yogurt mousse cake

Feb.21, 2005

Because Jerry-san is having his birthday tomorrow, Nuk-Nuk and I made Yogurt Mousse Cake for him. (see my friends' profiles)

I had Nuk-Nuk over and we made the cake together.
Actually it didn't have to be at my place or we didn't necessarily do it together but, I just wanted some time to be with her. It is fun having girl's talk !

The process to make Yogurt Mousse Cake is easy.
The cake is layered in sponge sheet, sliced peach halves and yogurt mousse.
First of all, you bake the sponge sheet ahead of time. It could be the day before and you could keep it in a freezer. Anyway,
Second of all, make the yogurt mousse which is the mixture of yogurt, sugar, gelatine dissolved in water and whipped 35% cream to soft peaks.
Then place them all in layers in a paper-lined spring form pan ( the one its bottom is detachable). Allow it set in a fridge approx. for an hour.
Finally, decorate it as you please.

Isn't the choc lattice on the side beautiful??
I learnt this cake in the cake-baking class last autumn. The instructor Denis told us this wonderful technique.
I love this cake not only the appearance is cute but also the taste is so good. Unlike the bars and squares I learnt recently, it is not too sweet. It melts softly in your mouth and it feels cool through your throat. ... yes, it is so dying-for!!

It was Jerry-san's birthday countdown party this evening but I didn't go.
(It is so like him that he want to countdown for his own birthday, by the way! )
Nuk-Nuk brought it to him instead. I hope he liked it!

ヨーグルトムースケーキを作りました。
今日は、Nuk-Nukと2人で製作。
Jerryさんのお誕生日が明日なので、です。
…てかでも、今日の私の目的の大部分は、
Nuk-Nukとガールズトークすることだったり（笑
そのためにわざわざバス２本も乗り継いで、ウチまで来てもらっちゃったのでした。
ごめんねvありがとぅ。

これも学校で習ったケーキです
あんまり甘くないし、ひんやり冷たおいしぃので

ちなみに、今日の画像はNuk-Nuk撮影。
（背景がみっともないウチのキッチンだったので、切り取りました（笑））

lemons, dates and oranges

Feb.16, 2005

It was Day 6 and the final class of Bars and Squares, the continuing education course at GBC.
Wow, it was finally over !

To think back to the first class, I was so surprised at the amount of sugar and butter. I was like, "Oh, my gosh. I made a terrible choice to take this course... Those sweets will be literally killing me! And, and, ... good heavens! I will poison Yoshi!! "

Yes, I could have dropped out. Only it would be impossible to get a full refund. They would deduct 20 or 30 % of all the tuition fee. I don't remember exactly but I didn't like the idea, you know. I chose to take all the classes with full payment paid rather than paying for nothing in hand.
Anyway,
This course has 24 hrs in all. 4 hrs for each class. It costed less than C$250- with all the food included. The instructor Pat was a professional pastry chef who revised all the recipes we used in this class. According to her, the former recipes that the school provided totally sucked. She took them to her work and changed everything written in the 13 recipes. It sounded hard work. And that made the quality of the class higher.

All in all, the classes were fun.
My partner Sam was a fun guy except for that he annoyed me by fooling around and eating ingredients (giggle).
I met a new Japanese friend Yuko. She gave me her email address after class. We can make a good friend to each other.

And above all, now I know how to make unhealthy yet tempting bars and squares!!

.... Oh, by the way, what I made today were Deluxe Lemon Bars and Date/Orange Squares.

Lemon one was made mostly from eggs. On top of the crumby pie base pre-baked, eggs and lemon juice mixture (with SUGAR twice as much in it) was poured. As it was done, it looked like scrambled egg. No wonder, it was egg mixture. The filling was quite soggy and looked undercooked. ... Wasn't it really undercooked? I can't tell because Pat, the instructor was the one who can handle the huge oven in the lab. No students were allowed to touch for the safety. And Pat found it was done and took it from the oven. It should have been cooked enough.

And do you know what dates are? They are a kind of fruits. It is shaped oval... well, I am not sure what it is, either. I heard about it for the first time when I went to ESL (English school) 1 and 1/2 years ago. Anyway, it is dried fruit tastes quite like 干し柿.
I like the date/orange one better. The filling is mixture of cooked date paste, orange zest and orange juice. It goes perfectly with the pie base and topping. The bar is formed of 3 layers, by the way.

バーアンドスクエアコース、最後のクラスでした。
…いやぁ～、初日からいきなり目眩がしそうな甘さのナナイモバーを作らされて（笑）私とYoshiの健康はどうなっちゃうんだろぅなんて心配したのが、昨日のことのようですょ～。
総じて、楽しかったかな？
（寒い日とかの日は、超絶いやいやながら通ったですけどね。）

でもほんとまじで、アメリカ人はなぜってるかということを
身を以て体験しました（笑）…いや、ここはカナダですけども北米の人は。
あんな大量の砂糖とバターとでできたお菓子を平気で消費できる国なのです。
（北米の方々、失礼なコト言ってごめんなさい。）

今日作ったのは
デラックスレモンバーと、デイト・オレンジスクエアです。
デイトっていうのは、ナツメヤシの実なんだそうです（英和辞書より。）
干したデイトを水と砂糖で煮詰めてオレンジジュースを加えたものが、スクエアの中に入ってる茶色のアレです。
干し柿みたいな食感と味。。
見た目はまずそうだけど、なんか結構おいしいんですょ！

chocolate decadent cake

Feb.13, 2005

St. Valentine's day is tomorrow but...
Yoshi couldn't wait to eat the Chocolate Decadent Cake that I made 2 days ago!
(And I also couldn't wait for another day to cut it.) So We ate a piece of it.

I learnt this cake in the Art of Cake, the continuing education course at GBC.
A whole 8"-diameter cake contains 450g of bitter sweet chocolate and 140g of butter, 5 large eggs and some sugar and a little bit of bread flour.
... Well, I used only 360 g of chocolate because Yoshi had eaten some the other day. I lacked of it so I reduced all the other ingredients too by 80 %.
It worked after all because the recipe was for a 9" cake but my cake pan has only 8" diameter. The 80% batter just fit in the pan.


バレンタイン用に作ったチョコレートデカダントケーキです。
…はい；
先日、バレンタインの日付を間違えて、先走って作ったヤツです；
まだ、トロント時間では１３日なんだけど、
明日を待ちきれずに切ってしまいました～v
そして食べちゃった～

apple brown betty & blueberry streusel squares

Feb.10, 2005

As I promised you yesterday, I put the picture of the sweet.
Bad picture, huh?

It was Day 5 of Bars and Squares, the continuing education course.
What I made this evening were ...
Apple Brown Betty and Blueberry Streusel Squares.

In fact, they are exceptional.
I mean, those sweets took us quite a while to make. They are more complicated than the other bars and squares we have learnt in the course so far. And it is worth spending time!

Apple Brown Betty consists of three layers. Graham butter crust is the base, the filling is cooked apples with cinnamon and sugar, and the topping is ... I don't know how to call it. Made of bread flour, butter, sugar and ... ah, I should check the recipe again. ... Maybe later.

Blueberry Streusel Squares are similar to the apple one. The topping is the same, frozen blueberries are mixed with cinnamon and sugar. The only difference is the base. It is pie dough rolled out.

I like them both quite a lot.

After going through 5 classes, I realized that these bar-and-square things get more tasty a few days later. The flavor seems to be settled in a fridge. I said bars and squares were too sweet for me but, after all, they are acceptable. Heh, heh. They are still too rich though.

バーアンドスクエアコース５回目。
今日は、アップルシナモンベティーとブルーベリーストラッセルスクエアです。
…うーん；写真失敗したなー。
というより、きれいに切れませんでした。とほー。
でも味はよいのですよ

最近気付いたんだけど、
これらのお菓子は作ってからすぐ食べるよりも、
２～３日冷蔵庫に入れておいた方がおいしくなるみたいです。
１週間後なんて、もう最高

orange chiffon cake

Feb.7, 2005

I baked Orange Chiffon cake this afternoon.

I was on my own at home with nothing else to do after laundry. At hand, there were an orange, cake flour, sugar and ... almost everything needed for the chiffon. Why shouldn't I?
So I got started.

The recipe is from the cake baking course. According to it, I needed Cream of Tar Tar. I didn't have it. ... I am not sure how it works but, if I remember correctly, I have read that it is for stabilizing meringue. Anyway.
I substituted cornstarch because the other recipe of Chiffon cake, which my friend kotori-san gave me before, used it.
Yap, it seemed to work.

This Orange Chiffon cake is just a regular chiffon cake with orange zest. It has only 2 grams of grated orange peel. It doesn't taste orange at all.
I wonder if orange juice substitutes for water or not. If it is possible, the chiffon will taste more orange. OK, I will try next time!

Staying in the angel food cake pan, chiffon cake needs to get upside down after being baked. So that it cools down without collapsing.
What the ... ! It was not until I flipped the pan that the cake fell off it!!! What was wrong with it? I couldn't put the cake back in the pan, not to mention sticking it to the pan again. I had no way but letting it cool on a plate... I knew it would sweat and then soggy, but I just didn't want the cake to get striped on the cake stand.
Let's look at the picture. Do you think it collapsed a little?
... I don't think so. Hopefully.


オレンジシフォンケーキを焼きました。
…でかっ…！！
10インチ（23cm強。）の型です。
ケーキ教室のレシピより。
以前、blog友達のkotoriさんから日本のシフォンケーキのレシピを送ってもらったのですが、やっぱりちょっと材料が違いますね。
とりあえず、砂糖の量は当然のごとく２倍ですから（笑）
そして、クリームオブタータというものを入れます。
…何ですかそれはっ。
（きっと、お菓子作り好きの方々なら知ってらっしゃるのだろうなー；；）
白い粉で、ベイキングパウダーみたいな見た目です。
どうも、メレンゲを安定させるためのもののようです。
ウチにはなかったので、代わりにコーンスターチ入れちゃったv
kotoriさんレシピには、それが入っていたので。。