HOT & STEAMY CHOCOLATE CAKE

Don't have an oven, you say?
Craving some chocolate cake made from scratch?
and only 2 eggs in your refrigerator?
Steamed Chocolate Cake

Don't despair...Asian "bakers" long ago discovered the joys of steaming their desserts.

I always enjoy a well-made Mah-Lai Goh (Malaysian Cake) at DimSum. It sometimes comes around on the steam carts and it isn't a very easily made cake. Not all restaurants can create the proper texture in the crumb. I like my Mah-Lai Goh tender, moist and full of caramelly flavour. Unfortunately, these cakes need to be eaten fresh from the steamer and don't last too well past a few hours.

I was clicking away around the internet the other day and came across a Steamed Chocolate Cake recipe. It called for evaporated milk and this tweaked in me nostalgia for those DimSum steamed cakes. Unfortunately, I've never seen chocolate anywhere in a Chinese Restaurant (too bad), but the technique is certainly Asian in technique.

A steamed cake may not sound too appealing to many, but in fact it can yield a very tender crumb. You don't get any of those golden brown edges on steamed cakes. Every inch of the cake, including the crust is very much like the center of the cake. The ease of this recipe is a bonus. You don't even need an electric mixer. In fact, most of these items can be found in your pantry. This cake only requires 2 eggs. It can be made into cupcakes or the batter can be divided.

The only problem is finding a vessel large enough to steam your 9" cake pan. I use a wide wok and set the cake pan on a rack in the water. The water doesn't touch the cake pan and I have about 1.5" clearance from the cake pan to my lid at least. My wok lid is too shallow and I need a higher-domed one, but I like it because it's glass and I can always check the water level without lifting the lid to take a peek.

Fortunately, this Steamed Chocolate Cake proved to keep better than the DimSum ones. I covered mine in plastic wrap and by the end of the evening, half the cake was gone. It was still moist.

My mom and the kids loved the cake and inhaled it during snack times. Don't worry...I didn't succumb to the sugar-cravings! I've kept on track and I'm still low-carbing. In fact, I've added running into my health regime and I've been running every day this week so far. Actually, correction: I run every night. By the time I've done my marking, put the kids to bed and everything else you need to do in a household, it's like 10pm! After my run and shower, I'm kind of still buzzed and can't always fall asleep until 11:30. There's no way I can fit the run in, in the morning because you-know-who still has night-wakings/nose-bleeds/night-terrors. These occur around 3a.m. consistently. So running in the a.m. is not happening! :p

In any case, the cake kept well into the next day for snacking in an air-tight plastic container. I didn't refrigerate it. I don't know if it can last longer than that because there wasn't anything left! Here's a Cakebrained tip: if you find the cake has survived into the second day and it's not as soft as you'd like, then simply re-steam that slice for a few minutes. Of course, this is only if you haven't frosted it!

This steamed cake is perfect even without frosting, but if you do intend to frost it, I'm sure it would prove to be excellent too. It slices very cleanly and isn't crumbly or dry. It would make a wicked cupcake. If you were making a tall frosted chocolate cake, I could envision a few problems after doubling the recipe: such as whether to steam both 9" cakes at once, to do them consecutively (would the batter hold well?) or finding two woks so you could steam both pans simultaneously.

Here's the recipe I found at Cuisine Asia.

STEAMED MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE
(adapted from Cuisine Asia)
makes one 9" round

185g unsalted butter
180g granulated sugar
200 ml evaporated milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125g all-purpose flour
70g cocoa powder
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla

Line and grease a 9"baking pan

Combine sugar, evaporated milk vanilla and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir until well mixed.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the egg mixture over the flour and stir until well mixed. Batter should be runny.

Heat up the steamer. Place a rack over the water.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place into the steamer on the rack. Cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. [I tented it slightly] Cover with wok lid.

Steam over medium heat for 45 minutes. [check water level occasionally to ensure the wok doesn't dry up]. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, steam for a further 5 minutes.

Cool the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.

MINI SUSHI

miniature sushi cones: so realistic you want to pop them in your mouth!

no, no, no...you can't eat them with a toothpick! It's fake food!

Here's some teeny tiny sushi cones for Bebe's dollhouse. The dolls are "Asian"--well, at least the PLAN toy company thinks they look Asian ( I personally think their hair-styles suck!)--and they have been hankering for some sushi...so along with their Pierre Herme Desserts, they're having some appetizing sushi.

I don't read Japanese so I have no idea what some of the fillings are inside the cones, but from the looks of some, there are fish eggs, fish, veggies, tamago and other such usual goodies. All I can tell is that one has a bamboo theme; another a flower blossom theme (spring?) and from my crappy understanding of asian characters, the other one has something to do with trees (a summer theme?)

This sushi set was one of those "surprise" sets. The salesgirl told me she couldn't guarantee which set I would get inside the box. There was one set with nigiri sushi, another had crab and another had rolls. I actually wanted the set pictured on the box (the nigiri sushi on the wooden tray) but I guess I'm not wholly disappointed with this set. They're quite cute. The sushi set was much cheaper than the Pierre Herme box I bought. This one clocked in at $8.49 CDN



For that price, I could have gotten 3 real-sized, edible sushi cones at my local Japanese restaurant. Ah well, like I said: the dolls have to eat! And BTW, I didn't buy anymore fake food nor do I intend to buy more fake food because now the dollhouse larder is full. They've got hand-made (by me!) FIMO fruits, veggies, hot dogs and burgers along with a fridge full of beverages. I just needed to make sure they had sushi and dessert. I mean, that's all one really needs to eat well in my books.

RED VELVET VALENTINE'S DAY CUPCAKES

What better for a kiddies' Valentine's day party than Red Velvet cupcakes? I will forego the traditional cream cheese frosting for a classic buttercream because this will hold up better and pipes beautifully. I wanted huge swirls of buttercream and little candy heart sprinkles.

I think this will go over well with the kindergarteners because it has all the elements of fun food: it's tiny, sweet, buttery, full of sprinkles and hand-held! Bib took a mini cupcake and scraped off all the frosting (as usual); leaving behind the cake. She didn't even taste the cake; nor was she interested in tasting it. Bebe ate the whole thing and nodded approvingly.

The recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes makes 24 regular cupcakes, but I wanted mini ones for the kids so I made a batch of 24 mini cupcakes and the rest of the batter filled up the remaining 14 regular-sized cupcake molds for the adults.

The batter mixes up easily and yes indeed, it uses a full 2 ounces (a huge bottle) of red food colouring. The resulting batter looks quite ghastly, but after it bakes, it deepens into a deep red.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
from The Artful Cupcake, by Marcianne Miller
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter or shortening, room temperature (I used butter, of course!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 oz red food colouring
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 t vanilla extract
1 T distilled white vinegar
1 T baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare the muffin pans with shortening or nonstick spray. Bake without paper cups to get smoother sides. [I used paper liners]
2. Cream together the butter/shortening and sugar until well blended and light and fluffy
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and blend well after each addition
4. Make a paste with the food colouring and cocoa. Add the paste to the butter/shortening mixture and blend thoroughly.
5. Add the salt and buttermilk to the mixture
6. Add the flour, vanilla, vinegar and baking soda in that order, mixing after each addition
7. Pour the batter into the pans, filling at least halfway. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Remove and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

I frosted with a 1m Wilton tip using a double batch of this classic buttercream recipe.

WHITE CHOCOLATE VALENTINE'S SUGAR COOKIES

White Chocolate Valentine's Day Cookies

Last year I made Valentine's Day cookies and iced them with royal icing. Though royal icing is easy to work with, it's not my favourite for flavour or texture.
unlike me, you should remember not to stack these cookies as the white chocolate marks up easily...see all the smudges?

I love chocolate and decided to try my hand at decorating some sugar cookies with tinted white chocolate. I know that chocolate is temperamental and adding water to it is asking for disaster, so I used powdered food colouring. I added red powdered colour and of course it never really turned a deep red. I didn't really care though.

when in doubt, just drizzle with way more white chocolate! you can't go wrong

I used parchment cones to pipe and flood the cookies. Initially, everything was going fine...I melted the white chocolate and stirred it until it was completely smooth. I poured the tinted white chocolate into the cones...and then I realized how runny it really was. The chocolate dripped out the tiny point of the cones almost immediately. I worked quickly and realized that piping wasn't going to be so easy after all.

see all the bumps from the flooding? these are easily remedied by hiding them with more drizzled white chocolate ;P

I did my best at outlining and then flooding the hearts. The chocolate didn't really flatten out completely and looked a tad bumpy but I didn't want to tempt fate and start messing with it so I left it. I let it dry and then decided I wanted to outline with just plain white chocolate (no tint) and realized I had to come up with a simple design because the chocolate was way runnier than royal icing. I piped some lacy dots; just touching around the edges of the hearts and it seemed okay.

The flavour of these white chocolate cookies totally rocks compared to royal icing cookies.

Check out here the MS sugar cookie recipe I used or if you prefer, a totally decadent Vanilla Bean Butter cookie. I used Callebaut White Chocolate for decorating. Only the best for my sweetie pies: Bebe and Bib thought they were delicious!

LOW-CARB BROWNIES THAT DON'T TASTE LOW-CARB!

Brownies: does this even look low-carb to you? no way!

I have certainly been eating well since going low-carb. No, I didn't eat the whole batch of brownies yet! I'm pacing myself. It's kind of easy to eat 3 or 4 though because they're very good. So, you're wise to stash them in the refrigerator out of sight and even wiser yet to cut them small. That being said, the recipe makes 48 brownies in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and each brownie has a pretty low carb count. (Per brownie: Effective carbohydrates: 1.5 g; Carbohydrates: 2.1 g; Fiber: 0.6 g; Protein: 2.1 g; Fat: 9.7 g; Calories: 99 Made with Splenda only: Add 0.3 g carbohydrates)


Karen Barnaby outdid herself with this winner of a recipe. In place of white flour, the recipe calls for ground almonds and it incorporates quality unsweetened dark chocolate and cocoa powder. The moistness of the brownies has much to do with the cream cheese and unsalted butter in there. It makes a nice-sized batch for nibbling on when you crave chocolate or sweets (just cut them small!) and their richness helps alleviate hunger pangs. The ground almonds help with that too. That extra protein helps stave off further munchies.
Go buy her book for the recipe. She's already shared so many of her recipes from her book that it's only right that you buy her book The Low-Carb Gourmet for this one :P

MINI HONEY MANDARINS

mini honey mandarins: intensely sweet and full of flavour!a mini honey mandarin can be as small as a quarter (that's one of the new Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics quarters there) up to about the size of a Loonie ($1 coin)

At local Asian markets, the Mini Honey Mandarins (a.k.a. Sugar Mandarins, Mini Mandarins, Mini Sweet Mandarins) are here. While at Aberdeen Mall, I purchased a huge bag of these little sugar bombs for the kids because they love them! They are just as easy to peel as the regular Japanese mandarins, but are so small that you can fit 4 or 5 in your hand. The kids love them just because they're tiny, cute and super-sweet.

I saw them again at Kin's Market for $1.29/lb and bought a gargantuan bag. These were even tinier than the ones I purchased at the Aberdeen market, but not as sweet. In my own experience, I have found that the darker orange the little Sugar Mandarins, the more intensely sweet and full of orangey-flavour they are. Size has nothing to do with sweetness, I guess.

because they're so small, you can easily eat a dozen at a sitting.

Mini Honey Mandarins make for fantastic snacks and are perfect for kids' lunch bags. My kindergartener can eat 3 for a snack at school and has at one time eaten 8 at one sitting. My 2 year old, who has a heartier appetite can eat about the same as her big sister! I'm limiting myself to 1 a day because I'm watching my sugar intake !

LOW-CARB MILK TEA JELLY

Milk Tea Jelly: a low-carb dessert that is delicate and refreshing
I have had Karen Barnaby's cookbook, The Low-Carb Gourmet for quite a while. In the past, when I've low-carbed my way out of a few pounds, I have sought out her recipes because they're actually delicious-sounding as well as actually delicious. Barnaby is a local chef in Vancouver (she's executive chef at The Fish House in Stanley Park). She has published other cookbooks (that aren't low-carb) and she is active in a low-carb forum as she's an expert in making restaurant-worthy gourmet food for low-carbers. When you make one of her low-carb recipes, you don't actually feel as if you're on a diet. She indicates in the introduction to The Low-Carb Gourmet that she herself had lost 70 pounds and improved her blood pressure and cholesterol levels eating this way.


Barnaby is a fantastic wealth of information and she's a nice lady too. I met her a while back and the copy I purchased is signed by her too. There's nothing better than eating well and not feeling deprived. You certainly feel pampered making some of her gourmet dishes. I haven't been disappointed by any of the recipes yet. I highly recommend her book if you're a foodie trying to eat more healthy low-carb meals. If you want to check out all her low carb recipes, you can find them here. As you can see, she's shared many of the recipes from the 250 that are in her cookbook.

Some of the recipes that I particularly enjoyed were the "Deep-dish Pizza Quiche", "Salmon with Bacon, Tomato and Caper Vinaigrette", "Clams Steamed with Bacon, Green Olives, and Tomatoes", "Stir-fried Prawns with Tomato Coconut Cream","My Brownies", "New York Cheesecake" "Cream Cheese, Coconut and lemon mounds" and "Stained Glass Window Cake".

I was at Kin's Market today and purchased eggplants so I can make her Spicy Roasted and Mashed Eggplant (bharta) this weekend. I also intend to try the Cauli-flied rice and Scalloped Savoy Cabbage. My favourite section to read is her Little Nibbles and Dips section because I'm a grazer and having pre-made low-carb snacks in the fridge is so helpful so I don't reach out for chips or sugar-laced foods.

For this post, I used Barnaby's Coffee Jelly recipe and adapted it to my tastes. I'm a tea-drinker so I used really supersonic dark tea. In those HK cafes around town, they use orange pekoe tea bags and boil the heck out of it, creating this almost thick, dark amber liquid that is so strong it rivals black coffee. It comes with the milk (I suspect powdered creamer or canned evaporated milk) mixed into it already and all you do is add sugar to your liking. To make my Milk Tea Jelly I used Red Rose orange pekoe tea bags (4 in total) and steeped them in the hot water, squeezing the bags out until they rendered all they tannin-laced juices. I like my jelly stiffer than usual so I increased the gelatine a bit too. Using Splenda adds a slight sweetness to the jelly. I made one little custard cup full of the plain jelly without the cream and when it was set, cubed it to sprinkle on the Milk Tea Jelly.

The Milk Tea Jelly was so refreshing. It was light-tasting and would make a lovely dessert even if you weren't low-carbing.

*****update February 8, 2009******

Well, just 'cause Evelyn asked, here's my recipe--an adaptation of the recipe Barnaby created using coffee. I prefer tea of course. I believe any tea will do, but to be authentic Hong Kong Cafe Milk Tea, it's got to be Orange Pekoe tea bags. Red Rose brand is far superior in flavour and for some reason, I heard it's only available in Canada :P

Milk Tea Jelly

3-4 Tbsp. water [or enough to soften the gelatin]
4 tsp. gelatin
2 cups water
1/4 cup Splenda
4 orange pekoe tea bags (preferably Red Rose brand)
1/2 cup whipping cream
optional whipped cream for garnishing

1. Place the 3 Tbsp. water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Let stand until the gelatin softens.
2. Heat 2 cups water in a small saucepan. Heat the water until boiling and turn off the heat. Add the 4 tea bags and allow to steep until extremely dark (from 5-10 minutes). Press the bags with the back of a spoon. Remove tea bags and discard.
3. Add soaked gelatin and stir until it dissolves. Add the Splenda to the tea mixture. Stir well.
4. Measure out 3/4 cup of the tea mixture into a small bowl. Add the cream to the remaining mixture. Stir well and pour into 4 small dessert dishes. Place both mixtures into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours.
5. Remove the plain jelly from the bowl and cut into 1/2-inch cubes and pile onto the jelly in the dishes. Garnish with more whipped cream if you like and a coffee bean or two.
   Total Carbohydrates: 8.17
   Carbohydrates per Serving: 2.04

FOOD FOR THE EYES

Miniature Fake Food: Pierre Herme's Collection of desserts! Mmmm. It's cute, but so not edible (a good thing if you're watching your waistline!) ;p

a birthday cake complete with macarons! so cute! lookit that slice of cake and the hand-painted detail!

I found another way to distract myself from eating too many sweets, now that I've told the whole friggin' world I'm going low-carb:)

I'm thinking the public scrutiny would force me to stay on track! ;p

So far, white refined stuff hasn't passed these lips. For someone obsessed with all things baked, I have found a few things to do to keep me occupied. Of course, one of them is marking :( but I also found cute food substitutes in the form of "fake food".


On the weekend, we had found an intriguing little store in the Asian mall, Aberdeen Centre (in Richmond). The store was full of all sorts of miniature fake food. I hadn't realized people actually bought this stuff. I mean, what can you do with it other than display it somewhere; only to have it catch dust as other chachkes do?
I hate dust-collectors, but I was so curious. I took a closer look and thought that it would be so cool to stock my daughter's dollhouse with some of these fake foods. They were exactly the right size. Her wooden Colonial-style doll house by PLAN is really neat and we were able to even buy a set of Asian family dolls to live in it. I made some FIMO food, but we certainly didn't have any of the cool stuff that this store had. I have no idea what you'd do with this fake mini food other than use it in a doll house. I guess there must be a lot of people out there collecting this type of mini food? The store had all the various sets on display: a barbeque set, complete with tiny ketchup, burgers, shish kebabs; a Japanese sushi set complete with nigiri, cones and sashimi; grocery store staples, junk food and practically any kind of food you can think of! Even Pierre Herme's pastries! I was so excited when I saw the collection there complete with macarons and everything!

I had to have it.

So, for the exorbitant price of $12.99, I purchased a set that included a mini little pastry box, a mini Pierre Herme shopping bag and an array of desserts complete with the display stands. You even get a wrapped individual little "chiclet"-type piece of chewing gum in the box. I suppose that explains the target market!

LOW-CARB MINI CHEESECAKES

i resolve to eat more cheesecake: low-carb mini cheesecake, to be exact

I apologize for the long bouts of nothingness. I am finding it difficult to post about desserts because I'm struggling with trying to start the new year by eating healthy. That means I have to cut back on my sugar intake. So far, I've gradually weaned myself off eating lots of sugar.

However, my food blog has suffered greatly since going low-carb. It seems almost impossible to maintain a food blog concentrating on desserts when you're watching what you eat.

But, I have found a way around this dilemma.

I'm going low-carb. No! don't go running away so soon! I do promise desserts! Some with sugar even (these will be donated to a worthy cause...my co-workers). However, I'll be adding low-carb desserts too.


For the next little while, I'll be posting more recipes for low-carb desserts. After my first baby, I gained over 60 lbs. Yes, 60. I know that you're only supposed to gain 25-30 pounds, but I had a thing for fruit. Especially watermelon. I ate healthily. I didn't eat fried stuff or junk food. But I ate a lot of fruit. All that sugar just turned into fat. My baby wasn't even that big. It took 2 years to get myself down (slowly and steadily) down to 10 pounds over my beginning weight. When I hit a plateau...and I hit several, I decided to go low-carb and eliminate all sugar and white, refined foods. This allowed me to come down to those last 10 pounds over my starting weight.

Before I could lose those last 10 pounds, I decided to have my other daughter. So it goes. Now, she's 2 and I'm kind of stuck with an extra 10 on top of the 10 I never lost. All in all, I want to get rid of those 20 pounds so I can fit some of my old skinny clothes. I'm frugal. I'm not throwing those clothes away! I buy pretty nice stuff and some of it is hardly worn. Most of the styles are timeless too.

Some people might say that I was too skinny to start off with, but I don't think so. I was within a normal BMI range and I'm Asian...which means I was just right. Some of us have small bones, you see. It's not as if you can compare all people around the world with the generally Caucasian-centric stats. I learned this goes for looking at your baby's weight and height too. Everyone's so into comparing their babies with the percentile rankings, but forget the numbers used are primarily based on Caucasian kids.

Since Chinese New Year's I've decided to commit to this Low Carb way of eating. No, I'm not going Atkins (though it did work for me the first time). I'll be eating some fruit and veggies and I do cheat with little rewards when I've been good. It'll take me longer, but at least this way I might be able to stick to it better.

Here's my first little reward. It's a mini cheesecake. I replaced all the sugar with Splenda. The cheesecakes are so little (portion control!) and taste quite nice with the dark chocolate. I thought of dipping them in low-carb ganache, but it was getting late so I didn't bother. The mini cheesecake was gone in 5 little bites. It was just enough to get me through a sugar hump. Now I'm good. I washed it all down with some green tea and I feel good!

Okay, okay you geeks out there who cringe when they see Splenda...don't use it. If you're so against Splenda, go here and use sugar instead! :P However, I find Splenda does work out quite well considering. Baked goods come out generally drier (of course, because sugar acts like a wet ingredient in baking); but like I always say, it'll do. For a person who shouldn't be eating dessert, there's got to be some sort of a yummy reward. That's my motto during this low-carb era: it'll do! It's better than eating all that sugar and having my body go on a sugar high. I find when I haven't had sugar for a while, my body adjusts and I find I don't crave it.

LOW-CARB MINI VANILLA BEAN CHEESECAKES
adapted from Williams Sonoma recipe on the back of the bakeware box

For the Crusts:

1 cup (114 g) graham cracker crumbs
2 T Splenda
pinch of salt
2 T unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:
16 oz (500 g) cream cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125g) Splenda
[i added a vanilla bean, split; seeds scraped out and added to the cream]
pinch of salt

For decoration:
I used dark chocolate shavings, but you can use seasonal raspberries, strawberries and pitted bing cherries

1. Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350degreesF. Lightly coat the cups of the 12-cup cheesecake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To make the crusts, in a small bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the cups and using your fingertips, press it evenly into the bottom. Bake until the crusts are set, about 10 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Reduce the heat to 300degreesF.
3. To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the cream and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and salt and beat until incorporated, about 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
   Pour the batter into the crusts, dividing it evenly among the cups. Bake until the cheesecakes are set, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours beore unmolding.
4. To unmold, insert the dowel into the hole in the bottom of each cup. Gently push up to remove the cheesecake from the cup. Use a small spatula or butter knife to remove the cake from the metal bottom. If the cheesecakes are sticking to the pan, gently run a toothpick around each cheesecake to loosen it before pushing it out of the cup. Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.