イチゴの愛

Mango Mousse 2

2009-05-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

I made it again. But this time, i added a pure mango layer on top and also used a vanilla cake for the bottom.

yum!

Before the fruit:

San Diego Flan

2009-05-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

So while I was visiting my friends in SD we had a go in making flan!

looks pretty good right? It's surprisingly simple to make.

We were suppose to use heavy cream... but somehow we ended up with whipping cream. but it still worked pretty much the same with the exception of some bubbles present.

ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks
~2/3 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Melt about 1/4 cup sugar in a pan until it turns slightly brown, like honey. Pour the caramelized sugar into a glass container.
2. Beat the eggs.
3. Mix heavy cream and the rest of sugar with the eggs.
4. Pour mixture into the glass container.
5. Prepare a hot water bath using a larger container.
6. Place the glass container into the water bath and carefully place into oven.
7. bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. poke a skewer into it to check if it has thickened. (we had put some Kahlua in ours which we forgot would raise the boiling point and had to raise the temperature to over 400 degrees. oops! so keep that in mind... if you see that its not solidifying...)
8. Take the flan out and let it cool. when it is still warm, use a knife to carve around the sides and loosen it. Put a plate over it and flip! It should plop right out.

yay!

Durian Mousse Green Tea Cake

2009-05-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

YAYyyyy Durian!

since i love durian... i thought i would try this... and it turned out delish!

So this recipe is pretty much the same as the mango mousse cake except replace mango with durian.

MAKING THE CAKE:

This time, I made some adjustments which made the cake turn out a lot better... It was softer, less rubbery, so simple, and saved a lot more eggs.

Ingredients:
1. 3/4 cup all purpose flour.
2. 3 eggs
3. 1/4 cup sugar
4. 1/3 cup butter
5. 1 packet of green tea powder (about 1-2 teaspoons)

Directions:
1. separate egg whites from egg yolks.
2. blend egg whites until it becomes foamy.
3. mix egg yolks, sugar, butter, and flour together.
4. fold foamy egg whites into the mixture.
5. pour into baking pan.

bake cake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.(start checking on the cake after 10 minutes)

MAKING THE MOUSSE

Ingredients:
1. 1 package unflavored gelatin
2. 1 cup of durian puree
3. ~1 tsp sugar
4. 1 cup chilled whipping cream
5. 1/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
1. Puree fresh durian fruit until you make about 1 cup (or more, depending on preference)
2. Melt gelatin in simmering water.
3. blend gelatin with the durian puree.
4. blend whipping cream until it becomes thick, just barely about to form peaks.
5. mix puree and whipped cream together.
6. Using the same pan used to bake the cake, pour the mango mousse into it.
7. Place the baked cake on top of the mousse.
8. Let it set overnight to be safe ;)

Here's what it looks like:

ASSEMBLY

1. Soak the outside of the pan in warm-hot water to loosen the mousse (5-10 seconds).
2. Put plate on top, and flip the pan.
3. After cake pops out, you are ready to decorate!

DECORATION:

This time, i used bittersweet chocolate chips and piped out a crosshatch design. It made it look very elegant.

To do this:

1. Melt chocolate chips in a small pot inside another pot filled with hot water. Do not get water inside!
2. When chips turn shiny, start mixing until smooth.
3. spoon chocolate into a ziplock bag and cut a small tip of the corner off.
4. pipe out design onto wax paper.
5. Let it sit in room temperature until it hardens. Or you can stick it into the fridge which is what i had to do because it wouldn't harden in this warm weather!
6. Place hardened shapes onto your beautiful cake.

fruit assembly:

this time I just used canned peach halves.

the roundness and symmetry of the peaches added a nice simple touch.

Wala! The final product!

Enjoy!

Mango Mousse Green Tea Cake

2009-04-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile! But i come bearing a delicioso recipe.

This mango mousse cake is easy and so simple to make! i was worried that the texture of the mousse wouldn't be as smooth and creamy like the kind you taste at some fancy cake shop but it turned out the way i wanted it. So happy =].

I made this for my dad's birthday and my whole family enjoyed it =).

This recipe involves 3 parts:

MAKING THE CAKE

The sponge cake I made turned out pretty well. It is more of a firm spongy kind of cake which i think is appropriate for this recipe because of certain techniques used. The cake is lain over the surface of the mousse while it is setting, so a firm cake would prevent the moisture from the mousse from sogging the cake. However, I think next time I want to try using a more moist and soft cake. Just whatever you prefer would work i think.

Note: I used 1/2 the batter produced to make one 1 inch layer of an 8x8 inch cake. If you want, you can make 2 cakes.

ingredients:
1. 7 eggs
2. 1 cup all purpose flour (or you can try cake flour. maybe that would make it softer. I just did not have any available)
3. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4. 1/4 cup honey
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract
6. 1-2 tbls green tea powder
7. 1/4 tsp salt.

Directions:

1. separate egg yolks from egg whites into 2 bowls.
2. Pour and blend all ingredients with the egg yolks.
3. blend the egg whites until it becomes foamy
4. incorporate the egg whites into the batter
5. Pour the cake batter into a baking pan with the preferred cake shape, until it is 1 inch high.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. the top should be SLIGHTLY brown when it is ready.
7. Cool the cake until lukewarm.
8. flip the pan upside down and let the cake fall out.
9. Clean pan.

MAKING THE MOUSSE

Ingredients:
1. 1 package unflavored gelatin
2. 4-5 mangoes
3. 1 tsp sugar (sugar really isn't that necessary if you want a more natural taste. i just put about this much and it tasted great since the mangoes are really sweet in itself)
4. 1 cup chilled whipping cream
5. 1/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Pit the mangoes and blend them until smooth. Leave it in the fruit blender.
2. Melt the gelatin in simmering water.
3. Pour gelatin/water in the mango puree and blend again.
4. Whip the cream with a hand blender until it becomes thick and peaks are formed. This takes awhile... maybe 5-10 minutes.
5. Incorporate the mango into the whipped cream and fold together.
6. Using the same pan used to bake the cake, pour the mango mousse into it.
7. Place the baked cake on top of the mousse.
8. Let it set overnight to be safe ;)

ASSEMBLY

1. Soak the outside of the pan in warm water to loosen the mousse.
2. Put plate on top, and flip the pan.
3. After cake pops out, you are ready to decorate!

For this part, i used white chocolate sheets to line the outside. You can use regular or white chocolate chips as well. To do this:

1. Melt chocolate chips in a small pot inside another pot filled with hot water. Do not get water inside!
2. When chips turn shiny, start mixing until smooth.
3. Use knife and spread out chocolate thinly over wax paper on a cold surface. Back of a baking sheet works well.
4. Let it sit in room temperature until it hardens.
5. Cut the chocolate into desired shapes.

fruit assembly:
I used strawberries and canned peaches for my cake. The only part I want to improve is that the syrup from the canned peaches was too runny. I would recommend drying the fruits as much as possible, and then glazing the fruit with something thicker, Maybe i will try apricot jam next time. However, Even without a thick glaze, it still tasted good.

That's it! Next is.. Eat it! = )

Yum!

Cinnamon Peach Tart

2008-09-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yay for Peaches!

This was really fast and easy to make with minimal ingredients. It's always a pain to find a delicious recipe and then find that you don't have something. Therefore, I combined 2 recipes because i didn't have all the ingredients from one and made this! You just need very basic items.

Crust: ( I guess you can buy it pre-made but that's no fun)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (cut into small pieces for easier mixing)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
3-5 tablespoons ice water

Pretty simple right?! Usually people have all these items except maybe not the flour for non-avid bakers. Yay for a short shopping list.

1. Combine flour butter, egg yolk, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of the cold water into the lovely mixture.

2. Form a workable dough. You hands are your best tool and adds a secret flavor. jk! that's gross. But yea, just use your hands.

3. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Whew that was fast. Now onto the filling.

Filling:

2-4 peaches
3 Tbsp sugar (can vary depending how sweet peaches are or how sweet you want it)
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon (if you don't like cinnamon, i guess u can leave it out. it definitely adds pizazz)
1 egg white (just use the whites from the egg you used for the crust)

1. Throw together the peaches, flour, cinnamon, and sugar into a bowl- mix.

2. Take dough out of fridge, and knead into a nice flat circle.

Imagine how thick you want the crust to be and flatten accordingly. You can make a big circle for a big tart, smaller circle for a small one. I've entertained the idea of making star shapes or floral shapes just to make it more fun. I'll have to try that next time. Be creative!

3. Pour the peaches onto the pie crust

4. Gently fold the crust about 2 inches over the peaches, leaving the center of fruit uncovered.

5. Use a brush or a spoon and glaze the outside of the dough with the egg white. Into the oven it goes!

Preparation time: 30-60 minutes.
Bake Time: 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
temperature: 450 F

Bake some love into it and serve it to a special someone. That's all it takes.

Here is a lovely side shot.

I was able to make two 7 inch Tarts, using 2 peaches only.

It came out really well and was full of homemade deliciousness. The crust was especially good. I think next time i would add more sugar to the peaches because i used white peaches which are naturally not as strong in flavor as regular peaches. You can definitely substitute the peaches with apples, berries, anything etc. I'm also entertaining the idea that it would make a good pizza of some sort. like with tomatoes... and spinach... hmm...

Anyway, finish drooling and try it out! = )

Fried Rice Medley

2008-09-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

I made this today and it was super delicious!

time: about 30 minutes. maybe less.

Ingredients:

tablespoon of oil
salt
sugar
a few garlic cloves
cabbage
carrots
onions
cilantro
mushrooms
beef
eggs
water

I basically eyeballed the amount of everything. It depends on how much rice you want to make and which ingredients you prefer. However I recommend you use minimal salt and oil and add more salt by taste. For an estimation, for about 3 bowls of rice, start with about 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt.

Instructions:

Turn up the heat to the higher end. Add oil, and throw in the garlic and onions in first because they need longer cooking for it to soften and release flavor. Once it gets sizzling, add the rest of the ingredients in except the eggs. If you feel the rice is too dry, add some water to the pan (2-3 tablespoons). Once it gets very hot, crack the eggs directly into the pan and mix thoroughly and evenly. The cilantro really gives it a nice smell and flavor. At the end, add some green onions and siracha sauce and enjoy!

Banana and Raspberry Crepes

2008-09-21T15:06:00.001-07:00

Yumm. Crepes are Delish and very easy to make. Here's how!

Ingredients:

Crepe:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 large eggs

Topping:
Nutella
Bananas
Raspberries
cinnamon (optional)

1. Gather up all your items. You can use whipped cream in place of Nutella, but for those of you who haven't tried it before, go now and get some!

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, milk, water, melted butter, and eggs into a bowl.

3. Mix well.

4. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan.

Quickly tilt pan in a circular motion so that batter covers the pan with a thin film. Keep tilting until the batter stops running. Cook for about 1 minute. Lift the edge of the crepe with a spatula to test if ready.

5. When the crepe can be shaken loose from the pan and the underside is lightly brown, you're ready to flip it! If you are too scared to flip, use your fingers and carefully grab the edges and flip it that way. cook for about 30 seconds.

6. Carefully place the crepes on a plate with a paper towel. Repeat the procedure with remaining batter. You may use wax paper to prevent sticking.

7. Grab tasty Nutella.

8. Slice bananas.

9. Slab on Nutella.

10. Sprinkle on raspberries.

11. Fold Twice.

12. Sprinkle on some cinnamon.

13. And wala! Your perfect crepe!