Friday, November 9, 2012

Orange Butter Cake

 


No matter how varied our choices can get whenever we walk into any cake shop these days, I've not met anyone who doesn't like to go back to a few golden yellow pieces of home made butter cake every now and then. 

I can identify a few people amongst my family and friends who do not like chocolate cake but butter cake? Uh uhh. Not that I know of. 

A good butter cake - plain or citrusy, rich, soft and moist, never goes out of favor (and flavor!).

Ingredients for a butter cake are nothing out of the ordinary. They simply are the basic stuff like flour, eggs, milk (sometimes), vanilla extract for aroma and of course, butter.

Though it sounds simple, I've encountered a few less-than-perfect recipes before.

One recurring problem I had with a particular butter cake recipe written years ago in my recipe notebook and which I really, really like the taste of, was an excess of fat resting at the lower middle part of the cake after it was baked and has cooled down.

The result was an oily lower half of the cake. Other than that, the cake tasted perfect and so I continued making it a few more times even though I ended up discarding the middle bottom part of it.

At one phase, I even went on an online hunt for the perfect butter cake. One in particular came highly recommended in a blog. I tried it and for me it was just borderline good but not super as it was a bit dry.

Anyway, glad I won't be hunting no more now that I have tried this recipe. No oily part and hardly dry, this recipe meets my expectation on what a butter cake should be like - slightly salty aside from tender and fluffy in texture. Tastes great the next day.


 


Recipe by Amy Heng in Delicious Cakes by Y3K, a local publisher.

Ingredients:

250g salted butter
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
100ml fresh orange juice
1 tsp grated orange rind (use more if preferred)
250g self-raising flour
30g ground almond
1/2 tsp baking powder




Method:

1. Sieve together flour and baking powder, set aside.
2. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, and beat until the batter is creamy and light.
4. Fold in flour and orange juice alternately until well-mixed. Lastly, add in rind.
5. Pour batter into a 9 inch lined round cake tin (or equivalent capacity square tin) and scatter some slivered almond on top if preferred. Bake at 160 deg C in a preheated oven for 60 minutes or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

Note: Do not open the oven for the first 30 minutes or the cake may not rise well. 


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Simple Chic Upper Crust @ Dataran Prima, PJ




It was a warm and pleasant morning last Friday when a bunch of us made our way to our friend, David Yeoh's, brand new bakery cum cafe called Upper Crust. It was a public holiday and the shop was supposed to close as well but David and his kitchen team were kind enough to keep it open for the purpose of welcoming us. Located on the ground floor of a new commercial building at Dataran Prima Avenue, Jalan PJU 1/39, Petaling Jaya, Upper Crust opened its doors about four months ago.
 
 
 Kate, the sous cum pastry chef at Upper Crust


With its dominant white and black facade, the cafe greets customers with a clean, fresh feeling. I like it even better the moment I stepped in. I'm not one for over-the-top deco or loud colors, so in my humble opinion, this is one of the few cafes which exudes simple chic style and light but nice deco much to my liking. According to David, who used to work in the culinary kitchen of a hotel in Switzerland, the concept of Upper Crust is based on an English style bakery cum cafe.    


 


Upper Crust boasts a wide range of cuisine - pasta, sandwiches, salads etc - for meals at any time of the day from breakfast, lunch, hi-tea and dinner. 



As we were there at brunch time, somewhat a bit early for my lunch, I decided to order coffee and a plate of mushroom and cheese omelet (below). It was nicely moist with mushroom chunks and stringy bits of melted cheese. Simple yet satisfying and tasty. The rest in the group had pasta but I've forgotten to capture some shots.  The grilled salmon fillet pasta comes with a generous chunk of salmon and looks really hearty!




Below are the list of menus. Staying apt to the cafe's name, David shared that quality of products is of utmost importance to him. Not only does he bake all the breads for sandwiches by himself, he also goes as far as preparing his own chicken ham and smoked salmon, to name a few things that he does from scratch. 

Check out the durian coffee under Hot Beverages. Quite out of the ordinary. I missed that and shall try it on my next visit. Must be good! Anything with durian always is!!


 

 

 


Upper Crust also takes special orders such as wedding cakes, birthday cakes, 3D cakes, mini cakes and cupcakes. They also provide catering services to offices around the area.





What's cuisine without cakes or cookies for dessert?! Well, one can choose from a wide variety of lusciously frosted cupcakes or a slice of delectable cake to end a nice meal there.







 


The spacious upper floor has a raised stage and is a great place for meetings, hangouts with friends and families or a small party for 40 or so people. Perfect for an upcoming Christmas gathering!





Upper Crust Bakery & Cafe
No B-G-11 Tower B, Ground Floor, Jalan PJU 1/39, Dataran Prima Avenue
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Tel: +603 7887 5251
Email: uppercrustbakerei@gmail.com