Chocolate Orange Scones

It has been a long time, but I've finally had the time to post! Writing the entries don't take long but I'm really lazy at editing the photos, hehe. I feel bad that it has taken me this long to put this entry up, since I made these back in September. =X

I never cared much for making bread and quick bread on my own; sure, I love eating them, but they didn't seem exciting enough for me to recreate at home. However, I went to have afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver last month, and even though I enjoyed all of their savoury and sweet offerings, the only item that really wowed me was their citrus and lemon scones, served with Devonshire cream and berry preserves. There was just something so comforting and homey about those scones. Ever since then, I really wanted to reproduce that feeling which comes from eating something so deliciously simple, so I finally decided to try my hands at making scones.

Unfortunately I don't really remember what the hotel's scones were like exactly, but I did enjoy the hints of citrus in them, so I used what I have: orange zest. The chocolate chunks were added just because I had some leftover, and I know chocolate goes well with orange.

The scones themselves were great, albeit my underbaking them a little (by accident!) due to their thickness. The orange zest was a nice touch, and the chocolate provided a pleasant surprise when you happen to bite into it. I did not have any Devonshire cream, but I did use some strawberry jam with these scones, and the combination turned out really good. I was a bit iffy about the chocolate mixing with the strawberry flavour, but the taste of the jam was more dominant than the chocolate so it wasn't a problem.




Overall this was a good, easy recipe for basic scones. My scone craving is gone for now, but next time I would love to try adding different fruits to this recipe, and maybe get a little closer to the hotel's version.

Chocolate Orange Scones

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbsp chilled butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 tbsp orange zest

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat over to 425ºF.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and orange zest in a bowl. Cut in the the butter pieces using fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal with slightly larger butter lumps. (Alternatively, this process can be done in the food processor.)

Add the chocolate chunks and fold into the flour mixture.

Make a well in the centre and stir in the heavy cream with a spatula until a dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

Transfer the dough into a floured board or the counter top, and knead until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, about 10 seconds.

Form into a disk, and cut into 8 wedges (or your preferred shape).

Place the dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until the top is light brown in colour, about 12-15 minutes. Cool on a metal rack for 10 minutes.

Apologies!

I don't know if anybody will even read this, but regardless, please excuse the lack of recent content in this blog. I feel bad for neglecting it since September; I've just been swamped with things to do (mostly school-related) these past few months, and I haven't had time to bake and properly document them since 2 months ago. :( However, there's only one week left until this semester ends, and a few more weeks left until winter break starts, so I will be churning out new content soon!

Tuxedo Truffle Mousse Cake

I can't believe it's already September and summer is over! For the past few weeks I have been working and also enjoying my summer, so that means going out a lot and no baking. Now that the weather is starting to cool down and school is starting, I will be baking a lot more as a way to procrastinate from studying. ;)

First things first, recently fashion blogger Solo Lisa held a giveaway on her blog, and I won! Even though I have a baking blog, I follow mostly beauty/fashion blogs. If I had a better sense of style I probably would have one of those myself, but alas I'm better at baking so that's all you'll be seeing from me. =P Anyway, if fashion blogs is your thing, do check out Lisa's!

Now on to baking! Last year, for his birthday, my boyfriend asked me to make a "tuxedo cake". Having never heard of such a cake before, I turned to Google for help. Most of the results are of cakes shaped like a tuxedo, but I did come across this recipe for "tuxedo cake". Since I didn't know better, that was the cake I made.


Needless to say, it was the wrong kind of tuxedo cake. Last Christmas, I found out that the real tuxedo cake that my boyfriend wanted is the tuxedo truffle mousse cake sold at Save-on-Foods! Had I known this last year, I probably would've bought one to try first and then attempted to recreate it. So to redeem myself, this year I promised that I would make the real version. His birthday was in July so this post is terribly late, but it's better than never.


The cake turned out really good and tasted pretty much like the storebought version. My cake ended up being pretty messy, since I didn't have a rectangular mold to keep everything in the right shape, so I just had to make do with what I have. To be honest though, I would rather shell out the $20 or however much it costs to get one of these in store, because this cake is really time consuming to make. I had to bake the cake in advance (at least 1 day earlier), and it took another day to make the mousses and assemble the whole thing, while creating a lot of mess in between. However, it was a good experience to make something more complicated than usual, and at least now I know that I can recreate a storebought cake.

Matcha Tiramisu

I've probably said this before, but in the scorching August heat, it's safe to say that I want to stay as cool as possible and avoid using the oven. (I made an exception for my boyfriend's birthday cake, which will be talked about in the next post.) So when I had a housewarming party to attend a few weeks ago, I chose to make green tea tiramisu, the recipe for which I saw on House of Annie a while back. Before choosing to go with this particular recipe, I considered making either this chocolate bundt cake which has been on my to-bake list for some time, or this strawberry cheesecake tiramisu, which would take advantage of summer berries. But the former would mean having to use the oven, and the latter didn't win simply because I'm loving all sorts of green tea desserts these days. Plus, I simply love the pastel green colour that matcha powder imparts.

Since this recipe requires no baking, all I had to do was make the zabaglione component and assemble the dessert, which is the most time-consuming part of this recipe. I doubled the original recipe to fit an 8.5" round springform pan, and used 2 1/2 packs of ladyfingers. Here's a not-so-funny (for me) story: I decided on this recipe at the last minute and didn't have time to prep until the day of the party, so I spent hours in the morning running around town to search for ladyfingers, because my neighbourhood Safeway only had 1 pack left! That ought to teach me to plan better!


This dessert is definitely not something that's low in fat (just look at the ingredients!) but that means it's a suitable dessert to share at a party, and there was just enough for everybody, which means there was no opportunity to indulge in seconds!

Matcha (Green Tea) Tiramisu
adapted from House of Annie

Biscuit component:
Ladyfinger biscuits (I used 2.5 200-gr packs)
~1.5 cups brewed green tea, cooled

Zabaglione component:
6 egg yolks
scant 1 cup sugar
500 gr mascarpone cheese
3 tsp matcha powder
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a double boiler until it is pale yellow and doubled in volume. Cool the mixture in a cold water bath.

Beat the mascarpone cheese until it is smooth and creamy. Add matcha powder gradually, and mix well after each addition.

Fold the mascarpone mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

Whip the heavy cream, and mix it into the mascarpone mixture.

Assembly:

Line the sides of an 8.5" (or similar) springform pan with ladyfingers.

Dip both sides of ladyfingers in green tea and line the bottom of the springform pan. Do not dip for too long or the ladyfingers will be soggy.

Spread some of the zabaglione mixture on top of the ladyfingers until they are completely covered.

Top with more soaked ladyfingers, and layer on more zabaglione. Do this step 2 more times with the final layer being the zabaglione mixture.

Chill in the fridge for at least 3-5 hours or overnight.

Before serving, dust with matcha powder or icing sugar, or both.

Japanese Style Cheesecake

My first encounter with Japanese cheesecake was a few years back through the Miki Ojisan no Mise (ミキおじさんの店) chain that is available in several Asian countries. Japanese cheesecake is probably best described as soft and cottony, and a lot more like cheese-flavoured sponge cake rather being dense and rich. I love all kinds of cheesecakes, but the Japanese one is a little bit more guilt free than your regular New York style cheesecake.

This cake is definitely more time-consuming than regular NY cheesecakes where you just make the crust and dump the ingredients for the filling in a mixing bowl. However, the results are worth it; the cake has a mild cheese flavour and it's light, so you can have more than one (or in my case, most of it!) without feeling too guilty.



Unfortunately this cake didn't turn out perfect on my first try; I neglected to use a springform pan because I thought that the cake would not stick, since I had already painstakingly lined the pan with parchment paper. However, I forgot that I would have to invert the cake, and I did so on a bare plate (as opposed to one lined with parchment paper), so the top golden brown layer stuck to the plate!! It was very devastating, as the top layer was actually very delicious. So my cake ended up being naked and pale, although it was still very good.




So here are my tips: do use a springform pan to save yourself a lot of trouble and tears, and make sure you melt the cream cheese well, as any lumps that remain will sink to the bottom of the cake and get in the way of the desired smooth texture.

Japanese Style Cheesecake
adapted from Diana's Desserts

250 g/9 oz cream cheese
50 g/2 oz butter
100 mL milk
6 large eggs, separated
60 g/2 oz cake flour
20 g/1 oz cornstarch
140 gr/5 oz granulated sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Prepare a 8" round baking pan by greasing and lining it with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Melt cream cheese, butter and milk in a double boiler until there are no lumps. Then cool this cream mixture by placing the bowl/pot in another bowl filled with cold water.

In a medium bowl, add cream of tartar to the egg whites. Whisk until the whites are foamy. Add the sugar, and whisk again until the soft peak stage is achieved.

To the cream mixture, mix in egg yolks, salt, and lemon juice. Then gently sift the flour and cornstarch into this mixture.

Add the flour mixture into the egg whites gradually, and mix gently until everything is combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Prepare a bain-marie and place the cake pan in it; I used a large pan and filled it with enough water to make the cake pan float.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Take out the cake pan from the bain marie and cool the cake completely in the pan on a metal rack before serving.