Hi everyone!

It’s been a really long time since I updated. So sorry about that. Straight after exams, I left for my family holiday (read all about it at Midi & me) and haven’t really had time to bake/update since I came back. I totally procrastinated on that 12 days of Christmas thing and have decided to put it off.

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On Saturday, I had a bake sale with one of my lovely NUS Biz girls, Joanna. It was pretty nice to have most of our stuff sold out. Thanks for the support if you came down to get some sweet treats for yourself. I’ll do an update on that at a later time.

Today was ZY’s niece’s birthday. She told me a few months back that she wanted a flower cake and showed me one of a rosette cake. Since I had time this afternoon and haven’t made a rosette cake before, I decided to try it.

Unfortunately, I hit the top of the cake just right after I was done and had to re-frost the whole thing 🙁

The cake was a lovely orange sponge recipe that I got off The Straits Times. I highly recommend this because it’s something really light and fragrant. Freshly squeezed orange juice and zest, you can’t really go wrong with it!

I used my favourite Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe which holds really well in Singapore’s hot weather. Overall, I was really pleased with how the cake turned out. The birthday girl and all the family members loved it too.

If you wish not to frost the cake, the orange sponge tastes lovely on its own with a cup of tea.

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Orange Sponge Cake

Makes 25-cm tube pan

Ingredients:

  • 7 eggs
  • 200g cake flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 200g icing sugar
  • 150ml freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 150ml corn oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 1 tbsp orange zest
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C
  2. Separate the eggs, with the egg whites in your mixing bowl
  3. Sieve cake flour, baking powder and icing sugar in a mixing bowl. Form a well in the centre
  4. Add egg yolks, orange juice and oil, and stir with a spatula until well incorporated
  5. Add orange zest and mix well
  6. Beat the whites with cream of tartar in an electric mixer until the egg white reaches stiff peaks (use the whisk attachment)
  7. Add beaten egg whites to the cake batter and fold it gently until the mixture is just combined. Remember to do it such that you do not press too much air out
  8. Pour mixture into an ungreased tin and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean
  9. Remove cake when down and invert it on a cooling rack

Notes: 

Do not grease the pan or your cake will not be able to stick to the sides and, will fail.
Do not open your oven while baking or your cake may collapse

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

  • 120g egg whites
  • 200g sugar
  • 300g unsalted butter, at room temperature

Directions:

  1. Place egg whites and sugar over a bain marie until sugar is completely dissolved. Stir continuously
  2. Bring to electric mixer and whip on high speed till the meringue reaches stiff peaks and has cooled
  3. Add butter in pieces until combined. Continue to whip until you get a smooth buttercream

Note:

Your buttercream may curdle. Keep whipping. This is what happened to my buttercream but after a minute, it whipped to perfection.
See Sweetapolita for a good 101 on how to get your SMBC right

Apologies for the poor images. My DSLR has been confiscated by my sis who is overseas 🙁

A belated Merry Christmas to all my loyal readers & an early Happy New Year!

Love,

Eug

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