Earl Grey Pound Cake

 
Beside green tea (matcha) is commonly used in baking, I’ve been noticed Earl Grey is another popular tea is being used. This is my first time using it for baking, and very happy with this pound cake recipe. It yields not only soft but also moist cake with strong flavour of earl grey on it.
 

 
Ingredients
130 gr Cake flour
1/3 tsp Baking powder
7 gr Earl grey tea leaves, crushed ( approx. 3 sachets )
120 gr Unsalted butter, at room temperature
100 gr Caster sugar
2 Eggs, separated
2 tbsp Milk ( I substituted with 1 tbsp milk + 1 tbsp lime juice )

Method:
- Preheat oven to 170C. Lightly grease and line a 18cm x 8cm loaf pan with baking paper.
- Sift flour and tea leaves into a bowl. Set aside.
-Cream the butter with 50g of sugar until light and fluffy. add in the egg yolks one at a time, follow by milk. Beat well with each addition.
- Using a spatula, fold in the flour mixture till all combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg white until soft peak forms, add the remaining 50g of sugar gradually and continue to beat until the egg whites are glossy and form firm peaks.
- With a spatula, fold 1/3 of egg white into butter mixture until just combined; and fold in with the remaining egg white.
- Scrape the batter into cake pan. Make a dent lengthwise in the centre.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake turns out clean. Let the cake cool on the wire rack.




I’m submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #30: It's Teatime! (April 2013) hosted by Food Playground.

If you noticed my loaf cake, I still cannot successfully have the split blooming on the top part cake, can anybody sharing the technique with me? Thanks.
 

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake - Revisited


I baked this 6" cheesecake to celebrate my colleague V’s birthday. I’m glad they like it and gave good reviews on it :)

If you are interested in giving this cake a try, please see the below recipe. However, if you prefer 8" size, please refer here.




Ingredients
125 gr Cream Cheese, softened
25 gr Salted Butter, softened
50 ml Fresh Milk
½ tbsp Lemon Juice

3 Egg Yolks
30 gr Cake flour
10 gr Corn flour
pinch of salt

3 Egg Whites
1/8 tsp Cream of tartar
70 gr Caster Sugar

Method:
- Preheat oven 160C **.
- Place the softened cream cheese, butter and fresh milk in a mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until melt and mixture is thick and creamy. Remove it from double-boiler to cool.
- Upon slightly cool, add in the egg yolks, cake flour, corn flour and lemon juice. Mix until well combined.
- Sieve the egg yolk and flour mixture into another clean bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whip the egg whites in till foamy, add in cream of tartar, continue to whisk. Gradually add in the caster sugar, whisk till soft/medium peaks form.
- Add one-third of egg whites mixture into the cheese mixture and use whisk to stir well. Continue to fold gently with the balance egg white mixture until incorporated.
- Pour into the pan with grease paper and bake in water bath for 1 hour 10 mins or until set and golden brown.
- Leave to cool in oven for at least 10 mins with open door ajar. Unmold the cake, leave it cool before refrigerating it for at least 4 hours.

NOTE:
** For my oven, I first baked for 20 mins at 180C and changed to 160C for another 45 mins.