Sencha Overload: Shake and Cake!

It's freakin' hot here in Davao right now. I was trying to do some reading, but my mind is not cooperating because of the heat. I needed to do something to cool me down else my neurons will be fried. I was drearily bored of revisiting a thesis paper I'm being forced to finish, I can't focus!

Fruit shakes sounds enticing at this point, but I preferred something lighter and not too sticky-sweet. I remembered how I loved Starbucks's Green Tea Frappucino as a perfect chill drink for the dizzying heat in Cebu City. Since I'm currently a bum, I don't have money to spend on those professionally prepared drinks. Good thing I bought a pack of Sencha which costs about one green tea frappe from Starbucks. That pack have seen several cups of green tea, cookies, cupcakes and my current kitchen experiments; and I still have  some left!  Now that's money well spent.

Last time, I made Sencha powder from using the coffee grinder attachment of our blender. I used the same homemade powder to make this green tea. If you noticed there are some specks of leaves visible compared to what you may find from the coffee shops. Those in high-end coffee shops would probably be using genuine finely milled Matcha powder hence it's a bit pricey. Other lower-end shops offering the same would be using the commercial green tea powder mix, but I find those scary since there are a lot of additives I don't even know how to pronounce. So I'll stick with my homemade powder until I get a tin of authentic Matcha; at least I know what I'm drinking.

Refreshing and light, perfect for the summer heat!

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) SHAKE

INGREDIENTS

*makes 2 12 oz glasses.

2 tbsp Sencha powder

2/3 cup soya milk

1 tbsp sugar

a pinch of cinnamon

12 ice cubes

PROCEDURE

1. Pour soya milk, Sencha powder, cinnamon and sugar into a blender. Mix well.

2. Drop ice cubes about 2-3 at a time then pulse. Add more ice and pulse/shake until satisfied with the consistency.

3. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy.

I used less sugar so I had a semi-bitter shake with just a hint of sweetness coming from the soya milk. I chose soya milk because I think it compliments the grassy taste of Sencha, as both are from plant derivatives.  It turned out nice, light, refreshing and cleaner to the palate compared with the coffee shop versions, which mainly used cream and glucose syrup in place of the soya milk and sugar and topped off with whipped cream. So it depends on your mood which one you'll go for, something creamy and comforting or something light and refreshing.

Of course drinks won't stand alone, you need something to munch on too. I mentioned before, that I made cupcakes out of Sencha; this time I made the same batter but poured it into lined rectangular baking pan and spread ground almonds on top. It brought about thin cakes, somewhat like pancakes, which I cut into small bars. I was actually thinking of making some filling and sandwiching it between 2 bars, then cover it with dripping royal icing much like Petit Fours; but of course that was too tedious for a hot day. I just settled for simple and thin cake bars good for snacking.

Thin chewy bars with subtle sweetness.

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) CAKE

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup brewed Sencha Tea, cool to room temp.
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp Sencha powder
optional almond topping:
1/3 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp flour


PROCEDURE
*Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a baking pan or cupcake molds.
1. Mix flour, baking powder, tea powder and in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a bigger bowl beat eggs, oil and tea until light yellow. Sift in dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. In a coffee grinder attachment, ground together whole almonds, powdered sugar and flour until mealy.
4. Pour green tea batter into baking pan/molds. Sift/distribute the ground almonds on top.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or toothpick test comes clean.

Hmmm... I wonder if there are other tea varieties that are equally versatile like Japanese green tea?

Croquembouche: Profiteroles Cake

I seem to have a Profiterole craze for the past days; I guess I'm aiming to somehow perfect it. To be honest, Choux pastry is one of the most easiest things I've tried making, just stick with the ingredients to the dot. To see your pastries puff is such a reward; you can fill them with whatever flavor you want. I've gone through failed attempts, but they're not completely useless.

Anyway, my sister is coming home from Manila today after a two week stay. She feels a bit low lately, so I decided to somehow cheer her up. Me and her son wanted to celebrate her coming home with a nice cake. I didn't feel like making an ordinary cake. Still fascinated with puffing Choux pastries, I decided to make a Croquembouche.

Croquembouche is a high cone of Profiteroles coated with caramel sugar and decorated with spun sugar, chocolate, flowers and ribbons. In French, it literally means "crunch in mouth" attributed to the crunchy texture of the caramel sugar coating of each Profiterole. It's traditionally a French celebration cake for weddings and baptismals, but now are a usual addition to dessert buffet as a centerpiece.

To form into an even cone, a stainless steel / paper cone is used by most professionals. I'm no professional, but I wanted to make one, even just a small one. Instead of using a cone, I just stacked the filled pastries in a circle and used caramel sugar as glue. The finished product is, like my sister described, a leaning tower of Puffpuff.

My first Croquembouche with ganache drizzles and spun sugar: a foot high.

Has a homey but elegant feel to it, right? The shape is uneven because I just made the pastries in random sizes. The concern I had was with the spun sugar, it melted once I left it in room temp and it was a bit humid today and I got a nasty burn on my hand while handling the spun sugar syrup. :(

I made a different filling this time, a Vanilla Crème Patissière (Pastry Cream) and made use of the Ganache still left from last time. I meant to stick to basic flavors because I'm not really sure how things would turn out, I didn't want to waste ingredients in another disaster. But you can replace vanilla with almond, lemon or other extracts to make the cake more interesting.

VANILLA CREME PATISSIERE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup evaporated milk

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch 

1 tsp vanilla extract

PROCEDURE

1. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch until smooth.

2. In a small saucepan, heat milk until steam comes up.

3. Pour half of the milk into the egg mixture and whisk immediately. This will introduce the egg to the hot milk without making it into scrambled eggs.

4. Set heat to very low and slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan while whisking.

5. Whisk to prevent the bottom from burning. Continue until mixture become thick and smooth (1-2 minutes).

6. Remove from heat and transfer into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent film from forming. Let cool for at least 2 hours before using as filling.

SPUN SUGAR

INGREDIENT

1 cup white sugar

1 tbsp corn syrup

1/3 cup water

PROCEDURE

1. Pour all the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat covered saucepan until all sugar melts into the liquid.

2. Remove cover and let boil until color turns into deep amber. Cool for about 2 minutes.

3. Use a fork to create threads by dipping its end and spin around the Profiterole tower. Repeat until satisfied with the amount of spun sugar web.

CAUTION: SPUN SUGAR SYRUP IS CRAZY HOT. BE CAREFUL WHILE HANDLING, ELSE YOU'LL END UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

:( Ouch. And eww, I desperately need a manicure.

Although it caused me some pain, the spun sugar web is absolutely beautiful. It's so delicate and whimsical. But let's just reserve the technique for very special occasions from now on, shall we? I wouldn't want to be constantly covered with nasty burns. And I think it would be helpful to have a bowl with ice water nearby just in case. ;)

Click this link for the Choux pastry and Ganache recipe.

Fruit Flavored (Orange) Chiffon Cake: So-so, Needs Improvement

For the past few weeks, I was baking everyday... well except if I ran out of ingredients, which by the way makes me restless and somewhat anxious.

It started when an aunt came for my grandfather's funeral and stayed with us. At the stretch of her stay, I guess she was feeling homesick and wanted us to taste how they cook in the US, she took over the kitchen from my mom. One of the things she made was Banana Bread. The whole process was a no-brainer, just dump everything in a bowl then turn on the electric hand mixer, place it in the oven and wait until the whole house smelled like sweet buttery bread with bananas.

After my aunts left, we had an unusual excess of instant oatmeal and bananas nearing expiration. My mom and dad ordered (yes, ordered) me to make use of them. I baked before, mostly cookies and red velvet cupcakes as my sister's give-aways during holidays, and since I'm their housed bored bum, I was happy to oblige. Batch after batch of cookies and breads being made, I got hooked. I tried to improve their flavor by adding spices and whatnots, so far, nobody really complained other than sometimes the goodies were on the sweeter side of the spectrum. And I guess the best compliment would be that just a few hours after I'm done baking them, they disappear.

So came the week of my birthday, I asked mom if I could make my own cake. She said OK and lent me her recipe book. You've got to love those old molten yellowish type-written sheets with scribbles, it's a sign that the recipe is a tried and tested one. I was checking out the kitchen cabinets and found a Wilton Deluxe Tip Set, which apparently was given to us by my cousin from the US. Thanks very much cuz! :)

So I made my very first legit cake. It was an Orange Chiffon Cake with Orange Marmalade filling and Orange Frosting. I think I went overboard with the orange, but mom said it's best not to experiment much on the flavors. Though it was a refreshing taste, the orange cake needed a bit of contrast. The bottled marmalade as filling (mom wanted the marmalade filling) and thick frosting (I didn't have a proper metal spatula) made the sweetness level too overwhelming. Should've trusted my own instinct and made a bittersweet ganache as frosting and just a small batch of not-too-sweet buttercream icing for decorating.

Anyway, said and done The only thing left for me to do is to decorate the cake. I added a mix of yellow and red McCormick food color in the frosting which resulted into a nice orange color. After covering the whole cake, there was still a cup of frosting left, so I gambled by adding cocoa powder and created a dark hue of brown. I was trying to create spirals covering the entire cake and small flowers which turned out difficult since I had chopped orange zest pieces in the frosting.  :(

So, after much huff & puff:

Forgive the picture, taken by a very tired baker at 12mn.

Not bad for my first try right? My boyfriend said it looked really good and was almost arabesque in design. That made me smile, at least that's one of the very few happy things that happened during my birthday. I guess I've become too much of an uncool hermit that people forgot about me and all they wanted is the cake. Sigh.

FRUIT FLAVORED CHIFFON CAKE

INGREDIENTS

*Makes one 8x12-3inch pan.

*Works well with pineapple, orange and mango.

Batter:

8 egg yolks

2 ½ cup cake flour

1 cup white sugar

¾ cup fruit juice diluted

½ cup corn oil

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

Egg White Mixture:

8 egg whites

1 tsp cream of tartar

½ cup sugar

PROCEDURE

(note: grease the pan with margarine and line with wax paper)

1. Pre-heat the oven at 350F 15 minutes prior to actual baking.

2. Separate the egg yolk and egg whites.

3. Sift the dry ingredients.

4. Mix in bowl the egg yolks, sugar, flour, oil, liquid and etc. Beat until smooth. Set batter aside.

5. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar. Adding sugar slowly until stiff, but not dry.

6. Fold in the batter to the beaten egg white mixture using spatula.

7. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until done.

ORANGE MARMALADE FILLING

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup orange marmalade

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

PROCEDURE

1. Mix marmalade and walnuts well. Spread on middle layer.

ORANGE FROSTING DELUXE

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter

1 pound (about 4 cups) confectioner's sugar, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp grated orange rind

1 tbsp orange juice

1 egg

PROCEDURE

1. Cream butter until softened; add 1/3 of the sugar and beat well.

2. Add in salt, orange rind and juice while beating.

3. Beat in egg until smooth and fluffy.

4. Add remaining sugar, a little at a time, beating after each addition. If too thick, add a tsp of orange juice, more if needed.

Yes, I'm thinking what you are thinking, raw egg in frosting? I feared the same, so far, nothing happened to anyone who ate a piece of the cake. If ever I'll be making frosting though, this would be my last option. I wanted to try the buttercream frosting found in Wilton's website, but Crisco shortening is a bit expensive here; I looked for vegetable lard but it seemed to be out of stock the time I went to the store. 

Try it if you like, but I would recommend cutting down on the frosting or trying a different frosting all together.