Soymilk Red Bean Cake

Post from January 13, 2011 (original blog deleted)

Took the day off today from work. =D

I just baked 2 mini-ish loaves of Soymilk Red Bean Cake, with a recipe adapt'd from Quick & Easy Soymilk Desserts by Yasuyo Shida. I love this book!!! Came across it a few years ago on amazon.com. I assume that it was originally a Japanese publication, but translated & publish'd in English. Funny thing is that it has 2 exact recipes with the exact photos as in one of my Japanese-text cookbooks - I was so thrill'd cos I can better decipher the Japanese words/terms in the Japanese recipes with the guide of the English ones. I can somewhat understand the Kanji & Katagana in them, but my eyes get dizzy after staring @ the Japanese for minute after minute. =P

Here is the original recipe from the book:

Red Bean Cake (for 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 eggs, separated

2 oz (55 g) granulated sugar

5/6 oz (25 g) powdered sugar

3-1/6 oz (95 g) all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

30 ml soymilk, blended with

   30 ml vegetable oil

4-2/3 oz (140 g) canned red bean paste

1/4 oz (10 g) sugar-glazed red beans

Do-Ahead Tips

• let eggs stand @ room tempurature
• sift together flour & baking powder
• Preheat oven to 340 F
• Lightly butter the loaf pan & coat with flour - shake off excess flour

1. In a bowl, beat egg yolks with half amount of the granulated sugar until thickened. Stir in half amount of the powdered sugar. Beat well, and add the remaining powdered sugar.
2. When dropping consistency is achieved, fold in bean jam. Combine soymilk & oil, and stir into the batter.
3. Make meringue. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until almost stiff. Add remaining granulated sugar and whisk until very stiff.
4. Add half of the meringue to the egg mixture and mix lightly. Fold in half of the flour mixture. When flour is still visible, fold in half of the sugar-glazed beans. Fold in the remaining meringue, flour mixture, then remaining beans. Blend well at this final stage.
5. Pour into pan and bake at 340 F for 25-30 minutes.


ENJOY!!!


(my variations: I replaced the vegetable oil with more soy milk since I want'd to use soybean oil, but only had olive oil. While typing this, I realized that i left out the salt. Also, I used only canned red bean, about a half cup of it, didn't differentiate between paste & beans...p.s. the measurements are in cups or spoons, so a scale would be uber-useful).

Can't wait to taste it (still baking...5 more minutes?)

Tofu probably will love it too!!! He kept try'n to sniff & lick the batter on the table while I was prep'n. I'll probably serve him a tiny chunk with some vanilla haagen dazs...hehehe. i spoil this puppy, in a bad way...BAD MOMMY! BAD ME!!! it's just a little bit...=P He takes it from me - his never-end'n scurry'n for food. His name probably has something to do with his welcoming appetite too.

Cakes should be done. Lemme check! *EXCITED!*

Just gonna let the tops brown for a few more minutes cos a brown'd & crunchy caketop is the best part!!!

Cake is done - very light & fluffy, not too sweet, chewy & YUMMY! i think i coulda made one taller loaf. The 2 loaves didn't rise as much as I had expect'd, but then again, now I get 2 crunchy cake tops as opposed to one. NICE!!!

*UPDATE* i literally just consumed one entire loaf - wick'd addictive chewy sweetness!!! gotta try hard to share the other loaf. hehehe.

Hong Kong-style breakfast with Tofu

Post from November 27, 2010 (original blog deleted)

it's Saturday morning & I've been sick for more than a week - making tons of snotty wontons & try'n to hold the coughs, so what's better than to warm up with a nice hot breakfast in this 39 degree (but "feels like 30 degrees") weather. i made a quick Hong Kong-style macaroni with green peas, luncheon meat (mmm mmm...love luncheon meat! :D), a fried egg & a few drops of oyster sauce.

more vanilla bean & green tea buttercream cupcakes!!!

Post from November 27, 2010 (original blog deleted)

the cupcakes from 2 days ago turn'd out so well that i made more today, tweek'n the recipe a little & they came out fabulously fluffy & even more yummy!!!

the ones from Thanksgiving were my first batch of made-from-scratch cupcakes & my first batch made in years (previously made them from cake mixes). I was pretty obsess'd with cupcake books for awhile, but haven't made any until 2 days ago. I found a recipe online & changed it a bit, then - VOILA! YUMMY CUPCAKES by Carrie & her sidekick Tofu.

Still had leftover green tea buttercream, so this time i piped some on top of the warm cupcakes & made a smooth mess (lots of frosting roll'd down the foil...)

For the decoration, I melt'd some white chocolate, sprinkled on some sakura sugar & cut out a sakura shape. The sakura sugar was gift'd to me by my buddy Kaori while I was in Japan during March. It's very pretty & actually has real dried sakura cherry blossom flower flakes & leaf flakes in it. Sakura flavor is actually extract'd from the leaves, so the pink flowers are just for that pretty touch, whereas the leaves carry the flavor. I LOVE SAKURA!!! btw it's call'd さくらのお砂糖 available to buy here (not sure it ships to the US tho...): http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/seescore/038123.html

Kaori also gave me some Sakura-An (bean paste) & I bot some sakura extract & salt'd sakura leaves while in Tokyo. I've been want'n to experiment with them, but it's been 8 monthes & I've been too lazy to use them (hope they're still good)...

Back to the cupcakes =D

Tofu had a few licks, then Mommy took it away...Enjoy!

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes (Recipe #2 - Even Better Cupcakes!)
recipe yields about 10-12 cupcakes1 stick unsalted butter @ room temperature
3/4 C Sugar In The Raw turbinado sugar

2 large eggs
1.5 C Pillsbury Softasilk Cake Flour

1 t baking powder
0.5 C milk
1 t Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Beat butter for 30 seconds until soft

3. Add sugar, beat for 2-3 minutes until light & fluffy
4. Add eggs one at a time & beat to mix in

5. Sift together flour & baking powder, add to batter, mix well
6. Add milk & vanilla, mix well

7. Using 2 teaspoons, spoon batter into cupcake pans lined with baking cups.

8. Bake 25 minutes (i turn'd up the heat to 400 F for last 2-3 minutes to brown & crunch up the tops).

I took 152 pictures today...LOL! That's the art of procrastination!!! I have to write up my year-end self evaluation, as well as all those year-end performance reviews for my direct reports...I really dislike being a manager!...our work is sooooo insignificant (we click, click, click, print, print, print, stare @ the computer...& pretty much do the same thing everyday), but we're expect'd to embellish the self-evaluations, performance reviews & of course interview'n spiel to make our daily responsibilities sound soooo significant & wonderfully corporate...IT'S A VERY DIFFICULT TASK!!! thus i can't get myself to start writing eventho they're due on Monday morning (gotta finish by tomorrow night & log-in from home...UGH!!!), follow'd by one-to-one meetings to discuss what we've written...I'll most likely copy-&-paste all the jibberish that I wrote in the mid-years...GOOD LUCK to me!!! hehehe...anyways, here are some more photos =D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Look how fluffy!!! 

Poor Tofu always gets so many flashes in his eyes, but he's too wicked cute & Mommy's too obsess'd with taking pictures with her 2 cameras, that the poor pup just has to half-close his eyes...hehehe

tofu vs. cupcakes

Post from November 25, 2010 (original blog deleted)

Here goes our first real post. =D Tofu & I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Day!!! We celebrated by sharing some fresh chicken & some sweet potatoes, then we play'd outside for a bit & decided to make cupcakes.


Here's a shot of Tofu & my cupcakes out in the backyard.

 

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
recipe yields about 10 cupcakes


1 stick unsalted butter @ room temperature
3/4 C sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
0.5 C milk
1 t Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste


1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Beat butter for 30 seconds until soft

3. Add sugar, beat for 2-3 minutes until light & fluffy
4. Add eggs one at a time & beat to mix in

5. Sift together flour & baking powder, add to batter, mix well
6. Add milk & vanilla, mix well

7. Using 2 teaspoons, spoon batter into cupcake pans lined with baking cups.

8. Bake 25 minutes (i turn'd up the heat to 400 F for last 2-3 minutes to brown & crunch up the tops).

Green Tea "Matcha 抹茶" Buttercream Frosting

0.5 stick unsalted butter @ room temperature
1.5 C confectioner's sugar (aka powdered sugar)
0.25 C milk
2 T green tea powder (matcha)
0.5 t Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste

1. Combine everything & beat 3-5 minutes until creamy

Enjoy!!!

yet another one...=P

Post from March 14.


too many things. too many thoughts. too many days later.


i've been hav'n a very difficult time try'n to come up with a blog name for MY blog - a blog all about ME & my many OBSESSIONS!!!!!


...so i created yet another blog!


here it is!


the blog name says it all.


this blog is about ME, MYSELF & I!!!


carrie! carie! cariie!


carrie - "official"


carie - start'd using this in college since my school email had to hav 8 letters


cariie - thought this look'd pretty cool when bebe mispell'd it on fb...hehehe.


welcome to my world of tofupuppy, family, friends, food, DESSERT!, Hello Kitty, etc.

instant ramen with luncheon meat & fry'd egg

Post from April 17.

ramen. luncheon meat. eggs.

LOVE! LOVE!! LOVE!!!

i grew up eat'n Nissin's 出前一丁 brand 公仔麵 ("Doll Noodles"). we'd buy them by the box of 30 packs. i remember each bag used to cost about $0.35 sold individually, but nowadays, expect to pay $0.79/bag! still worth it tho! it's just such a comfort food. ready in 3 minutes! delicious every time! a few yrs ago, for months, all the stores were out of 出前一丁 & i was VERY depress'd over the fact. this was due to a rumor'd "import/export" restriction maybe related to quality issues (?). Fortunately, after those long few months, the shelves were stock'd back up. During that time, I desperately tried to find a replacement, but no other brand can compare.

All of the 出前一丁 flavors that I've ever eaten (Chicken, Satay, Curry, Tom Yum, Miso, Shoyu, Teriyaki, Shrimp, etc.) were manufactured by Hong Kong's Nissin. The only flavor I found in Japan was "Original" with sesame oil. Therefore, I really do love Hong Kong's Nissin!!! Thank you! =D

P.S. will u pls bring back the "Stir Fry" Chicken & Sesame ramen & the Tom Yum flavor soup ramen?

a few weeks ago, i made "ramen salad" - boil'd & drain'd 出前一丁 ramen with Japanese sesame almond cashew & peanut dressing. it was YUMMY!!!

i love ramen!!! instant or not!!! =D

Happy Happy Joy Joy =D

Post from April 8.

Oh Happy Day!!! Long time no see!!! Despite trip'n in the yard & scrape'n my poor toes an hour ago, i smiled all the way to work - down the hill, pass 9 blocks, 12 minutes of walk'n to the train station, onto the train, off the train, up the stairs, around the building, into the parking lot, up the stairs, into LCC, up the elevator all the way to my desk - while limp'n.

LOL!

why am i so deliriously happily psych'd about going to work?

I'm not!

i'm happy cos:

1. the Sun's out & shining brightly!
2. it's Friday!
3. i'm dress'd for SOX-CESS!!!
4. i walk'd tofu bright & early up the hill, around the hill, and back down. exercise for both! NICE!!! =D
5. i made ice cream for the 1st time @ 8 am & of course it's gotta be green tea flavor!
6. i happily mistook my neighbor's ivory-color'd-Samoyed-lookalike-blue & brown eyed Husky as a Sammy. i stop'd in my tracks, back'd up & wait'd with a smile for the man & his dog to make their way up to one car's space in front of me & in front of the postman & 2 yard maintenance workers, i shout'd (with a smile) - "I have a Sammy too! He's 8 months!...Oh! No! you live over there, is he a Samoyed Retriever mix?" the neighbor goes: "Oh, he's a Husky. Purebred." OOPPPPPSSSS!!! people do that to me all the time, but my first @ it. HAHAHA. the Husky's name is Juno & i've had eyes on him for months. When Wil & i were moving our stuff to the house every night back & forth for a week last Summer, I always tried hard to spot out the doggie's muzzle under that big wooden fence. at the beginning, i took it as a Goldie, until tofupuppy & i approach'd it one day & while we walk'd away, he ran onto his elevated patio. "VOILA!" i was so psych'd that he look'd like tofupuppy. Juno. =D
7. i finally start'd my "day" posts on facebook, after Judy. day 98! 2 pictures!
8. i got to work late. hahaha. had to administer first aid on my poor bloody toes. SORRY TOES!!! they always fall victim to my idiot self. =(
9. i'll be baking tons of cupcakes & cookies tonight with Judy.
10. i brought eggs, romaine lettuce & sesame almond cashew peanut dressing for lunch with Julie & she said "I love eggs!!! can't wait to meet u for lunch!"

11. i have two hostess chocolate cupcakes in my bag.

This day will go fabulous!!!

Enjoy the weekend!!!! =D

chestnut souffle spongecake

post from May 10.

[day 129] got home @ 8:30, ate some fish tenders top'd with cheese & tartar sauce, still felt bummy from my miserable job so i made myself a cake to cheer up! isn't she lovely? 3 layers of fluffy moist souffle cake fill'd with Sabaton chestnut cream from France & dot'd in pink vanilla buttercream =D

[day 117] chicken katsu & fry'd okra

post from April 27.

[day 117] day #3 of fried chicken, day #2 of fried okra. is this why my tooth infection came back? i'm very "yeet hayh?" this was YUMMY! all worth it. pop'd another expired antibiotic pill afterwards...hehe...so what is this? bread'd & fried chicken katsu & okra served with rice & okonomiyaki sauce (poor tonkatsu sauce is sit'n unused in the fridge)...<3 <3 <3!

Doraemon Souffle Cheesecake

Happy Birthday Ming! =D celebrated Ming's bday with a vanilla souffle cheesecake disguised as ドラえもん (Doraemon or as i call him "Ding Dong")

a few weeks ago, my bro flew back from Hong Kong for 5 days to visit before start'n his new job, so i hung out with him & his friends. while having dinner, i offer'd to make Ming a birthday cake (think we were on the topic of desserts...or something...oh my memory!...sigh...) i've only met Ming a few times & we're hardly acquaint'd but i took the opportunity to bake/practice. she said she liked Hello Kitty so i thought "woo hoo, so do i & i love anything Hello Kitty). She mention'd she liked 抹茶 (matcha - Japanese green tea) & スフレチーズケーキ (souffle cheesecake), so i decided to go with it, as a surprise, eventhough my souffle cheesecakes fail'd twice (i think they were under-mix'd, under-baked). As Ming's bday got closer, i check'd in & she requested Doraemon, so thus i made Doraemon, using this as my guide.

plan'n time! when i brainstorm, i tend to doodle endlessly. kekeke.

 i was truly ecstatic when my 3rd attempt @ souffle cheesecake (Japanese cotton soft cheesecake - a fusion of spongecake & cheesecake) was a success. =D although i thought it turn'd out a tad wet, the birthday girl said it was perfect & much comparable to the ones she can only get from the bakeries in NY. the cake rec'd positive feedback & i was uber glad, had my fingers cross'd that it would taste good & was fully cook'd through.

i made a 6" cake & baked it for 1h10m, plus cool'd it inside the oven with door ajar for another hour (recipe below).

sweet success!!! =D (i forgot to put the matcha green tea powder in it. hahaha)

first, i crumb-coat'd the cake with some cream cheese buttercream

then i drew Doraemon with a toothpick

then i outlined all the lines with black-color'd cream cheese buttercream

then i piped stars to fill in all the space

everyone always gets impress'd by all the piped stars, but it really doesn't take long. maybe about twenty minutes to half an hour this time?

Hmm...Ding Dong's eyes & mouth turn'd out a bit too big.

nice & personalized. box'd & ready to deliver a surprise.

Baby Austin, me & the birthday girl Ming =D

Bye Bye Doraemon. We all enjoy'd ur company & your insides. LOL!

a teeny tiny slice for each person cos we all got stuff'd with family-style (aka HUGE PORTIONS) Italian dining. Look the cheesecake is nice & even - no sink'n, no dense bottom. WOOHOO!!!!!

Souffle Cheesecake (Japanese Cottonsoft Cheesecake)

225g cream cheese (1 package, 8 oz.)

200ml milk (whole prefer'd)

80g sugar, separated 20g & 60g

40g cake flour, sift'd

3 eggs, room temperature & separated

1t vanilla (i only use Nielssen Massey vanilla extract & vanilla paste speckled with seeds http://www.nielsenmassey.com/) 

optional: if you want to use chocolate or green tea powder, sift it in with the cake flour. i'd say 1T or so?

1. preheat oven to 340F (170C).

2. grease a 6" pan with butter & line bottom & sides with wax'd paper (if using springform, wrap pan with 3 layers of foil to prevent water from the water bath from seep'n into the cake - too much trouble for me, so i didn't use a springform, just gotta line it well & be careful when turn'n it out/upside down).

3. heat the cream cheese & milk in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (DO NOT let the water touch the bottom of the bowl, although it will condensate regardless).

4. mash the cream cheese in the milk & stir until thick & no longer lumpy.

5. remove the cream cheese & milk mixture from the stove (pour the hot water into a pan for the water bath). let the mixture cool for a few minutes. give it a few whisks to let some steam out.

6. whisk the 20g sugar, 3 egg yolks & vanilla into the cream cheese mixture.

7. fold in the flour lightly, until just incorporated.

8. strain the mixture (optional)

9. beat the 3 egg whites until foamy, add the 60g sugar & beat on low until stiff

10. fold a third of the meringue into the cream cheese mixture. mix well.

11. gently fold another third, then the remaining third (the meringue will clump up & float on the top of the batter, press these to the side of the bowl with your rubber spatula.

12. once batter is well incorporated, bake it in a water bath (the cake bakes in a pan of boil'd water) for 1 hour. to prevent over-brown'n, cover the pan loosely on top with a sheet of foil.

13. after 1 hour, take the cake out of the water bath & bake another 10 minutes. (if u want to brown the cake, remove the foil now)

14. after 1h10m, turn off the oven, leave the door ajar (left open a few inches), and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another hour.

15. after baking 1h10m & cool'n in the oven for 1 hour, take the cake out of its pan & let it cool to room temperature before frosting (another hour or so), or cool in the refrigerator for 3 hours before enjoy'n it.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

(enough to frost this cake)

225g cream cheese (1 package, 8oz), room temperature

1 stick butter, room temperature

1C powder'd sugar

1t vanilla

Just mix all the ingredients until light & fluffy

Enjoy!

aiyah! haven't updated this space in weeks. will post pix soon. :)

upcoming baking projects:
- Ming's BDay Cake - Doraemon, green tea/red bean Japanese Cottonsoft (Souffle) Cheesecake frost'd with SMBC
-Halloween Party - rice crispies pumpkins, fruit punch with hands, devil red velvet cupcakes
- Lici's Baby Shower - Sugarbunnies' Shirousa (pink bunny) cake - 2-tiers with Shirousa iced cookie centerpiece, or 3D fondant Shirousa - flavor TBD
- My Hello Kitty Birthday Bash
- Baby Colin's 100Day Party - bigger & better monkey cake - 2 tiers? or cupcake-pull-apart cake

BRB. 2-hr class.