the cake anyway. All you need is marzipan, white sugar and egg white.

My marzipan is yellowish in color. You can find either white or yellow marzipan..

Broke it into small pieces using your finger then add the sugar..

Add the egg white..

And mix it all using a hand mixer..

Then place it in the same tray that you will bake the layer cake later on so that it will have the same size. Place the baking sheet on the base of the baking tray & pour the marzipan base inside the baking tray. 

And bake for 20 minutes in a 200C temperature. Well, some people like to bake it on a piece of baking paper without using any baking tray. You can do that but make sure you measure the size first before piping the marzipan on top of the baking paper. Once it is bake, leave it aside to cool off while we make the layer cake. But before that, here's the ingredients for the marzipan base;

• 200gm of marzipan
• 3 eggs white
• 125gm of sugar

Secondly, we will do the vanilla cake bundt aka the layered cake. The ingredients; flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder and vanilla sugar. 

Mix the flour & baking power in a mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg and sugar, then add the vanilla sugar.

Then add the dry ingredients & mix with a spatula.…

So, you will get your batter and it is ready to bake in the oven.

You need two vanilla cake, so you either bake it in one tray & separate it later or you can bake it separately in two baking tray (make sure you divide it evenly). As for me, I just used the same tray (same tray that I used for my marzipan base) & divided it into two cake later on. Bake the cake in a 200C temperature for 10 minutes. Leave it to cool off for a few minutes & take it out from the tray. Here my vanilla cake…already cut into two cakes..:)

And here the ingredients;

• 125gm of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 125gm of flour
• 3/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla sugar

Now, we move to the third part, that is the vanilla cake cream. Ok..for this one..sorry eh, no picture. It is not easy to bake & take picture at the same time especially when your hand is covered with flour! Hahah..so I just provide the end product, the method & ingredients ok. Hehhe..

Ingredients for the vanilla cake cream;

• 2 eggs
• 30gm of cornflour
• 2 tbsp of vanilla sugar
• 1/2 L of milk
• 75gm of sugar

To do the cream, you need to beat the egg in a saucepan and slowly adding the cornflour (using low heat). Then add the vanilla sugar, milk and white sugar. Keep stirring and let it boil for 1/2 to 1 minutes. Once the texture of the cream is thick & a bit sticky, removed from heat & place in a bowl & cover with cling film. Put inside the fridge until you need it later. This how it should look like..a bit sticky..thick & yellowish.

Now we need to assemble the cake..this is the four part. Placed the marzipan base on your chosen cake plate & spread some strawberry jam on the top. Making sure you cover all the top surface. Then spread some vanilla cake cream on top of the strawberry jam. Don't used all the vanilla cake cream because you still need it for the other layer. Yes..it look very messy..

…but don't worry, it will look better. :) Then stack one layer of the vanilla cake on top…

As you can see from this picture..I cut some part of the cake on the side. This is because you need to make sure that all part of the cake are equally. So..apa lagi..I potong la. Hehhe..Don't worry, It will look nice. Then spread some more of the vanilla cake cream on top of the cake. And stake another cake on top..

So, basically you have a 3 layered cake. Now..you can see right some of the jam & cream coming out from the side. What you do is, using a spatula or spread knife..even up all the cream. I used it to cover all the 'imperfection'..

There you go..heheh..

Ok. We move to the fifth part that is to do the marzipan cover. All you need is marzipan, icing sugar & liquid glucose (you can get this in a bakery shop).

Before that, you need to sprinkle some icing sugar on the counter top or rolling mat (like the one I have) so that you can rolled the marzipan easily as the liquid glucose is very sticky. For this, you need to measure the height of your cake and the measurement around your cake because you need to cover the cake with it.

Mix the liquid glucose with the marzipan & knead the marzipan dough while gradually adding the icing sugar. Then roll it according to your measurement..and it look like this (in my case)..

  Remember the cream that 'spilling' out from the cake & I told you to evenly spread it to the side….yes, the function of that cream is to act as 'glue' for the marzipan cover. Before you cover the cake with marzipan, use the last remaining cream cake and spread it on top of the cake..

Then carefully, take the marzipan cover & slowly cover the cake with it. Gently pressing the marzipan to the cake..and you get this..

You might realized that the marzipan cover is a bit higher than the cake. Yes..that is purposely done. You will know why soon! Hehhe..

Ingredient for marzipan cover;

• 150gm of marzipan
• 175gm of icing sugar (including to sprinkle on the counter top for rolling)
• 50gm of liquid glucose

So, now we move to the sixth part ( I told you doing this cake is a lengthy process!! ). We will do the frosting, which for this cake, we're using chocolate ganache. 

I just melt the chocolate button in a microwave then slowly stir it as I gradually adding the cream (only two ingredients). Nice & easy. No measurement for this ingredient..u need to know the texture u need...When you get the right texture..not too runny..not too thick..you just spread it on top of the cake..

Now you see why the marzipan cover have to be higher? Heheh..to avoid the chocolate ganache to spill over.

And the seventh and last step…phewww…by now, I am already tired and my feet is killing me!! The last one is the topping and luckily it's just whipped cream! Pour some cream into a mixing bowl & whipped until it's stiff enough. How to check whether the whipped cream is OK..well just turn the bowl upside down. If the cream do not fall off, then it is stiff enough. :) Using a piping bag…I piped the whipped cream on top of the cake..

For the topping, I only used 1/2 cup of cream.

So..there you go. Othello Layered Cake..now it's time for me to enjoy a slice..

Ps. It's sweet so 1slice is enough with lots of plain water. Hehhehe...