Chezcake Bistro

I cannot decide whether I like or hate night shifts. I like them for the days off in between shifts which feel like mini breaks but the long and unnatural working hours can really drain you out. Since they come with the job I try to make the most of it.
In a post-night shift afternoon I was at Chezcake Bistro with a friend. The place was minimally decorated and had seating for no more than 20. We were the only dine-in patrons and the two waiting staff were very attentive.

There were about 10 different flavours of cheesecakes on display at the counter but a much wide variety can be pre-ordered in advance as whole cakes. They are all baked, as supposed to the ones set with gelatin, according to the waiter.

I ordered the green tea cheesecake with red bean. This Japanese-inspired cake was unbelievably smooth and the green tea flavour really stood out. Red bean is, of course, always a perfect match for green tea. The base was, however, too soft and quite tasteless and would have benefited from more butter.

This is chocolate cheesecake with bailey, one of their alcoholic variety. After a tongue-numbing experience with the alcoholic ice-creams at Udders, I usually steer away from desserts with alcohol (I'd much prefer them on their own!). But the bailey in this cake was not too overwhelming and left a subtle warm after taste in my mouth. I would have liked it more if it was richer with chocolate flavour. 

I got a mango tango for take-away. Same with the other cakes, the texture was incredibly smooth and tangy mango sauce on the top was quite refreshing. 

I was in the mood for tea and pomegranate and raspberry seemed like a good choice for a hot summer afternoon. With a hint of sweetness it was soothing and fruity. The waiter needed no prompt to refill the pot, which was commendable customer service. 

The strawberry milkshake was very much enjoyed by my friend. It was a bit thinner and less creamy than the usual shakes, which meant they probably did not mix in much ice-cream. Depending on whether you are on a diet, it might be a good or a bad thing.  

It took them a while to prepare appetiser, which was served only after we have finished half of our cakes. The Chezcake Special stuffed yam ball with shredded roast duck was deep fried to a golden crust and steaming hot. It was filled with yam purée, finely diced carrot, mushroom and shredded roast duck and topped with mayonnaise and parsley. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the texture was really nice but I failed to taste even the slightest hint of duck.

Personally I prefer rich, dense and flavourful cheesecakes and the ones at Chezcake Bistro were not quite up to the mark for me. The texture was perfectly smooth but they needed more flavour. Some of their savoury dishes are a fushion of western and southeast Asian, such as laksa or tom yam pasta. They also offer an extensive list of hot and cold drinks, tea and wine. Although the cakes were not the best, it was a nice quiet café to spend a relaxing afternoon.

Chezcake Bistro
328 Joo Chiat Road

Antoinette Revisit

There are a few things that make a restaurant perfect for a girl's night out: yummy food, cosy chairs, relaxing ambience. My first visit to Antoinette for brunch was enjoyable so it came to my mind again when I arranged a dinner date with a girl friend. Most of their outlets do not accept reservations so we went to the one on Penhas Road to avoid the annoyingly long queue. 

Bouchées aux Fruits de Mer (Seafood in puff pastry case) ordered by my companion

I almost thought that they made a mistake when my order arrived. Instead of the burger buns that I imagined, Burger Antoinette looked more like a sandwich to me. Never the less the chicken patty was tasty and the pan-fried apple slice was juicy and refreshing. The pommery mustard mayonnaise added a mild heat. But I was not very satisfied by the potato crisps that were served alongside the salad as I had expected the "chips" on the menu to be French fries. Some fluffy chunky chips would have gone much better with the sandwich than the thin, greasy crisps.

 Iced chocolate

Display of chocolates, macaroons and cakes at the counter

Le Royale was a lovely combination of chocolate and hazelnuts. The smooth and rich dark chocolate mousse and the sponge cake at the bottom sandwiched a layer of airy almond meringue. The hazelnut feuilletine in the middle gave it a crispy and nutty contrast in texture. 

Kyoto was a much lighter dessert. The mascarpone mousses outside was infused with green tea. Hidden in the centre was the creamy chestnut crémeux which was a delightful complement to the mousse. 

The Charlotte macaroon had vanilla cream and strawberry coulis as its filling. It was too sweet for me and I could not taste any element of strawberry. But I have never been a big fan of macaroons so I am probably not the best judge.

I could not help but be reminded of Angelina in Paris by the range of desserts and the shop design of Antoinette. Dining at the classically French tearoom was such a decadent culinary experience which I believe would be difficult to exceed. Unfortunately the magical feeling that Antoinette first gave me has much diminished. I also was not impressed by their service, especially when the restaurant was not that full. My water glass only got refilled after many requests and it took them a good five minutes to get us forks for the desserts. While the desserts were delectable, their main courses were quite overpriced. I know I will not be in a hurry to return for the third time.

Antoinette

30 Penhas Road

Chocolate Pomogranate Cake

It is amazing how much can happen within two weeks' time. The coming few weeks are probably going to be BIG. And these special times call for more special cakes. To farewell my lovely colleague, I have made a Chocolate Pomegranate Cake.
I first thought that the idea of using pomegranate juice in a chocolate cake was a bit weird. In my mind chocolate and fruit juice are not something that go together very often. But again don't we add lemon juice and orange juice to teacakes and muffins all the time? I could not find the POM pomegranate juice so I used Blackford instead. The flavour of pomegranate does not really stand out but the juice helps keep the cake soft and light. The cake is delicious, rich in chocolate flavour without being too heavy at all.
This is probably the first time ever when I thought adding chocolate chips to the recipe is completely necessary. The cake itself is so soft and fluffy that adding any other texture seems to ruin it. I think a chocolate icing or thinly shaved chocolate would have worked better.
The original recipe was for a bundt cake. Since I do not own a bundt tin, I made it in a bread loaf tin, which worked just as well. As an experiment I have also baked some cupcakes using muffin tins. They won't fill up your moulds at the beginning but the cake would raise quite a bit, almost double in size.

Chocolate Pomegranate Cake

2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup pure pomegranate juice
dark chocolate chips

1) Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and slightly grease.
2) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
3) In a medium sized bowl, whisk cocoa powder with butter until smooth. One at a time, incorporate the eggs and vanilla extract. Add chocolate mixture, pomegranate juice into the flour mixture and stir until batter is well combined. Do not over-mix. Pour into the prepared tin and sprinkle the top with chocolate chips.
4) Bake for about 40 minutes, until until a tester inserted into the centre comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached.
5) Leave the cake in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out to wire rack to cool completely.

For cupcakes, reduce cooking time to approx 20-25 minutes

Chocolate & Walnut Birthday Cake

This week has been so crazy. My brain is literally on fire and I feel like my thoughts are spewed out everywhere. I want it to slow down but it won't. I haven't been sleeping well and I am exhausted. Even after only 4 days of work.
So in between all this craziness I managed to find time to bake a birthday cake. I did not have time to search for a recipe online so I used one from the Easy Baking book. When it just came out from the oven, I thought it had to be the saddest-looking cake ever existed! It did not rise as much as I expected and I probably over-baked it a little, making the surface look dry and rough. For the first time in my life I actually iced it too - otherwise it would have been too unpresentable. I was even worried about how it would taste because I could not cut out a small for tasting. But when everyone ate it at dinner, they all liked it and it was delicious. It was rich in chocolate, packed with nuts and not too sweet. The cake actually had a good height as well. And most importantly the birthday boy loved it so that's all that matters :)

Chocolate & walnut cake

4 eggs
100g brown sugar
75g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), broken into pieces
125g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter, melted
115g walnuts, finely chopped

icing:
50g dark chocolate
80g butter
125 icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

1) Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Grease a 18cm deep round cake tin and line with baking paper.2) Place the eggs and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk for 10 minutes, or until foamy and a trail is left when the whisk is dragged across the surface. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water until melted.
3) Sift the flour and cocoa together and fold into the egg and sugar mixture with a spatula. Fold in the melted butter, melted chocolate and walnut pieces. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until springy to the touch.
4) Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
5) To make the icing, melt the chocolate as above and leave to cool slightly. Beat together the butter, icing sugar and milk until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Whisk in the melted chocolate.
6) Spread the icing over the top of the cake.

Hazelnut, apple and lemon yoghurt cake loaf

Lately I have been neglecting my blog more than I would like. This is probably the longest I have gone without uploading a new entry! It's not that I have not been cooking. But I have been lacking the effort to pick up my camera and to spend a few moments to put down a few thoughts into words. I guess that is what work can do to you sometimes.
I have dedicated today as an absolute day off (well, almost absolute day off anyway), ie not going to shopping, not doing meeting up with anyone, not reading Australia Pharmacist trying to get a few lousy CPD points. I went to a new hairdresser to have my hair cut. I wonder why most gay men make better hairdressers and make up artists than straight women? It must be quite an interesting job to be a hairdresser. It is almost like part of their job descriptions to gather gossip and chit chat with the clients. I used to feel so devastated to have my hair cut short because I had such difficulties growing it. Today I must have had about 25cm of my hair cut off and I feel great (my mum would be proud - she's all for short hair). Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to get a bob :P
I used the yoghurt cake loaf recipe again. I really like how moist and dense the cake is. Only this time I've halved the recipe so I ended up with a flat loaf.

Hazelnut, apple and lemon yoghurt cake loaf


1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/8 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plain natural yoghurt
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar
1 extra-large egg
grated lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped and roasted hazelnuts
1 small apple
Freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1/2 lemon

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2) Sift together the flour, baking powder and wheat germ. Peel the apple and chop one half into small cubes. Mix the chopped nuts and apples into the flour mixture.
3) Whisk together yoghurt, 1/3C sugar, egg, lemon zest, vanilla extract and oil. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and whisk in the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined.
4) Pour batter into the prepared tin. Core the remaining half of the apple and cut into thin slices. Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter and bake for 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
5) Heat up the lemon juice, ground cinnamon and 1tbsp sugar until sugar dissolves. Set aside.
6) When the cake is cooked through, allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack. Use a chopstick or toothpick to create holes on the surface of the cake. While still warm, pour the syrup over the cake and allow to soak in.

Hazelnut & orange yoghurt cake with orange syrup

I think I am slowly steering myself away from bakegoods that are loaded with choc chips. Not that there is anything wrong with them. In fact I have a theory that adding choc chips can always make a cake taste better. But I also love the crunchiness and flavour that are so unique to nuts and seeds. I have never used hazelnuts in baking before (in fact I have never eaten hazelnuts on its own before today) so I decided to give it a try. It is, after all, the magic ingredient of the heavenly Ferrero Rocher and the creamy Nutella. Instead of lemon as in the original recipe, I have used orange zest and juice for its mellow acidity. A simple orange syrup is poured onto the cake at the end to further intensify the orange flavour and keep the cake moist.

Hazelnut & orange yoghurt cake loaf with orange syrup


1/2 cup white all-purpose flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup pack brown sugar
100g hazelnuts
zest of a whole orange
3 eggs
1 cup plain natural yoghurt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 vanilla extract

For the orange syrup: juice from a whole orange + 1 tbsp brown sugar

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Line a loaf tin.
2) To toast the hazelnuts, pour them in a microwavable container and heat on high setting for thirty seconds. Shake the container to move the nuts around and heat for another thirty seconds. Repeat until the nuts are lightly toasted. Place them in a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin until they reach the desired size.
3) In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and hazelnuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yoghurt, eggs, orange zest, vanilla and oil. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Gently mix just until all ingredients are well combined and there is no sign of flour.
4) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in pan for ten minutes.
5) Meanwhile make the orange syrup. In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice and the sugar until all sugar is dissolved. Set aside. Transfer the loaf to the cooling rack and poke the surface of the cake with a chopsticks to make small holes. Pour over the orange syrup while the cake is still warm. Serve after the juice has soaked into the cake.

When the cake is still dry with no syrup

Sweet and Nutty Cake Loaf

I am so happy today 'coz I tried out two recipes and they are both fantastic! I won't fit both of them in the same entry because that just won't do them justice and they both deserve to be on their own :P The first dish that I made was the Sweet and Nutty Cake Loaf, adopted from Baking Bites. I was looking for something that differs from my usual blueberry muffins or choc chip coffee cake. The fact that this recipe used sunflower seeds caught my attention. So I decided to bake this to use up the half-empty packet of seed mix and half-empty bottle of almonds in my cupboard.

Sweet and Nutty Cake Loaf

1 cup white all purpose flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups of a combination of sunflower seeds, almonds, dried cranberries and sultanas

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Lined a loaf tin.
2) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and the seeds, nuts and dried fruits.
3) In a separate measure cup, whisk together egg, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until just combined. Do not over-mix and keep the batter slightly lumpy.
4) Pour mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and cooked through when tested with a skewer or a chopstick.
5) Turn loaf out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake just has so much texture - the loaf itself is dense, at the same time you get the crunchy almonds, crispy seeds and the juicy cranberries. It is not too sweet and there is the combined flavour of almonds and dried fruits in every bite. I imagine it will make a really good breakfast when heated with a bit of butter or honey on the top. On its own it is really good as a snack. You can be really creative and add whatever nuts or dried fruits you have on hand. Being low fat and loaded with heaps of seeds and almonds, a tea cake cannot get any healthier than this.

Orange and Almond Cake

I've been watching a set of DVD named "Nigella Feast" lately and I have really enjoyed it. It is a collection of the entire TV series hosted by the English chef Nigella Lawson. She has a really fun and casual attitude towards cooking and does not use many fancy ingredients or advanced culinary techniques. Most of the dishes she makes are quite down-to-earth and they are recipes that you can really reproduce in day-to-day cooking. And she has an incredible way of describing the flavour, aroma, texture and the presentation of food. I think she has enough vocabs to describe food to write a food dictionary.
So naturally that results in me googling her name and browsing her website, which has a vast collection of recipes posted by both Nigella and members of the website. Based on her "Mother-in-law's madeira cake", I made a wholemeal orange and almond cake.

50g softened unsalted butter (the original recipe calls for 240g of butter but that was all I had in the fridge so I added additional fat using olive oil)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
grated zest and juice of an orange
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour

1) Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2) Cream the butter, olive oil and sugar together and add orange zest to the mixture. Add the eggs one at at time, with a tbsp of flour for each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and, lastly, orange juice.3) Grease and line a 23x13x7 cm loaf tin and pour the cake batter in. Sprinkle the top with flaked almond.4) Bake for 1 hour or until cooked through. Let cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning the cake out.

Banana Orange & Choc Chip Cake

So what's the difference between a banana cake and a banana bread loaf? Apparently it's the icing. And I think the cake is meant to be sweeter than the bread, or at least that's how I would make it. But since I have never been a fan of icing, I improvised and made a banana cake sans icing. This is based on a recipe called Banana & Lime Cake from the book Easy Baking.

Banana, Orange & Choc Chip Cake

1.5 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
small pinch of salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
3 small bananas, mashed with ~2 tbsp orange juice
1 egg
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
choc chips

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line cake tin with baking paper
2) Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar and orange rind. Mix well.
3) Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg, banana, olive oil, applesauce, vanilla, cinnamon and choc chips. Mix evenly.
4) Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Sprinkle extra choc chip over the top if desired. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
5) If you wish, you can prepare a topping by mixing 125g sifted icing sugar and 1-2 tsp orange juice to form a soft but not too running icing. Stir in some grated orange rind and drizzle the icing over the cake while it is still warm.

This cake is quite a dense and filling one, probably due to the amount of bananas. (I already feel satisfied after eating one slice!!) They also help keep the cake moist, despite the reduced amount of oil. Next time I would probably use the rind from a whole orange and more orange juice as the flavour needs to be a bit stronger to cut through all that banana richness. Overall, another easy and delicious recipe :P

My Nearly-Death Experience & Cinnamon-choc chip sour cream cake (with recipe)

So according to my workmates, I almost got run over by a car yesterday.
Indeed that is a bit of an exaggeration. So there I was, crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing. 3 cars were coming down the hill on my right. The first one stopped while I was walking across the road. The second car was going down the slope so fast that it could not stop in time. SQUEAK! BANG! It crashed into the first car and created a huge dent at its rear. The impact made the first car moved a few metres forward. By then I was already at the traffic island. As I looked back I thought "Oh no I think it was me who caused the accident?!" But I was five minutes away from being late to work so I just kept walking. A colleague of mine and a couple of other people happened to be standing around in the car park located slightly above the road, which made it a perfect platform for watching this little event. It wasn't until their graphic description of accident when I realized I could've been hit by a car for real if I was two seconds slower! So I said a little prayer to thank God for protecting me every second of my life. And I ate one of the double choc chip muffins that Susie bought. Yum.
And yes, I took extra care when I crossed the road today.

Considering I had the morning free today I wasn't gonna waste it on packing (that will be tomorrow morning's work). I made the cinnamon-chocolate chip sour cream cake from the recipe on smittenkitchen. And it was AMAZING. So delicious. I brought some to work and people were asking me for the recipe. And someone reckoned it tasted like some sort of French cakes. Any food from France has gotta taste good right?
The cake turned out extremely dense and moist. It was so chocolatey and cinnamonie. Perfect for a sweet tooth like moi!

A slightly modified version:

50g unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup pack brown sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
300 mL sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
Splash of milk

Chocolate chips - as much as you like
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to175°C.

In a large bowl, cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar, then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. Sift flour and baking powder together into a separate bowl. Alternately add sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture. Beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter. Add splash of milk. Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon together in a separate, small dish.

In square baking pan lined with baking paper, pour in half of the cake batter. Sprinkle the top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and half of the chocolate chips. Pour remaining batter on top, sprinkling the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Special treat for breakfast: homemade 豆漿！

My Mixed Berry Buckle

Today was one of those days when the Sunshine state got a bit wet. The streets were wet. The cars were wet. My shoes were wet. I like the rain. It's soothing. It's dreamy. It smells amazing. It almost takes you to another world just by listening to it. (it also makes the weeds in my front yard grow like crazy. but i'm ignoring them) Great soundtrack for a day of study (or procrastination). And in queensland it's a rarity not having to worry about your SPF for one day.

So I was deciding between two recipes that both look delicious and doable (for a beginner baker like me). Sure, blueberry boy bait sounds more appealing. But blueberry buckle got so many good reviews and looks like a much "safer" recipe. So I went ahead and made my own version of the Blueberry Buckle. I've only got frozen mixed berries so that's what I've used. I've cut down the sugar by 2/3 'coz that other cake recipes from allrecipe.com that I have tried have been too sweet. I skipped the topping because of laziness. And also because I was a bit reluctant to add another 75g of butter into the recipe after watching that Heart Foundation ad this morning. After all I don't want to become one of those people who go on a statin at the age of 35. Instead I just put a few mixed berries on top of the batter and sprinkled a mixture of ground cinnamon and sugar on the top, which was suggested in the blueberry boy bait recipe.

(please forgive the amateur photography!)

Turns out that I should have pushed in the berries into the batter 'coz they came out of the oven BLACK. Well I didn't think about that then so just like that it stayed in the oven for 40 minutes. And this is, once again, a lesson for me to never to trust the recipe 100%. 40 minutes were apparently too long and it came out a bit burnt and not as moist as it could have been. Probably 30-35 minutes next time. And more cinnamon on the top!!

This is a buttery, rich, sweet cake with refreshing berries in every mouthful. Great for afternoon tea or anytime you feel like a lift. Another recipe for my collection~

PS And I'm sorry I forgot the cookies Anna!! So here they are. Buttery chewy cookies with the perfect balance between Hershey's choc chip and dried cranberry.