Orange chocolate marble bundt

When I was reading up on this, there are two kinds of orange chocolate cakes. There is the Jeffa cake, which combines the chocolate and orange. The one I want has to split up orange and chocolate components, because I want to taste them differently. So I chose the marble cake from Pies and Tacos. But I do want a granache glaze so I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe which was to suit a 10C bundt cake.

Ingredients (recipe is for 12C but I've downgraded to 10C for my bundt)

398g flour

27g cocoa powder

15g baking powder

¼ tsp salt

236g butter, softened

416g sugar

4 eggs

1¼ tbsp orange zest

1.46 C orange juice  

Glaze

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp orange zest

2 tbsp orange juice

¾ sugar OR

Granache (from Smitten Kitchen)

225g semisweet choc chips or chopped choc

120ml (½C) heavy cream

Method

1. Grease bundt.

2. Divide flour into 2 bowls (approx 199g per bowl). Add half of baking powder (7.5g). Add half of the salt (ie about ⅛ tsp).

3. Add cocoa powder to just one bowl. 

4. Sift both bowls (separately of course).

5. Cream butter in stand mixer for 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually and keep creaming for 2 - 3 mins until pale and fluffy.

6. Add eggs one at a time and ensure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down after each addition.

7. Add orange zest and mix to combine.

8. Weigh cake batter and divide into 2 bowls. Divide orange juice. 0.8C (slightly more than ¾C) for orange batter. Remainder for chocolate batter.

9. Work in each bowl separately. Sift dry ingredients in each bowl.

a. To orange batter, add 0.8C orange juice. Sift in the dry ingredients and whisk to fold in. To avoid curdling, start with flour, then juice. Alternate flour and juice and fold after each addition. Start and end with flour.

b. To the chocolate batter, add remainder of orange juice. Sift in the dry ingredients. Similar to above, start and end with flour by alternating dry, wet, dry until all the ingredients have been used up.

10. To assemble, pour ⅓ of orange batter at the bottom. Top with ½ of choc batter. Top with ⅓ of orange batter. Pour on remaining half of the choc batter. Finish with remaining orange batter.

11. Bake at 175 deg C for 60 minutes (recipe said 40 to 50 minutes, that was so wrong!) Tent if top becomes too brown. Cake is ready when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cake should spring back when you touch the top with your finger.

12. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes over a rack.

13. Make the glaze or granache. If using granache, cake has to be completely cool before pouring on the granache.

14. To make the glaze: put in a small saucepan and combine until sugar is melted.

15. To make the granache, add hot (not boiling) cream to the choc. Allow to stand for 3 minutes before stirring with a metal spoon only!

16. Unmold the cake after 10 minutes in the pan (not too much longer or the cake will stick to the pan) and flip onto the cake rack. If using glaze, brush on the glaze. If using the granache, allow cake to totally cool before pouring on. Only cut the cake when the cake is cool.

Feedback

- The receipe called for 40 to 50 min baking time but I tried inserting a skewer at 45 minutes (totally wet!), 52 minutes (still somewhat wet) and at 60 minutes, it was finally dry and as the recipe said, when I pressed a finger down on top, it sprung back up. However, the 'fins' of the bundt have become crusty. Next day, it turns soft but overall, the cake is dry esp the formerly crusty outside bits. 

Possible solutions:

- Perhaps instead of glazing with granache, I will use the orange glaze to add a bit of moisture to the fins.

- Placing a cookie sheet underneath? My bundt is golden so probably it cooks faster than inside. Also, possibly lowering the temp and cooking longer.

- Feedback on granache: this recipe means the choc isn't very flowly and will slowly dribble down the side. Nice consistency for glazing and piping on. However, next day in the fridge, it is very hard - scrapeable with a spoon but not margarine spreadable. Maybe more like butter consistency?

- After doubling the amount of cream, it is too flowly to use as glaze but next day in the fridge, it becomes margarine spreadable.

IP Steamed light egg cake (松糕)

I have been searching for a steamed egg cake (kai dan gao) for a very long time because that's what my Kao Mo used to make. I've documented comparison recipes, tried Fatt Gao,  Malay cake, and even the real deal 鸡蛋糕. While some were good in their own right (eg malay cake), none really hit the spot. They all use traditional ingredients which can be difficult to find eg Fanta orange. Transcribed recipe from Small Tang Cat reel on FB which uses yeast. Interesting! 

This is my adapted recipe which comes out with a chewy but tender crumbed texture like Castella. The original recipe called for 300g normal flour but I only had 200g and substituted cake flour for the last 100g. It works a treat! I've included honey in the recipe (honey) for a tea/coffee time treak else leave it without for a breakfast cake. See feedback note below.

Slice is soft and fluffy

Top side was bloated despite loosely tenting with foil

Ingredients

200g plain flour

100g cake flour*

3 eggs

3g instant yeast

30g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

30g honey (thinned in 1 - 2 tbsp of the warm water (below) if too thick)

180g warm water (finger warm)

Method

1. Whisk all ingredients together until a smooth batter emerges.

2. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

3. Remove the cover and whisk to deflate and remove air.

4. Pour into a pre-oiled deep glass container. (I can't tell the size but I'm going to say 8" pyrex cake 'tin')

5. In a bamboo steamer on top of a wok, warm up the water and switch off the flame. The water should not be too hot. Place the glass container in the steaming rack. Allow to rise again for 10 minutes Once the batter has risen about 80 to 90%, it's ready to steam.

6. Turn on the flame on high and bring to the water in the wok to steaming point. (He doesn't seem to have removed the cake tin while waiting for the water to reach boiling point). Steam for 20 minutes.

ALTERNATIVELY

5. Place back in a warm place to rise for 10 minutes until 80 to 90% risen.

6. Pour 1 C water into the base of the IP pot. Cover top of cake tin loosely and tent with foil. Put the steaming rack on and steam for 15 minutes, with 10 to 15 minutes natural release.

First attempt yesterday - using salt by accident! Straight to the bin

Underside looks golden!

Recipe feedback: 

* I only used 100g cake flour and 200g normal flour. The texture is very much like Castella - chewy yet tender crumbed. This is a happy accident and the unlikely outcome of wasting flour on the salt version yesterday. Traditionally Castella is difficult to make cos they cook it in a wooden box and then have to wrap in plastic and let the moisture seep back in overnight. I prefer this method chiefly because I more often have cake flour in my cupboard alongside normal flour than bread flour (which castella uses). The recipe above has been adjusted to include the cake flour.

- The original recipe only calls for 30g sugar, which is just enough for the yeast to 'eat'. This is more like a breakfast cake as it is not sweet at all and needs additional sweeteners like eating with honey, butter or jam. I've included 30g honey and vanilla to the recipe above for a more tea/coffee time treat.