Lemon Honey Tea (柠檬蜜)

It is almost the end of season for Lemon and our Lemon tree still have a lot of fruits on it. I first tried to make Lemon honey tea by lay slices of Lemon and honey in a jar. It does not taste very good because of the bitterness of the Lemon skin. So I tried this method which produces Lemon Honey Tea similar to what you buy in supermarket. 

Ingredients:

Fresh Lemon - 12 (about 1200 g)

Sugar - 3-4 cups (about 600-800 g depends on how sweet you want)

Honey - 800-1200g

Steps:

1. Sterilize some glass jars in boiling water, and let them dry. 

2. Wash the lemons. Peel the skin.

3. Chop lemon to smaller pieces, remove seeds, and then marinate it with sugar for 30 minutes.

4. Shred the lemon skin.Boiling in hot water for 2-3 minutes, then drain it. Repeat the boiling process for 2-3 times. Then rinse the boiled lemon skin with water a couple of times, and squeeze out all the water. This step is to remove the tartness of the skin.

 5. In a large frying pan, pour in the lemon sugar mixture, and the lemon skin. Bring to boiling under medium heat, and then simmer in low heat for about 15 minutes.

6. Turn the heat to high, and cook the mixture to thick consistency.

7. Wait for the mixture to cool down to warm, pour in honey, mix well.

8. When the lemon honey tea is totally cool down, jar and keep them in refrigerator. They are ready to use after one day. Just take a couple of spoonful, and add some warm water.

Three-tier FROZEN Cake

This is cake for my daughter's FROZEN themed birthday party.

Base Tier: 10" Chocolate Chiffon cake

This is made with two 10" x 2" round Chocolate Chiffon Cake crumb coated with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Adjust ingredients for two 10" cake
Egg - 12 Large
Cake flour - 136g
Oil - 64g
Milk - 64g
Sugar - 96g for egg white
Sugar - 48g for egg yolk

Frosting:
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup or  unsweetened chocolate squares, melted - 3 oz
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups  (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 3-4 tsp

2nd Tier: 8" White Chiffon cake

This is made with two 8" x 2" round Chiffon Cake crumb coated with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
Egg - 8 Large
Cake flour - 136g
Oil - 64g
Milk - 64g
Sugar - 96g for egg white
Sugar - 48g for egg yolk

Frosting:
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter softened - 1/2 cup

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 2 TBSP

Top Tier: 6" Green tea Chiffon cake

This is made with two 6" x 2" round Green Tea Chiffon Cake crumb coated with green Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

Ingredients:
Egg - 5 Large
Cake flour - 75g
Green tea powder - 12g
Oil - 40g
Milk - 40g
Sugar - 60g for egg white
Sugar - 30g for egg yolk

Frosting:
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter softened - 1/2 cup

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 2 TBSP

Icing color - Wilton icing color kelly green

Decorating

1. Cakes with crumb coating should be refrigerated for 2 hours+ or overnight. Each cake should have a cake board underneath that is trim to the size of the cakes.

2. For the base tier, use Wilton bamboo dowel rods cut to length so it is just below the surface of the cake.

3. For second tier, just use plastic straw.

5. Make batches of rolled marshmallow fondant. Use 3 shades of blue fondant to cover the cakes. Then stack them. Cut a Wilton bamboo dowel rods to just short of the whole cake height, sharpen the tip with pencil sharpener, and insert the rod all the way through the 3 tiers. You may need to turn the rod so it can penetrate the cake boards.

6. Now you can decorate the cake freely.

Chiffon Cake (戚風蛋糕)

This is used to make two 8" x 2" cakes.

Ingredients:

Egg - 8 Large
Cake flour - 136g
Oil - 64g
Milk - 64g
Sugar - 96g for egg white
Sugar - 48g for egg yolk

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 340°F.
2. Separate eggs into egg yolk and egg whites.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar lightly. Add oil and milk, and then sift in the cake flour, mix well.

4. In a clean mixing bowl, use electrical mixer to beat egg white at high speed to firm peak. Sugar for egg whites are added in 3 batches during the mixing process.

5. Pour 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them well. 

6. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

7. Pour the cake batter to two 8" round cake pans. The pan bottom should be greased, or lay some parchment paper so it is easy to remove the cake later.

8. Hold the cake pan and bang the bottom on the table a couple of times to release large air bubbles from the batter.
9. Bake both cake pans in oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and the top of it springs back when lightly touched.

10. Take out the cake pans, and cool off on cake rake upside down. After the cakes are totally cooled, take them out of the pans.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

There are many different recipes online for green tea chiffon cake. Some are more complicated. I basically followed my vanilla chiffon cake which I know works well, and just replace some cake flour with green tea powder. This turns out great.

This is used to make two 6" x 2" round cakes, or one 9" layer, or 8" round cake. The St. Patrick's Day cake is a 8" round cake.

Ingredients:

Egg - 5 Large
Cake flour - 75g
Green tea powder - 12g
Oil - 40g
Milk - 40g
Sugar - 60g for egg white
Sugar - 30g for egg yolk

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Separate eggs into egg yolk and egg whites.
3. Use fine mesh sieve to sift flour and green tea powder together.

4. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar lightly. Add oil and milk, and then sift in the cake flour and green tea powder mixture,  mix well.

5. In a clean mixing bowl, use electrical mixer to beat egg white and sugar at high speed to firm peak. Sugar for egg whites are added in 3 batches during the mixing process.

6. Pour 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them well. 

7. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

8. Pour the cake batter to one 9" or two 6" round cake pans. The pan bottom should be greased, or lay some parchment paper so it is easy to remove the cake later.

9. Hold the cake pan and bang the bottom on the table a couple of times to release large air bubbles from the batter.
10. Bake in oven for about 40-50 minutes or until a chopstick can be inserted and come out clean and the top of it springs back when lightly touched.

11. Take out the cake pan, and cool off on cake rake upside down. After the cake is cooled, use knife to loose the sides, and the cake should be able to fall out easily.

12. Sift powdered sugar, green tea power, or cocoa powder on top for decoration, or use as layer.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

This is used to make one 10" x 2" round cake. A typical cake will require two of these.

Ingredients:

Egg - 6 Large
Cake flour - 72g
Unsweetened Coco powder - 36g
Oil - 36g
Milk - 60g
Sugar - 72g for egg white
Sugar - 24g for egg yolk
Lemon juice - 1 and 1/4 tsp

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Separate eggs into egg yolk and egg whites.
3. Use fine mesh sieve to sift cake flour and coco powder together.

4. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolk and sugar lightly. Add oil and milk, and then sift in the cake flour, coco powder, mix well.

5. In a clean mixing bowl, use electrical mixer to beat egg white, lemon juice, and sugar at high speed to firm peak. Sugar for egg whites are added in 3 batches during the mixing process.

6. Pour 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them well. 

7. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

8. Pour the cake batter to 10" round cake pans. The pan bottom should be greased, or lay some parchment paper so it is easy to remove the cake later.

9. Hold the cake pan and bang the bottom on the table a couple of times to release large air bubbles from the batter.
10. Bake in oven for about 40-50 minutes or until a chopstick can be inserted and come out clean and the top of it springs back when lightly touched.

11. Take out the cake pan, and cool off on cake rake upside down. After the cake is cooled, use knife to loose the sides, and the cake should be able to fall out easily.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This is the Wilton recipe.

Ingredients

Vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup or  unsweetened chocolate squares, melted - 3 oz
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups  (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 3-4 TBSP

Steps:

Stiff Consistency

1. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla.
2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
3. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

Chocolate Mocha Icing

Substitute cold brewed strong coffee for milk in Chocolate Buttercream recipe.

Darker Chocolate Icing

Add an additional 1/4 cup cocoa (or one additional 1 oz. square unsweetened chocolate, melted) and 1 additional tablespoon milk to Chocolate Buttercream Icing.

For Thin (Spreading) Consistency Icing

Add 3-4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.