Making Madeleines

I had been longing to make madeleines or small French Sponge Cake for quite some time. All this while, I postponed the idea of making madeleines because I could not find the shell shaped molds typically designed for madeleines. I thought I would not be exactly baking madeleines if I didn't bake the cake in pans with shell-shaped depressions. My husband and I searched high and low for these distinctive shell-shaped baking pans in town but to no avail. I gave up. Last night, I bought two mini unconventional muffin pans to replace the shell-shaped baking pans and baked madeleines this late morning.

I used this madeleines recipe and the madeleines I baked today, despite their shape, turned out fantastic - spongy, soft and delicious. After lunch, my (already full) eldest nephew ate almost half of the madeleines I made and all the mini cakes were gone not long after I served them.

Below is the Madeleines' recipe version that I used today. I omitted salt and lemon zest stated in the original recipe because I didn't have any lemons in the fridge. Also, I didn't decorate my madeleines with icing sugar because I found my madeleines' final results were sweet enough. I mixed half of the cake batter with a little bit green tea powder and my green tea madeleines were well accepted by both kids and adults too.

My first trial on making madeleines.

Madeleines

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs
• 5ml Vanilla extract
• 65gr Sugar
• 60gr Cake flour
• 55gr Unsalted butter
• Icing sugar for decoration, as desired

Tutorials:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degree Celsius.
2. Generously grease the madeleines pans with butter then dust them with flour evenly. Set aside.
3. Melt butter and let it cool at room temperature. Set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and vanilla extract by using high speed electric mixer for 5 minutes until light.
5. Beating the eggs constantly, gradually add sugar and continue beating at high speed until the mixture is thick and pale for another 5 minutes. 
6. Gently fold flour into the egg mixture 1/3 at a time by using spatula.
7. Fold melted butter into the cake batter by using spatula.
8. Spoon the cake batter into the molds, but not too full.
9. Bake madeleines for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes are golden.
10. Release the madeleines from pans and dust them with icing sugar, as desired.
11. Serve madeleines warm. They are best eaten on the day they're baked.

I think the key in making good Madeleines would be the egg and sugar mixture - we need to ensure that this mixture is thick enough before folding flour into it. Beating the eggs and sugar mixture at high speed for at least 10 minutes in total would be the safe bet.

Last but not least, I believe my Madeleines would look so much better had they been baked in the shell-shaped molds. In the meantime, I will keep on hunting for Madeleines pans.

P/S: If any of you know any baking supplies shops or supermarkets which sell Madeleines pans around Kuala Lumpur or Seremban area, please let me know! Thank you.

Making Simple Vanilla Cake

Last night my husband casually shared with me that in general, he only enjoys eating two types of cake. The first one would be chiffon cakes and the second one is plain butter cakes. No cream. No filling. Nothing fancy. Simple, plain and soft. In reply, I told him that I have noted on his cake preference but he must understand that as someone who loves baking, I can't dwell on making chiffon cakes or plain butter cake all the time. I need to improve and try new things in the baking atmosphere (albeit my frequent failures in experimenting with new recipes, of course). He understands.

I had lots of free time this afternoon so I wanted to experiment with making one of the cakes that my husband mentioned last night. I didn't feel like making chiffon cake so I browsed lots of plain vanilla cakes in the internet earlier today; and my choice today fell on this Simple White Cake recipe. This recipe has 4 stars rating on its review and lots of people sing praises to this cake final result so I thought this recipe must be worth to try.

As usual, I modified the original recipe a little bit to suit my available ingredients in the kitchen. I didn't have that much flour as per stated in the original recipe today so I threw in all the cake flour I had for the cake batter and it turned out just fine. I also reduced the amount of sugar for this cake because the people in my house don't really like munching on sweet stuff.

Simple white vanilla cake.

Simple Vanilla Cake

Ingredients:

• 180gr Sugar
• 120gr Unsalted butter, at temperature room
• 2 Eggs
• 10ml Vanilla extract
• 170gr Cake flour
• 120ml Liquid milk

Tutorials:

1. Preheat the oven and line the cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix the liquid milk with vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. Cream sugar and butter by using high speed electric mixer.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
5. Combine flour to the creamed mixture by using spatula. 
6. Stir the milk and vanilla extract mixture into the cake batter until it is smooth.
7. Transfer the cake to the prepared cake pan.
8. Bake the cake in a preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the cake is golden brown, with small fire.
9. Release the cake from the cake pan and serve warm.

Beginner bakers or busy mothers should try 
making this vanilla cake for quick delicious butter cake fix.

The process of making the cake batter of this vanilla cake was quite straight to the point. It's really simple and did not take too much time. The final result of this cake tasted nice too, totally not as plain as its looks - the cake was rich in vanilla aroma and very buttery. The cake had moist texture, not dense, that I love!

Hope my husband likes this cake too.

By the way, I found a great idea in giving this cake an extra touch of vanilla by gilding the top of the cake with vanilla extract, sugar and water. Unfortunately, I didn't quite nail this trick today since I put too much water than the sugar; hence, I didn't have that obvious white sugary top on my vanilla cake. Nevertheless, I will try this making this vanilla-sugar top again on my next butter cake bakes!

The Painting Gifts

When I was younger, I always looked up to one of my uncles who is a painter. I wished I could have had a little of his painting talent and skill so I could do this prestigious hobby that people always admire - just like him. As time went by, despite my keen interest and trials in exploring oil and water-colour paintings plus my participation at a painting class as an extra curricular activity in junior high school, I soon realized that painting was not really for me. I could not keep up. So, I moved on to other things.

The above-mentioned uncle of mine is a polished painter who specializes in Chinese brush and water-colour paintings as well as calligraphy. He began painting since his teen and never ceases perfecting his skills during his leisure time to date. He is particularly into painting horses - brave and faithful animals that endure hard work. Moreover, he explained that it took him many years to paint horses in their perfect shape as horse is a difficult object to master on paper and he can't afford making any mistake on one paper when painting it. All of his efforts certainly paid off - my uncle now is one of most sought-after Chinese painters in my home town. Some of his portfolios had been featured in some local and overseas exhibitions and printed publications. People also find him to get advice and comments on their paintings or Chinese calligraphy works. *so proud of him*

On our last visit to my home town in Indonesia, my husband and I dropped by my uncle's house and to our surprise, he then asked us to choose some of his paintings for us to bring back to Malaysia. At that time, he just did around 50 water-colour paintings on various themes in a month time, just because he was so in the mood. Shortly after, my husband and I were very busy choosing some of his painting works for our future house.

My uncle in his studio: Adding his signature on our selected horse brush painting.

My husband, my uncle and our horse painting.

A single stroke horse painting that my uncle could finish in 5 minutes.

*Very expensive*

My uncle also purposely painted and gave me this water-colour scenery painting. 

He knows that his niece fancies green colour that much!

The other water colour painting that my husband chose.

Like my husband said, we'd definitely find the most visible spots in our new house to hang all these paintings from my uncle after we frame them. We'd also add two warm white bulbs on top of the paintings to keep them cozy. Simply because they are so precious!

Can't wait to see my uncle fulfil his ultimate dream as a painter - to have his very own painting exhibition! I would not miss that one when that happens.

Big thank you to my uncle for all the hand made beautiful paintings!