Chocolate coconut butter cake recipe

To be honest, I've never been a fan of coconut flavor cake. However, when I saw the photos of the coconut and chocolate butter cake recipe by NasiLemakLover, I told myself that I must at least give it a go. I'm glad I did. It's such a beautiful butter cake! 

The coconut layer compliments the chocolate butter cake, making it a perfect combination. Never did I know that coconut goes so well with chocolate. As usual, I made some minor adjustments to the original recipe mainly to reduce the sweetness and make the coconut layer more subtle to suit my taste buds. 

Recipe: 

(8-inch square pan, but I used a 9-inch square pan)

230g unsalted butter (room temperature)

120g caster sugar

4 eggs 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

210g self raising cake flour (or mix 210g cake flour with 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder)
80ml milk

Coconut layer:

30g desiccated coconut

Chocolate layer: 

Mix 1 tablespoon cocoa powder with 1 1/2 tablespoons milk to form a cocoa paste.

20g dark chocolate chips

1. Beat butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until pale and fluffy.

2. Add in eggs, one at a time. Beat thoroughly after each addition. Add the vanilla extract with the last egg. Beat for another 1 minute after the last addition until everything is well combined.

3. Sift 1/4 self raising cake flour onto the batter and fold with a spatula until even. Repeat this step for another 1/4 self raising cake flour. 

4. Add half the milk and fold well. Sift in 1/4 self raising cake flour and fold until combine. Repeat the same for the remaining milk and the self raising cake flour. 

5. Divide the batter equally onto two mixing bowls. 

6. Fold desiccated coconut onto one part of the batter for the coconut layer. 

7. Fold the cocoa paste and dark chocolate chips onto the other part of the batter for the chocolate layer. 

8. Line cake tin with parchment paper. 

9. Pour chocolate batter onto the cake tin and spread evenly, follow by the coconut batter on top. 

10. Bang the cake tin on the table top a few times to release the big air bubbles.

11. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160c for about 45 mins or until the inserted skewer comes out clean.

12. Remove the cake from the cake tin and let it cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate cake with mascarpone cream recipe

I've been baking a lot of sponge cakes lately. Therefore, I was looking for a soft and moist chocolate cake recipe for a change. After a long search, I finally found the soft and moist chocolate cake from Wendyinkk's blog with some alterations mainly to reduce the sweetness and making it lighter by using only cake flour. This chocolate cake is really soft even after it was kept in the fridge. I think it is a great cake base for any frosted birthday cake.

Often, I would use some fresh fruits like strawberries to balance out the sweetness of a chocolate cake. In this instance, I've made a simple chocolate cake with strawberry filling and frosted it with mascarpone cream. It's a simple, yet yummy cake.

Recipe:

(20cm round cake tin)

33g Cocoa powder

59g Boiling water

75g Cake flour

1 teaspoon Baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Sodium bicarbonate

90g Sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 Large egg yolks

54g Corn oil

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

2 Large egg whites

1. Mix boiling water with cocoa powder in a mixing bowl to form a paste. Leave it aside to cool.

2. In a separate bowl, sift in cake flour, baking powder and Sodium bicarbonate. Add in sugar and salt. Mix well and leave it aside.

3. Back to the mixing bowl with cocoa paste, add in egg yolks and oil. Beat on medium speed for about 1 minute.

4. Add in vanilla extract and beat until combine.

5. Add in the dry ingredients, half at a time. Mix well on each addition. After that, beat on high speed for about 1 minute.

6. Add in egg whites and beat on high speed for another 2 minutes until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

7. Line parchment paper on the bottom of cake tin. Pour batter onto the cake pan and spread the batter evenly. Lightly bang the cake pan on the table top a few times to release the air bubbles.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160c for about 25-30mins or until the inserted skewer comes out clean.

10. Remove the cake from the cake tin and let it cool on a wire rack.

Mascarpone cream:

250g mascarpone

2 tablespoons castor sugar*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300ml whipping cream

* Adjust the amount of sugar based on your liking.

1. Cream mascarpone, sugar and vanilla extract in a chilled mixing bowl over a bowl of ice water until combine.

2. Add in whipping cream and beat until stiff.

To assemble the cake:

Cut strawberries

1. Slice the cake into 2 layers.

2. Lay first cake layer on a plate. Spread a thin layer of mascarpone cream on top of it evenly.

3. Sprinkle the cut strawberries evenly on the mascarpone cream layer.

4. Spread another thin layer of mascarpone cream on top of the strawberries.

5. Cover it with the other cake layer.

4. Frost the whole cake with the remaining mascarpone cream.

5. Sprinkles left over strawberries on top of the cake.

6. Store in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

7. Cut and serve while it's cold.

Baked Chinese egg cake (ji dan gao) 烤鸡蛋糕 recipe

Chinese egg cake, also known as Ji Dan Gao in Mandarin is a kind of sponge cake with only 4 ingredients (probably this is the only recipe that I could remember). As the flavour comes from the eggs, using good quality free range eggs is quite important.

The following recipe which I got from Bake for Happy kids with minor modification is for baking instead of steaming. I'm not sure if it will yield the same result if it was steamed. Maybe someone can try and let me know :P

Recipe: 

(original recipe asked for a 5-6 inch round cake tin, but I used a 8 inch round cake tin which resulted in a shorter cake)

3 egg yolks

1 egg

50g corn oil

65g self raising cake flour (mix 65g cake flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder if you don't have self raising flour)

3 egg whites

50g icing sugar

1. Beat egg yolks and egg in a mixing bowl with a hand whisk.

2. Add in corn oil and stir to combine.

3. Sift in self raising cake flour and mix well. Leave the egg yolk mixture aside.

4. Beat the egg whites in another mixing bowl.

5. Gradually add in the sugar when the egg whites start to thicken. Beat until firm peak stage.

6. Loosen the egg yolk mixture by slowly stirring the mixture from the bottom of the mixing bowl using a whisk.

7. Add the egg white mixture onto the egg yolk mixture in 3 batches. Mix until they are almost combined on each addition. Lastly, scrape down and fold until everything is evenly combined.

8. Line cake pan with parchment paper. Pour batter onto the cake pan and spread the batter evenly. Lightly bang the cake pan on the table top a few times to release the air bubbles.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160c for about 30mins or until the inserted skewer comes out clean.

10. Remove the cake from the tin and let it cool on a wire rack.