Oscar Birthday

Today is Oscar's birthday.  Oscar is the first born of my community and today, he is 12 years old.  Happy Birthday Oscar!

I made 18 chocolate cupcakes for Oscar and here you see half of the cupcakes and they will have the rest tonight.

9 of the chocolate cupcakes

Oscar's cupcakes

This is Oscar, the birthday boy.

This is Oscar's brother, Jeremy, just three weeks old born on 7th March

Chocolate cupcakes - you can buy these from me at £2.50 each, minimum order 12.  You can buy a box of 12, or 18 or 36 cupcakes. 

The chocolate cupcakes are made from real butter - no shortening, no palm oil, real fresh free range eggs, not dried eggs, best of British cake flour, best of British cane sugar, real chocolate with at least 72% cocoa solids in the chocolate which is used.  The frosting on the top is not sweet, and it is Swiss Chocolate Meringue Butter Cream - no shortening in the butter cream, and I use real unsalted butter. 

Dr Marie's 83rd birthday con't

Besides the blue birthday cake, I also made curry puffs and chocolate cupcakes.  Here are pictures of the curry puffs and chocolate cupcakes.

Unbaked curry puffs:  

The curry puffs after they were baked in a very hot oven and I made 38 curry puffs. 

These were chocolate cupcakes which I made for the birthday party. I made 22 cupcakes for the party. 

Dr Marie's 83rd Birthday Cake

Dr Marie is celebrating her 83rd birthday tomorrow, 21 March 2015. She wants a blue cake and she has requested for a marbled blue cake and the inside is a lemon cake.  

I had made some pink flowers for Auntie Marie's birthday cake but have been unable to use them because they have not given me a wow effect.  Hence, I have used the remaining of Little Charlemagne's name's day cake flowers instead, which has given a lovely finish.

Here are pictures of Auntie Marie's birthday cake.

I have used patchwork brush embroidery technique on the side.  

This is a 10 inch cake, 3.5 inch tall, which weighs over 3.8 kg without the cake board and drum.

This cake retails at £80 and would serve over 30 portions. 

Annabelle's baptismal cake is also 10 inch round, which weighs 2.6 kg, retails at £40 and serves 30 portions. 

Annabelle's Baptismal Cake

I met a priest who baptised Zoya and he said we should say baptism and not christening if we were Catholics.  

So, it is Annabelle's baptismal cake. 

This is a 10 inch [25 cm] round cake, which is 3 inch [7.6 cm] tall, and weighs 5.7 pounds [2.6 kg] [not including the cake boards]  
retails at £40 and will slice 30 portions.

The customer ordered a moist lemon cake. You can have an orange cake or a chocolate marble cake instead of a lemon cake. 

The cake has no filling.  People put fillings in their cakes, which is normally made up of fat and sugar in equal proportions, to give people an impression the cake is not dry.  I find this very unhealthy and the extra sugar and fat is very bad for everybody. So none of this type of filling from me! 

The cake is made from 100 percent salt free English butter, cane sugar, free range eggs and the best of British cake flour.  So the cake is very light and moist. 

Jiaozi 餃子

Jiaozi 餃子 is a Northern Chinese dumpling which is cooked in boiling water similar to ravioli.  This dumpling is normally eaten on Chinese New Year first day because the jiaozi looks like gold / silver ingots in old China.

However, I just love eating jiaozi and I will share my way of making jiaozi with you today.

Filling

500 grams of minced pork [or any other meat which you prefer]
220 grams of shredded Napa cabbage, known as Chinese leaves in the UK
40 grams of chopped spring onions - I use organic spring onions
10 grams of finely diced ginger - you can increase it to up to 13 grams if you like ginger
1 tsp of salt - I use Himalayan salt
2 tbsp of Shaoxing wine 紹興酒
2 tbsp of sesame oil
2 tbsp light soya sauce - I use Amoy light reduced salt soya sauce
2 tbsp oil - I use shallot flavoured oil - I fried sliced shallots in oil and keep the left over oil for this purpose

You can add finely ground white pepper if you want but I do not because I have acid reflux.  I also do not add garlic because of my acid reflux.  

Mix all the above ingredients together and you get something like this.  First add the teaspoon of salt on the shredded Napa cabbage.  Use your hand to ensure the salt is evenly scattered amongst the Napa cabbage.  Then allow this to stand for awhile, allowing the cabbage to sweat and then add the rest of the ingredients.  Then use your hand to mix the ingredients together to give a mixture like what is shown in the picture below. 

Wrap the bowl with cling film and store in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Making the dough

200 grams flour
100 ml of water - not cold water from the tap - I use tepid water

No salt, no eggs, no oil - just flour and water

Make this into a dough, and then wrap the dough with cling film and allow the dough to stand for an hour or so.

Divide the dough into 20 pieces - 200 grams of flour - 20 pieces.

Flatten the dough into discs and roll them out to be thinner in the outside and thicker in the middle of the disc.

Wrap the dumplings as you like.  It has taken me years to master this art, but really wrap them into half moon shape and when you are more confident try other shapes.

Cook the jiaozi in boiling water until cooked, but make sure the wrapper is al dente.  To do this, place all the 20 jiaozi into the boiling water and when the water comes to the boil, add about 50 ml of cold water and do this three times.  After the third addition of cold water, allow the water to come to the boil again.  Switch off the heat, and scoop the cooked jiaozi out of the hot water, and place them on large plates.  Serve immediately and you can eat this jiaozi with anything including chilli oil, or freshly sliced chillies or eat them plain like the way I like it.  Chinese people eat jiaozi with Chinese black vinegar and julienne of ginger.  

Happy Birthday Clairy

Clairy from number 28 was 77 last Sunday.  Dr Marie took Clairy and myself for a celebratory dinner at Montys Northfields and while at dinner, I asked Claire if she had a birthday cake.  She said she would make cakes for others but not for herself.  So I said I would make her a small cake and we are eating it together tomorrow.

Fish Croquettes

Dr Marie took me, little Sonya and our neighbour's two boys to Papaya at Northfield for a Sri Lankan meal when she came home from Sri Lanka in Januray this year.  She ordered Sri Lankan fish cutlets for us as starters and they were delightful and delicious.  I have eaten various fish cutlets which Dr Marie had ordered from various suppliers but they were always not quite right and the fish cutlets from Papaya were the best.  I told Auntie Marie I would make fish cutlets one day.

And today, I am making my own fish cutlets, with the help of Dr Marie's advice and as these are not Sri Lankan fish cutlets, I am going to call these snacks as "Fish Croquettes" and not fish cutlets.

Ingredients:

2 tins of tuna in brine - drained weight 220 grams
cooked potato - net weight 220 grams
ginger 10 grams, garlic 10 grams - I peeled these, sliced them, and then used a granite pestle and mortar to pound them into a fine pulp - you really do not want a lump of ginger or garlic in your mouth when you are eating these fish croquettes
coriander leaves with stems - 25 grams - I washed and dried them before slicing them finely
1/2 a green chilli - de-seeded, and diced finely
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander 
1 large yolk of a free range egg

Note: Sri Lankans would not use coriander but curry leaves.  In addition, I have not seen the use of turmeric, cumin and coriander in their fish cutlets.  Auntie Marie was from India and she would use these three spices for her Indian cutlets. When Auntie Marie made Indian cutlets, she would add an egg yolk to the mixture and I would follow Dr Marie's way of making these types of snacks. 

You want to use your right hand to mix the above together, and making sure there are no lumps and all the ingredients are mixed together homogeneously. 

Then shape the mixture into 9 equal size croquettes. You then want to coat each croquette with flour [plain white flour is good] and then beat up an egg and coat the floured croquettes with the beaten egg with your right hand, and roll the croquette with Japanese bread crumbs with your left hand.  You can see in the picture, I have flour on one dish, beaten egg on another, and bread crumbs on a third bowl.

It is important you have the croquettes the same size as when you fry them, they all take the same amount of time to cook.  I physically weighed every croquette and the weight ranged from 54 - 55 grams each. 

I then freeze these croquettes, which may take about 6 hours before deep frying them from frozen. Croquettes fry better when deep fried from frozen. 

I used about 750 ml of vegetable oil and fried the croquettes at around 180 C. I deep fried the croquettes in batches and after the last batch, I threw the oil away. 

My fish croquettes!

The funny colour of the picture is because it is late at about 6 pm and there is no natural light!

Fish croquettes

The two missing fish croquettes are waiting for little sweetie Sonya to eat when she comes home next weekend. Auntie Marie is going to freeze the croquettes for little Sonya. 

Apple Meringue Pie

I was at Claire's [number 28] for lunch on Sunday and she made an apple meringue pie for dessert.  She had slices of apples at the bottom of a large glass bowl with meringue on the top and she baked this at 135 C fan oven for an hour and then turned off the fan and baked for another hour and allowed the apple meringue pie to cool.  She added no sugar to the apples and the sweetness of the meringue was dissipated into the apples and the whole dessert tasted just wonderful.

Dr Marie has lots of egg whites in her freezer, leftovers from the Ceylon Christmas cakes which she has made over the years.  In the last few occasions, when we had made Pavlova, people did not eat the dessert because it was too sweet and full of cream. I think Claire's apple meringue pie would be a good way to use up the egg whites in Auntie Marie's freezer. 

Coincidentally, I have an agape [a shared meal] tonight with my community, and I will make this apple meringue pie.

Apple Meringue Pie

Ingredients 

1. 4 large cooking apples - I used Bramley apples - around 750 grams - peeled, cored and sliced
2. 200 ml egg whites - I used Auntie Marie's 2012 frozen egg whites from six large eggs. 
3. ¼ tsp cream of tartar and if you are unable to buy cream of tartar then use 1 tsp of salt instead
4. 9 ozs or 260 grams [> 1¼ cups] caster sugar also known as superfine sugar in the States
5. 1 tsp cornflour, also known as cornstarch
6. 1 tsp white vinegar

• Lay the sliced apples on the bottom of a tall oven proof glass dish about 10 by 8.5 inches.
• Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar or salt until foamy and then add the sugar one tablespoon at a time.
• When all the sugar has been added and the meringue is stiff, then add the cornflour and vinegar and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are incorporated.
• Pipe the meringue on top of the sliced apples and bake in a preheated 135 C fan oven.
• After 18 minutes, turn off the fan and continue baking for about 2 hours at 130 C or until you can see the apples are cooked through the glass container.

I can see the slices of apple are cooked through the glass container

 Evaluation: I served this dessert to some 20 brothers and sisters of my community with unsweetened whipped double cream [300 ml].  They all loved it. The dessert was not too sweet and has a very light texture. A total success, thanks be to God and to Claire from number 28 TTC. 

There is no need for any further alteration to this excellent recipe. 

Mango Mousse

Dr Marie gave me a mango mousse recipe which uses 1 cup of water, 1 sachet of gelatine [just under 12 grams], a tin of mango pulp which is 850 grams or 30 ounces in weight and a carton of double cream, which is 300 ml in volume.

However, my friend Christina and I felt that the mousse was too soft and we wanted a more "Chinese like" mousse which is more set.  So we experimented and came out with this recipe.

¾ cup water which is 6 fl oz or about 180 ml
16 grams of gelatine granules

Pour the gelatine granules onto the water and when the granules expand, heat up the water and gelatine until the gelatine dissolves.

250 ml double cream [do not use more than 280 ml]
850 grams or 30 oz of mango pulp - which can be bought in a tin and is already sweetened - Waitose and Tesco sell mango pulp in tins.

1. Beat the double cream with a handheld cake mixer until it thickens. Pour 
   ⅓ of the mango pulp into the whipped double cream and continue to whisk.
2. Add the dissolved gelatine liquid into the rest of the mango pulp and mix will with a spoon.
3. Pour the rest of the mango pulp which has the gelatine into the double cream and continue to mix to get a homogeneous liquid.
4. Pour the mixture into a large bowl or into ramekins [around 12 150 ml large ramekins.
5. Clingfilm the mousse and chill overnight before serving. 

Charlemagne's Name Day part 2

I made a cake for Charlemagne's name day and we would be cutting the cake after Holy Mass this evening.  We have our annual house Mass and after the Mass we have a shared meal.  So here are the pictures of the cake.  

 

Halina B said the sides look like a Wedgwood design.

I painted the flowers sunburst gold for the little emperor and the leaves were painted in two tone green.

John B said he liked the asymmetrical way in which the flowers were arranged. He thought it was very artistic.

There are doves on the cake because little Charlemagne loves birds.  Green Indian Parakeets often visit him and get him very excited. 

Blessed Charlemagne's Feast Day

Blessed Charlemagne's feast day is on Thursday 28th January and it is my little boy's name day also.  Little Charlemagne's birthday falls on Good Friday this year and who would celebrate birthdays on Good Friday?  So he has to have his birthday transferred to his name day and he will be 12 years old on the third day of April 2015.

 

[These pictures of little Charlemagne were taken a couple of days ago with Auntie Marie's new mini iPad.]

So I am making cupcakes for him: humans can eat cupcakes made from butter, eggs, sugar, flour et cetera top with Italian meringue butter cream and the cat can eat a cupcake made from tuna, and Auntie Marie has bought two large tins of tuna in spring water for my little boy. 

Here are examples of human cupcakes for little Charlemagne's name day.

And for my Ahmue - this butter cream tastes like mum's.  Here is the recipe.

200 ml of egg whites
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar
50 grams of caster sugar

whisk until light and fluffy - soft peak stage

In a small pan, which has a sprout, add 250 grams of sugar [can be caster or granulated and can be reduced to 200 grams if you do not want the butter cream to be too sweet] and add 100 ml of water.  Heat up the sugar and water in low heat until the sugar dissolves and then turn up the heat to medium.  You will have to stir the sugar and water to help the sugar dissolve.  If you find any sugar crystals on the side of the pan, then use a silicon spatula to push the crystals down to the liquid.

When all the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat to medium and do NOT stir anymore.  Insert a sugar thermometer into the syrup and let it boil until the temperature reaches 121 C.  When the syrup reaches 121 C, turn off the heat, place the bottom of the pan in a bowl of cold water to stop the temperature of the syrup rising and then dry the bottom of the pan with a clean towel.

Turn your beater, which has a balloon whisk, to the highest speed and pour the very hot 121 C syrup into the whisked egg whites.  Continue whisking even when you have finished pouring the syrup into the egg whites.

When the whisked egg whites have cooled down, i.e. the bowl is only warm to touch, add 450 grams of unsalted butter, which has been cut into cubes into the egg whites while it is whisking at high speed.  Continue to add the cubes of butter, a cube at a time, until all the butter has been added.  Then add your flavours.  I added some vanilla extract [1 tsp] and orange oil [1/2 tsp] into the butter cream.  You can add any flavours which take your fancy.

Continue whisking until the butter cream is well formed and I then wrap the top of the bowl with cling film until you are ready to use the butter cream.

If you store the butter cream in your fridge over night, then you have to warm up the butter cream to room temperature and the whisk the butter cream until it reaches a soft state which allows you to pipe or apply it on your cakes. 

This butter cream is truly delicious and it reminds me of mum's butter cream.  However, Auntie Marie says perhaps I could reduce the amount of sugar in the butter cream.  If I were to make this butter cream again, I would reduce the sugar by 50 grams. 

AND Mrs Caroline Jones says she loves the butter cream because it is so light and creamy - and personally I [I as in Ruyi] think it tastes better than whipped double cream. 

28 January 2015 morning

Today is Charlemagne's feast day or name day or whatever you want to call it.  I got up at 5 this morning to bake little Charlemagne more cup cakes and decorated them after Mass.  I did not take him to Mass as he would create mayhem in church.  LOL  However, I will bring him to Fr Abbot Francis on Friday after the house Mass for the monk to bless him like last year. 

Here are the photos of the cupcakes I baked and decorated today.