Chocolate Walnut Cake

I haven't baked this Chocolate Walnut Cake for a long time. The recipe was shared by a cousin many years ago. Don't know why but I just felt like baking something familiar, simple & delicious. And this cake came to my mind. 

What a delight..... it's soft, delicious, not too rich & yet not too light.... just perfect. Except... it didn't look as perfect as I wanted it to be. First, I didn't grease my bundt pan... big mistake! As a result, part of my cake was stuck to the pan. Secondly, I wanted to do the wavy effect that Roz did with her cake. Obviously, I didn't get the effect with my cake. Luckily nobody had complained about its look. In fact, I had good reviews about how good it tasted. 

Chocolate Walnut Cake

Ingredients:

283g unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla essence (I used pure vanilla paste.)

8 cold eggs (cold eggs will produce thick batter)

10 oz (283g) sugar

1 tbsp ovalette

2 tsp baking powder

8 oz (227g) cake flour - sifted with baking powder

4 oz (113g) walnut (chopped)

4 oz (113g) chocolate block (grated) - I replaced this with cocoa powder.

Method:

1. Line & grease a 10 x 10- inch baking pan. Set aside. (I used bundt pan.) 
2. Combine butter, salt, condensed milk & vanilla in a mixing bowl & cream until pale. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar,ovalette & flour & beat at high speed until thick for about 8 minutes. (If you are using a hand-held mixer, beat eggs, sugar & ovalette until thick & pale. Then fold in flour.)
4. Add creamed butter to egg mixture & mix thoroughly.
5. Pour 1/3 of batter into the baking pan. Then sprinkle 1/3 of walnut & 1/3 of chocolate. Pour another 1/3 of batter & sprinkle with another third of walnut & chocolate. Finish with the rest of batter, walnut & chocolate.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for the first 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160 deg C for the next 20 minutes.

Kuih Bangkit.... the one that melts in the mouth.

Happy Lunar New Year to all my Chinese readers. Hope the Year of the Snake brings more happiness and prosperity to you & your loved ones...

Yesterday, I made kuih bangkit. Kuih bangkit is a must-have cookie every Hari Raya in my house. I usually use the recipe shared by my late aunt.  I've also seen so many versions of the kuih bangkit recipe, but this time, I wanted to try the recipe shared by Sonia, the queen of baking experiment.

This  recipe is definitely  a keeper. It produces fragrant, delicious and most importantly, melt-in-the-mouth kuih bangkit! However, I made some minor changes to the recipe..

What I did differently from Sonia:

1. Sonia stir fried the flour, I baked it because I thought it would be less messy. After cooling it overnight, I sifted it. While sifting, to my surprise, some part of the flour was still warm! Sonia is right. Ideally, the flour should be left to cool for a few days.
2. Sonia didn't boil the coconut milk first but I did. As we all know, fresh coconut milk can turn bad quite fast, so I decided to play safe. Also, Sonia used only 70-80g of coconut milk. My mixture could not form into a dough, so I added 40g more coconut cream from a box. All in, I used 120g.
3. I added 1/4 tsp potash so that my bangkit will rise. I also sprinkled sesame seeds on my kuih bangkit.
4. Sonia pressed the dough into a mould. I rolled out the dough & cut using a cookie cutter.
5. I baked the bangkit at 150 deg C for 40 minutes.

Kuih Bangkit
Adapted from recipe by  Sonia @ Nasi Lemak Lover,

Ingredients:
200g tapioca flour
60g sago flour (I ground green sago pearls using a coffee grinder & sifted the flour to get 60g.)
4 screwpine (pandan) leaves, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp potash
85g icing sugar
120g  freshly-squeezed coconut milk (You may not need to use all.)

Topping:
egg white
sesame seeds

Method:

1. Stir fry tapioca flour and sago flour with pandan leaves in a clean wok for 75 mins (low flame) until flour becomes very light and turn slightly yellow, and pandan leaves turn crispy. (I baked the flour in the oven at 150 deg C.) Cool flour until completely cool. Sift & set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolk & potash until creamy. Add icing sugar and half coconut milk & whisk till combined.
3. Add in flour & mix using hand. Slowly add in the remaining coconut milk, a little at a time, just until the mixture clings together to form a stiff, smooth and pliable dough.
4. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 cm thick between 2 pieces of plastic. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Brush top of cut dough with egg white & sprinkle sesame seeds. Place cookies 1 cm apart on a baking pan. Leave aside for at least 1 hour to allow the cut-out dough to dry out  a little. This will prevent the cookies from spreading, hence maintaining the shape of the bangkit when baking.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 150 deg C for 40 mins. (After the first 20 minutes, turn baking tray around & continue baking for another 20 minutes.) Remove cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air-tight container.

 I'm submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover.