Three Years with Ellebug, or The Happy Hufflepuff

I went to nine schools throughout my academic career, moved houses 13 times, I work at one of the Big 4 accounting firms as a management consultant (which, besides having an incredibly high employee turnover, the nature of our jobs is that we do short term projects). Permanence is not a concept I am familiar with. So to be celebrating my third year of baking and writing this blog is kind of a B.F.D.

The past three years have seen quite a lot of changes in my life, my baking, and my work. I like to think I've grown and that writing here has helped me grow up and get to know myself a bit more... Imagine that, internalising through broadcasting my thoughts and other stuff out there. As a result of Ellebug (or The Happy Hufflepuff as we began so humbly three years ago), the work I've been doing, and the people I've met and become close to, I've built a strong appreciation for the art of reflection in the course of self discovery. I still have a long way to go, but it's nice to have these handy tricks and tools to help me cope with feelings of stress and the occasional unprovoked discontentment that many of my fellow Gen Ys suffer from.

Right now, where I am... there are a few big decisions that I will have to make over the next year, sort of the big ones to take me through the last few years of my twenties. Hard to believe when I started this thing that I was in a different age bracket. Goshdarnit.

Okay, enough wallowing and vague sharing, let's get down to business to defeat the Huns. I saw this recipe in my favourite food magazine, Delicious UK last year and knew that it would be THE cake I'm baking for my three year blog anniversary. Eric Lanlard's epic celebration chocolate cake may have a longer list of ingredients than I usually prefer, but ooooh baby, was this cake worth it! I'm definitely going to be making this cake again, though in future I may substitute the butter icing filling with something more tangy. This cake was also the perfect one to go with cos it showcases my three favourite things: chocolate, ganache frosting, and berries.

And to make it extra special, I used only the best Lindt dark chocolate (75% single source) for the cake, the butter icing, and the chocolate ganache. It's ok to splurge every now and then.

Blackberry Lindt Cake (Eric Lanlard's Chocolate Celebration Cake)
For the cake:

• 350g unsalted butter, softened
• 350g golden caster sugar
• 50ml black treacle
• 8 large free-range eggs
• 50g dark chocolate (at least 70 per cent cocoa solids), melted
• 1 tbsp chocolate extract 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp coffee extract
• 300g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 50g ground almonds
• Blackberries to decorate (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan and line and grease 1 6" deep round baking pan and 1 8" deep round baking pan
2. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light, then add the treacle and continue to beat gently 
4. Beat the eggs in one at a time, until light and fluffy then slowly add the melted chocolate
5. Add the chocolate, vanilla and coffee extracts
6. Add the flour until thoroughly combined then fold in the ground almonds with a rubber spatula
7. Divide the batter between the two baking pans, filling each to roughly 3/4 up the pans
8. Bake for 55 minutes for the 6" cake, and 1 hour 15 minutes for the 8" cake, or until a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn them upside down onto a wire rack to cool completely

For the butter icing:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp chocolate extract
• 30g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), melted
• 2 tbsp whipping cream

Whisk the butter and icing sugar until mixed, then add the extracts and dark chocolate. Continue to whisk until combined, then beat in the whipping cream. Pop the bowl into the fridge to allow it to solidify slightly while the cakes cool, but be sure to take it out before you fill the cakes to let it soften.

For the ganache:

• 250g single cream
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 250g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), melted
• 25g unsalted butter, softened

1. Heat the cream in a saucepan over a low heat, then add the vanilla and light corn syrup and stir gently with a spatula until mixed
2. Chop the chocolate and place in a medium sized heatproof bowl, pour the heated cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a few seconds before stirring with a spatula to melt it down. If necessary, put the bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds to reheat 
3. Stir in the butter, pop the bowl into the fridge to chill slightly before decorating

Assembling the cake:

Slice both cakes into three layers using a long serrated knife, then top each layer with the butter icing. Once all six layers are stacked, cover with ganache frosting in a happily haphazard manner. Top with fresh blackberries, or raspberries, or strawberries, or chocolate curls, or really anything you like. Enjoy with a cup of coffee. 

Also, you may have noticed that the look of the site has changed a little bit. In conjunction with my three-year anniversary, I've decided to give Ellebug a little treat! The new logo is care of the brilliant Zurisha over at Tinytype: Propfolio. Please go check out her stuff, order from her, just go talk to her. She's lovely! Thanks so much, Sha, I'm completely smitten by the little ladybug B and the whole thing! So cute! So terribly, terribly cute!

On a different note, is it smitten with, or smitten by? Couldn't find a conclusive answer to this, and now I am legitimately worried I may have been making a mistake my whole life and will continue to make this mistake if I don't find out!

Beet It! Chocolate Cake

I spent the majority of last Saturday's daytime hours in the kitchen, baking cakes, cupcakes and scones for several orders received from friends and family. I first baked two dozen chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache for my mother to take to her friends' do, low fat raisin scones for breakfast (recipe coming up in the next few days), a red velvet cake, and this beautiful Chocolate Beet cake.

I found the recipe for this cake a few weeks ago on Joy the Baker's blog, and knew that I had to try it at the next occasion. And what better occasion than one of my dearest friend's birthday?

Angie and I first found each other in 1st Form, in St Teresa's girl school back in Sarawak. We got on like a house on fire, and were inseparable for that entire school year! My family moved the next year, and then Angie and I had to content ourselves with meeting only once or twice a year. But now that we've both graduated and started work, she's moved to the city and is more accessible to me! Huzzah!

Happy birthday, my love, I hope you enjoyed the cake and the company, and I can't wait to see you again (Friday Karaoke!). Love you loads.

Ravenclaw - Nadia, Slytherin - Angie, Muggle - Jess <3

Chocolate Beet Cake

Recipe by Joy the Baker

• 1 large beet (or 2 small-medium ones) - 3/4 cup grated for the cake, 2 tbsp grated for the frosting
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 170g butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk

1. First of all, some prep work: Wrap the beets (unpeeled, just trimmed of greens and scrubbed clean) in foil paper, wipe down with the vegetable oil and pop in the oven for an hour or so at 200C, or until a knife poked through the beets go through easily. When they're ready, remove and cool for a while, then peel and grate the beets on the fine grate of a box grater and set aside
2. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your 8x8 round baking pan with butter and parchment paper
3. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
4. Cream the butter and sugars until light, then beat in the eggs (one at a time), vanilla and beets
5. Beat in half of the flour mixture until incorporated, then pour in all the buttermilk, followed by the rest of the flour when the milk has mixed completely
6. Divide the batter between your pans, and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer poked through at an angle comes out clean. You don't want to overcook this cake, trust me. When it's done, allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move onto a cooling rack to cool completely

Cream Cheese Beet Frosting

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (Joy's recipe calls for 4-5 cups, but the thought of that much sweetness makes me gag)
• 2 tbsp finely grated beets
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp milk
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• Salt

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy
2. Beat in the beets, vanilla, lemon juice and salt
3. Beat in the sugar, half a cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk as and when it's necessary, though I didn't need to add any for my second batch

Assembling the cake

The first time I made this cake for Angie, I put a layer of the cream cheese frosting between the cake layers, though this resulted in too sweet a cake for my liking, and it kind of overpowered the taste of the chocolate. I baked a second cake the next day (for picture purposes, as well as to give a chance to my family to try this amazing recipe... thanks, Joy!) and slathered a layer of blackberry coulis (cos I love that stuff!) in between instead. Cover the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting, then pop in the fridge for 15 minutes to half a hour to allow the "crumb coat" to set. Then apply another top coat (it's like getting a manicure) sparsely, you don't want too much frosting, and use a warm bench scraper (dip the scraper in a bowl of hot water, then wipe it clean quickly before use) to smooth the sides of the cake. Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour to allow the layers to set.

Sneaking veggies into dessert and then fooling ourselves that it was a healthy snack is one of my favourite things to do! Who doesn't like claiming their 5-a-day in a slice of dense, moist chocolate cake? 

If you like chocolate, you'll LOVE this cake. I was really worried that it would taste like salad, what with beets in the cake as well as in the frosting, but all the beets really add to the cake are their moisture. So if you want to try something a little fancier than zucchini in your chocolate cake, give this one a shot. 

Lots of love, 

Nabs

Berry Cheesecake Bars

Meet my Valentine. This is Berry Cheesecake Bar, and unlike the usual horrors that come with my past Valentine's day overly-expensive dinners and bouquets, this little baby was fuss free, had no expectations of me, and was a damn good time.

Forever Alone, level 12. LOL.

This was the first time I attempted a cheesecake, and a biscuit base that didn't crumble into pieces when I touched it. The feeling I got when I woke up this morning was something akin to the feeling I usually get on Christmas morning, though more intense. I rushed through my getting-ready-for-work process (dumped necessary make up in my handbag so I could apply en route) so I could run downstairs and snap some pics while the light was working with me.

By the way, I've decided 9am sunlight is the best for food photography.

Pulling the cheesecake out of the pan was the most daunting experience, waiting to see if it had set nicely, and if it would even work! But when it just slid out, and I laid it down on the table, I think I might have fallen in love a little bit. What a beautiful, beautiful cake, and I'm so incredibly relieved that it was a success! Who knew cheesecake could be so easy?

I cut up half of the cake and brought it into work today. It's already gone, and seems to have gotten good reviews... though I'm not sure if people are just being nice. I don't mind though, I'm a fan of these bars!

Berry Cheesecake Bars
Recipe adapted from Epicurian Mom


Raspberry Puree

• 9oz fresh raspberries
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice

In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook down all ingredients and stir occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool before pouring through a sieve. Set the juice collected aside to cool

Biscuit Base

• 10 chocolate digestives
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 160C, grease the 9x9 pan, line with parchment, then grease again. Set aside
2. Crumble crackers in a food processor if you have one, mine broke, so I just put the biscuits in a ziploc bag and whacked the biscuits with a rolling pin. Anger management, I have it. 
3. If using my archaic method, transfer crumbs to the mixer bowl and blitz for a bit with the beater, then add all remaining ingredients and beat until incorporated
4. Pour into lined baking pan, and use the bottom of a glass to firmly pat down biscuit base. Bake for 12-15 minutes then take it out and set aside

Cheesecake filling

• 16oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• Raspberry puree
• 1 cup fresh blackberries

1. Combine all ingredients (except for blackberries) and whisk on medium until well combined
2. Pour on cracker crust, and arrange the blackberries into the filling
3. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until set and the middle jiggles slightly when shaken gently
4. Cool for one hour, then cool in the fridge for at least three hours

Ladies Who Lunch: Mama Zee's Birthday

I consider myself lucky that I have an amazing mother. She is strong, smart, beautiful, intuitive, possesses far more talent in her pinky finger than I do in my entire body, and so full of love that she has shared so generously with everyone around us. My mother really is the best.

Most people are blessed with great mothers, but in our very close-knit circle of friends and extended family, we are exceptionally lucky in that we have a wonderful team of mothers. Best friends for most (if not all, actually) of our (the children's) lives, they have raised us as a group, poured their love on us, shared wisdom wrought from their own lives, listened to our boy troubles, endured our rants, and basically have just been there.

Today one of them celebrates a birthday, and in true Team Mama fashion, they organised a long lunch this afternoon (midweek public holiday, yay!), pooled together for an extravagant present (this year, Portmeirion is all the rage among the group), and sat over good food, laughing, sharing stories and taking every opportunity to scandalise Nisa, Kaly, her hapless boyfriend, and myself with innuendo and downright disturbing comments.

Mama Zee, being one of my six mothers, obviously deserves to get a homemade birthday cake! No bakery cake for any of my mamas, no way. I may not be able to afford to buy a Portmeirion teacup (or even a saucer), but this I can definitely do.

After my friend, Amy's hen night karaoke session last night (I know, you're thinking... where is that blog post?), I hauled myself home, washed my face and found that I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was a cake for Mama Zee! I knew there was no way in hell I'd be able to wake up early enough to do it, and I had actually planned on just baking the cake layers ahead of time, then frosting in the morning... but when I finally did crawl back into bed, the clock read 5.30am.

It was well worth it though. I decided to tackle Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the first time (3am decisions, they make sense sometimes) considering The Mothers have always harangued me for my too-sweet buttercream. It was surprisingly easier than anticipated, and wowweee at that silky-smooth texture and lack of sickening sweetness! Can't believe it took me this long to try it, and now that I have, I think I may have to stick with it...

I used my favourite white cake recipe, which I then divided into four bowls (roughly 1 1/2 cups per bowl) and coloured in increasing shades of pink (a teeeeeeeny tiny drop of Wilton Pink colouring gel in the first bowl, one drop in the second, 2 drops in the third, and 3 drops in the fourth). I baked the cakes in 6-inch round pans, all at once for 25-30 minutes, then popped them in the freezer (triple cling-wrapped) for half an hour.

With leftover blackberries from my Upside-down Blackberry Buttermilk cake, I whipped up a Blackberry Coulis for filling the layers. I've got some coulis leftovers now... watch this space to see what I do with it.

Blackberry Coulis

• 250g fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water

1. In a saucepan, bring the blackberries, sugar and water to a boil. Simmer until the fruit is mushy then stir in the vanilla
2. Remove from heat, allow it to cool then pour it all into a blender and whizz to a puree
3. Strain the puree through a sieve, then slather your cake layers with the goop

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 180g butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Whisk the egg whites and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie
2. Transfer to your mixing bowl, and with your whisk attachment, whisk the mixture at medium speed for about 4-5 minutes until soft peaks form (hello, meringue!). Add the vanilla.
3. At this point, slowly add butter into the mixture, by tablespoon-fulls. Continue until all the butter is in, and just whip until the point where when you run a spatula through it... it comes up looking beautifully smooth

If you have a stand mixer, I suggest you step away during that last step of the swiss meringue process. It looks terrifying, and you'll be tempted to "fix" it, as it seems as if the mixture is curdling. But don't you worry, darlings, it's meant to be that way. It will improve upon extended whipping. My tiny batch took roughly 5-8 minutes to finally arrive at a consistency I was happy with.

 

And what a beautiful taste the frosting produces! For the first time, my frosting has not overwhelmed the flavours of my cake, and as The Mothers enjoyed the cake quite a bit... I like to think I did it right this time. No complaints of "Nabiya! This is soooo sweet!" or "A moment on the lips..." and you know how it goes.

Anyway, happy birthday, Mama Zee, hope you enjoyed the lunch and love you loads!

xx Nabs

Upside-down Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

It's amazing what our society has become; when I told a friend that I was making a blackberry cake, he asked: "Which model?"

*facepalm*

I've never played with blackberries before, but when I saw this amazing cake by Bria over at her beautiful blog, These Peas Are Hollow, I kind of felt a twinge in my long dormant heart strings. Isn't it lovely? Isn't it wonderful? Yes, I'm singing at cake, people do that. Don't judge me. I love Bria's blog, everything in it looks so appetizing, and her photography! Oh Merlin's spotted underpants! I can only hope to one day have as beautiful a blog.

My mum's off in the States this week for a seminar, and my dad's going to be busy for the next six months settling into his new job, which leaves me babysitting my siblings every night. It's fine, not something I mind doing as I'm a bit of kid myself, so it's nice to be around my peeps. Last night, for example, my brother and sister helped me measure out ingredients while I helped them with their grammar homework. Reading my blog you're probably wondering "they let her teach kids grammar?"

Yes. It is a bit alarming.

After homework time, they were rewarded with a slice of cake fresh from the oven, a dollop of ice-cream and an extra hour of television! Okay, that last bit was completely unnecessary, but with the sugar in their system, I could hardly expect them to fall asleep! I'm not their mother, for Merlin's sake.

Upside-down Blackberry Buttermilk Cake
originally from Bon Apetit Magazine


I used two different types of pans for this, a regular round 9-inch pan, and a 9-inch removable bottom round pan. Just to see if a removable bottom would be easier. It was, but there wasn't much difference. Also, I had to make some minor changes in the recipe due to unavailability of resources (vanilla beans and cake flour).

• 3 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar (for dusting the blackberries)
• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 1 large orange

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, line your pans with parchment paper (bottom and sides), then butter and flour
2. Toss the blackberries with confectioners sugar in a container (don't get to vigorous with it), then arrange them evenly at the bottom of your pans
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium sized bowl and set it aside
4. Pour the vanilla essence into the buttermilk and set aside
5. With your stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure everything gets mixed
7. Beat in the orange zest
8. Pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture, beat until incorporated, then pour in half of the buttermilk, beat again until combines. Then repeat, ending with the flour mixture
9. Pour the batter evenly into the two pans (or you know, if you wanna use a deep springform pan and just make one tall cake, that's fine too), then bake for 45 minutes, or until it turns a golden brown and/or a skewer inserted at an angle comes out clean
10. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 15 minutes before turning them over onto a wire cooling rack. Cool completely then either sift confectioners sugar over the top (I was smitten with Bria's version, so did this), or drizzle melted white chocolate over the top. Mmmm... 

Divine. This cake was simply divine! I loved how the cake itself wasn't sweet, and yet the blackberries provided this lovely tangy, sweetness, which just balanced the whole thing out. The texture is soft, fluffy and melts in the mouth, then there's the contrasting burst of juice from the plumped up blackberries. If refrigerating, be sure to allow the cake to thaw before serving.

My brother likes it with plain vanilla ice-cream, I like Cherry Garcia

Mmmm... I hope you try this happiness, cos everyone deserves to taste this at least once. 

Much love,

Nabs