Caramel Apple Almond Cake

Woohoo!!! I would say this is my most popular cake… I baked 2 big and 2 small cakes in a week, but yet, all sapu habis every time they came out from oven…

As I’ve promised to some friends, I’ll share the recipe here.

(Recipe taken from YumYum issue 69)

Apple caramel:

100g caster sugar

1tsp cinnamon powder (because I personally don’t like cinnamon, so, i didn’t put this in)

25g butter

2 green apples, cut into thick slices and removed core

Cake:

(A)

125g butter

4 eggs

150 caster sugar

(B)

120g dairy whipping cream

180g plain flour

45g high protein flour

45g ground almond (you can also get almond powder from bakery ingredient shop, but I still prefer grounding the fresh almond)

8g baking powder

Method:

1. Line a 8” round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Apple Caramel: Put caster sugar in a saucepan, stir over low heat until lightly brown. Add in butter, cinnamon powder, sliced apple and cook until soft. Remove from heat. Arrange apple slices and caramel sauce onto the prepared baking tin.

3. Cake: Whisk butter and caster sugar until soft. Add in eggs and whisk until fluffy. Add B and mix well.

4. Pour the batter into the baking tin. Bake in preheated over at 180 degree Celsius (depend on what kind of oven, because I’m using big oven, I actually put 150 degree Celsius) for 45-50 minutes.

5. Remove cake from oven and unmold carefully. Cut into pieces and serve warm.

My first attempt (might not look very pretty, but smell real good)

My 2nd attempt (I used smaller tins, and red apple, I think green apple make the cake tastier)

Where is my 3rd attempt? Hot cake from oven, was rushing to send to my ex-colleague as her birthday gift… so…

Pangkor Island Breakaway

It’s end of the year, meaning which it’s time to clear leaves. I took 2 days off last week because Wed was a public holiday. My friends, Choo & Soo, who are working in S’pore, were also back for holiday, so, we decided to go somewhere, initially was thinking to ask more people to join us, but end up only one of my college’s friend, Fun joined us. We didn’t travel together, if I’m not mistaken, since 2007, to conquer Mount Kota Kinabalu. This time, it’s time to conquer the sea, Pangkor Island.

Pangkor Island is located in Perak, only about 4 hours drive from KL, but I never been there, in fact, 3 out of 4 of us never been to Pangkor Island, only Soo did, but it was probably more than 10 years ago. I didn’t much research, but manage to book a chalet located at Teluk Nipah, RM120 for a chalet for 4, I thought it’s a good deal.

Since this was a breakaway trip, so, we just did whatever we feel like doing, Choo never tried Bidor’s duck leg noodle, so, we stopped to eat, even we already had a heavy dim sum breakfast @ SS2 before we started our journey @ around 10am. So much laughter in the car made time flies even faster, we reached Lumut Jetty and took ferry to Pangkor Island around 2pm.

RM10 for a 2 way ferry ticket

The ferry

Reached Pangkor Island Jetty after half an hour of ferry ride

Fisherman village

The big “1 Malaysia” @ Pangkor Island Jetty

When we were about to go out from the jetty, there was an Indian guy, speak fluent Chinese with us, asking if we need a car or accommodation. After a long negotiation, the deal was, we rent a small Kancil (he said is the newest in the island, at first we doubt but after seeing other cars when we go around the island, we can agree with him) @ RM70 (petrol included), and a 2-room apartment (with air conditional) @ RM160.

Fu Lin Gong

Sin Chew Daily has an article about Pangkor Island the weekend before our trip. So, I have the article as reference of “must see”/ “must do” in the island. 1st stop, Fu Lin Gong, a famous local temple which located in a housing area, we got the direction from the Indian guy after he handed over the apartment key to us.

Since young, we used to act silly in front of each other, so, what we were doing in the island was absolutely not what we are suppose to act in our age.  (sorry, not gonna spoil our image here, unless you are my friend in FB).

a child playing with the branch & leaves

one of the Chinese villages

Leaving Fu Lin Gong, we decided to round the island at the opposite direction from our apartment. The Kancil, claimed to be the newest has no power steering, clutch pedal was also very “extraordinary” to handle, the road was curvy, narrow, driving up and down hill with this car was absolutely a challenge.

2nd stop: Teluk Belanga

our transportation, cool right?

3rd stop: Teluk Nipah

According to what I’ve read from the internet, Teluk Nipah is the most beautiful beach in the island and it is one of the favourites rated by a lot of foreigners.

one of the exciting things that we saw is a pair of European children speak Malay… fluent Malay… so, according to the rojak stall aunty, they are from Switzerland and currently studying in local primary school, their father is renting beach chair… what? renting beach chair??? I never know this is a type of business at the beach. But you can imagine, how the residents in the island living a simple life.

We didn’t conquer the sea… because we didn’t brought extra cloth to the beach, and non of us was in the swimming mode. Frankly speaking, even Teluk Nipah, claimed to be the most beautiful beach in the island, we still thought that the sand is too rough, water is clear but not as clear as Redang. But city animal like us were excited enough to see the beach and sea, we can’t help but took off our shoes and soaked our legs in the water.

The sky was getting darker… what we can do next? EAT!!!!

This restaurant was recommended by a local people and it’s just next to our apartment.

wow, they even have Savanna beer… and for fish we ordered steamed stingray in lemon sauce

Fried calamari with oat & Spring onion and ginger clam

Belachan mix vege & spicy crab (they are serving “flower crab” which has limited crab meat") 

“urinating” prawn & our bill (some said it’s expensive, but for me, I’m ok with the charges because the portion was quite big too)

After dinner, we decided to exercise a bit, so, we parked our car at the apartment and decided to walk to jetty. The distance is probably 5 minutes drive, but we took about 2 hours to and fro. When we were near jetty, we saw this new hotel, BestStay Hotel, just out of curiosity, we decided to went in to check out the room and rate… (at first we were a bit hesitate because we know we will not be staying there.)

The owner is very friendly, he agreed right away and brought us to the family suite – room for 5, 2 double bed and 1 single bed (if I’m not mistaken, only RM125 per room per night, super value for money lo). When we were up, the only expression that we have was “wow”, it is so clean and new compare to our apartment, and it is equipped with brand new air-con, brand new water heater, brand new plasma tv… so, I’ve decided to promote this for the friendly owner – Simon Tan. Good luck to your upcoming “entertainment area” in your hotel!

BestStay Hotel, Pangkor Island

Contact person: Mr. Simon Tan

Tel: (+605) 6853111

H/P: (+6010) 3878322

email: enquiry@beststay.com.my

Web: www.beststay.com.my

Address: Lot 55, Jalan Pasir Bogak, 32300 Pulau Pangkor. (only 5 minutes walk from Pangkor Jetty)

When we finally walked back to our apartment, we basically half dead, so tiring and dirty. But after shower, we were alive! Why? We have mahjong and junkfood… we played and eat until 3am. luckily nobody complain about the noise level that we created.

I couldn’t sleep well that night, although I was exhausted, too many dreams (bad dreams) made thing worse. The next morning, everyone woke up very early, we packed a little and left for breakfast at a kopitiam which has the same name as our friend “Chong Seng”.

I always cannot resist this kind of banana leaf nasi lemak.

Local noodle

one small pack of nasi lemak can’t satisfied my appetite, so, I ordered another porridge, duck porridge, although it’s just a normal porridge, but able to eat something warm in the morning, it’s satisfaction.

Visit to anchovy factory after breakfast

Sun-dried salted fish

fisherman boats

A young Indian lady processing the dried anchovy in the factory

Last but not least… visited to Dutch Fort before catching our boat back to Lumut

We were doing a short visit due to hot sun… but we took a lot of pictures there, mostly silly.

Lumut Jetty

Before going back to KL for dinner with friend, we stopped by Setiawan for lunch… bak kut teh lunch… (I forgot to take picture of what we ate, because I was too blur due to not enough of sleep the night before)

Beautiful scenery on the way back

Overall, Pangkor Island is really a good place to do short/ breakaway trip. I hope the government will successfully develop Pangkor Island into a better tourist attraction without jeopardizing the nature and natural resources there. I told my travel mates, how I wish I could set up and operate a Starbucks Coffee @ Teluk Nipah! *dreaming*

My 1st Tiramisu Attempt

This cake involves a lot of steps, and it's the most complicated and expensive cake that I've ever made. The actual size of the cake, shown in the recepi book is 23cm in diameter, but I have no confident in making the size, so, instead of making 1 big cake, I made 2 small cakes.

Here's the ingredient list:

1. Sponge cake ingredient:

5 Egg
140 g Sugar
90g Plain flour
20g Coco powder
60g Corn Oil
1tbsp Coffee Paste


Method:

1. Separate egg yolk from egg white
2. Whip ingredient egg yolk and 20g of sugar until light and fluffy
3. Whip egg white in another bowl until soft peak. Add in 120g , continue whipping until stiff.
4. Mix the egg white mixture with egg yolk mixture until well-blended.
5. Fold in plain flour and cocoa powder, mix until well-combined. Add in corn oil and coffee paste, mix until well incorporated.
6. Pour it into a greased and lined round mould. (I pour it into 2 small round mould).
7. Bake at 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes. Remove the cake immediately when baked. (because 2 of my cake were smaller in size, so, I only bake for 15 minutes)


2. Cheese layer ingredient:

1 Egg
1 Egg yolk
70g Sugar
1.5tbsp gelatine
50g water
250g cream cheese
1tbsp coffee paste (1tbsp instant coffee powder + 2tbsp water)
100g whipped topping cream
200g whipped whipping cream


3. Coffee Syrup ingredient:

80g Water
40g sugar
2tbsp instant coffee powder
2tbsp kahlua


Method:

1. Slice the coffee sponge into 2 layers.
2. Whip egg, egg yolk and sugar over simmering water until thicken.
3. Premix gelatine with 50g water and melt it over double boiler. Add it into thickened egg mixture, mix until well-blended.
4. Beat cream cheese with 50g of sugar until light. Add in instant coffee paste, mix until well-combined. Add in the above mixture, mix until well-blended.
5. Add in whipped topping cream & whipped whipping cream, mix until well-incorporated.
6. Moist the sponge cake layers with the coffee syrup. Place 1 layer of the cake onto the ring mould, pour half of the above cheese filling on it.
7. Top with 2nd layer of cake. Pour the remaining cheese filling on it and make it level, keep refrigerated for 5 hours.
8. Remove the cake from the fridge and coat with nuts praline.


4. Nuts Praline ingredient:

200g Sugar
60g Water
50g Walnut
50g Pecan
50g Almond
50g Macadamia nut


Method:

Cook sugar and water until they boil and turn light brown. Add in nuts and cook until golden brown. Pour it onto a greased pan and set aside to cool. Crush it into fine particles.

================================

I'm sure by now you should know how complicated to make a Tiramisu.

Turning these into a cake took me a day


tada... the output

what do you think? I think it's kind of cute!

I think before the cheese layer is too hard, so the nuts didn't coated nicely on the cake

Why you see there's whitish and brownish colour in the cake layer? because I forgot to mix the coffee paste in the mixture before pouring it into the mould... then the darker brown is due to kahlua.

Taste wise... I would say, I will give myself 60%. The cheese layer is too hard and the praline layer is too sweet. My dad said should put more coffee paste to make it more fragrant.

Room for improvement:

- I made 1 mistake when doing the cheese layer...

- I bought the liquid topping cream and whipping cream, so, I should whip before adding to mixture, but I missed out the step.

- Then I made another mistake when making the praline too, I crushed the nut before coating them in sugar syrup... :(

- Then I find the sugar content is too high, so, in the following attempt, I will try to use lesser sugar.