Many Splendored Quick Bread

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page : Many Splendored Quick Bread 

This is a simple and quick recipe anyone can put together very quickly.  Despite it being super quick and easy, everything went wrong for me..Oo..   

I don't think i've cooked with zucchini before..so i was wondering if i should remove the skin and the seeds?  Anyway, I ended up removing both.  When i was about to weigh the walnuts, i found out all 3 packs of walnut that i had turned rancid...and i'm only left with some cashew and pistachio nuts.  After much thought..i decided to use cashew nuts..i mean how bad can it turn out right?   

I grated the zucchini and carrots...and after grating them equally extra-fine..i realised that i should have grated the carrots medium-fine!  At this point i noticed the recipe called for instant oatmeal..mine was the regular oatmeal that has to be cooked...opps..too late..i can't remove it out of the flour..and i didn't have any instant unflavored ones either.  *Arrgghh*.. What's wrong with me today!!

Made a slit after baking 15mins and then baked for a further 45mins.  The cake ended up looking ok. I was worried it might not cook at all because of the oatmeal.  

VERDICT:  It tasted more like weird banana cake to me. LOL!  I think it was all my doing and most likely had nothing to do with the recipe.  The cashew nuts tasted weird in the cake..hahahaha..just doesn't blend in...and i think the regular oatmeal didn't help either when paired with the carrot and zucchini...and it tasted very bland! Super Weird Taste! :P  It went straight into the trash.  Nobody liked it.  

Me: Disqualified in this round. 

Flora Painted Cake

This is just a practice (to-paint) cake and for nobody in mind...as i'm typing this, this cake is still in the fridge untouched..lol!   I had major fondant issues with this cake and the fondant kept tearing...bugs me to see tears/crack lines on the fondant. Strange.. i could only blame it on the weather and for me not turning on the air conditioning.   

I painted this free-hand and it's my first time painting directly on the fondant cake.  It feels different and not like the usual painting on paper..:S.  Definitely more room (lots in fact!) for improvement for sure! I need to find the right consistency for the paint - food colors i meant.  **The flower pattern that i've painted is made with reference to Donna Dewberry's paint work in her book.** 

I've been slacking in commenting on my blogger friends' blog posts (you all know who you are..:D..but i do try to catch up whenever i can..)..because i have been busy with translating Pierre Hermé's Macaron book to English with the help of google translate..lol! Yup..here it is...

Don't ask me why I bought this since it is in French and I don't read or write or speak French. I suppose this is THE Pierre Hermé Macaron book and it was sitting on the bookshelf staring at me..so how can i not buy it?! LOL!  So far, i've translated 20 initial pictorial pages and google translate has been doing a very good job for me. LOL!  I can safely say i can now understand the ingredients listed in French in this book.  :D

Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 359: Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

I wasn't sure if i wanted to make this cake till very last min, ie Sunday evening.  When i flip through the recipe, i realised that i had to make the ganache beforehand and chill it and then make the batter and chill it again.  So i did the short cut way..actually i did a lot of short cuts..lol!  After baking from this book from almost a year, i find Rose's recipes very long-winded. 

For the ganache centers, i microwaved the chocolate and cream instead of using a double-boiler and whisked them together. Then i spooned them into egg carton as instructed and i put in the freezer for 30mins instead of waiting for several hours.  Works pretty well. :D 

Then while waiting for the ganache to 'freeze'..i went ahead with making the batter.  I used non-stick paper cups instead of silicon containers.  Again..instead of double boiler..i just microwave the butter, chocolate and cocoa powder and whisk them together till smooth. Works very well and save time.   Not a lot of egg whites for me to bring out my KA mixer out of the cabinet, so i just used a hand mixer instead.   After mixing the chocolate mixture with the eggwhite, i filled the paper cups with the batter.  Not too sure if i should fill it to 3/4 or not since i think my cups pretty huge..and i pushed the ganache centres right to the bottom..then i realised immediately after that i shouldn't! :P  Too late!  

I think i must have put too much batter into the cup...since the batter ballooned up above the cup while in the oven but it did shrink quite a lot after it cooled.

Because of these non-stick paper cups, the souffle just shrank away from the sides without the need to pop it out carefully..it will just pop out anyway when you turn it out..lol!   

I put them in the freezer for 1 hour so we can eat 2 hours later instead of the next day...and transferred it to the fridge for another hour plus.  After, took it out from the fridge and turn the cup around and the souffle just came out easily.   My souffle looked quite ugly though..lol!  

Microwaved for 20 secs and then all ready to be eaten.  See the 'lava' oozing out..except as i mentioned earlier, i pushed it too way down to the bottom, so the chocolate is oozing out from the bottom instead of from centre.   That's one ugly looking molten lava cake..lol!   

Verdict:  It's yummy but i think it's a bit bland as well as a bit bitter. Well, i don't mind since i love dark bitter chocolate, but i think for those who doesn't like dark chocolate, probably will find it on the bitter side.   Best eaten with a scoop of ice-cream.  If you ask me for my opinion, i don't really like this souffle texture on the outside and i prefer the rich original molten lava cake, ie, rich on the outside as well as on the inside...and also less time consuming to make.  However, my daughter, husband and helper all said it's delicious (they are all not chocoholics like me..)...or rather in my daughter's words "feels healthier since it's not as rich".

ABC - Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake with Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon

ABC:  Baking for All Occassion by Flo Braker, Page 120

Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake with Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon

When i first saw the recipe for the first time, i had in mind that i didn't want to make the Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon since i have to use 6 yolks again and left with all the egg whites.. (i have TONS of eggwhites in the freezer..and i have no time to bake macarons to get rid of my whites..)..  However, after baking the orange chiffon tweed cake, i changed my mind and continued with the sabayon.  I have to say that i didn't regret making it cos it is absolutely delicious!!  

Making the chiffon wasn't difficult...but i was a bit shock at the 1 tbsp of baking powder, I thought i read wrongly in the beginning and had to look at it thrice to reconfirm that i didn't.  Well, the 1 tbsp of baking powder didn't change anything to the texture and the chiffon is light and soft but yet has a nice texture to it.  The orange and chocolate pairing is totally yummy..and it's my fave flavor combo. 

My orange chiffon turned upside down for cooling... somehow i like this photo..it's like a lamp..and an unusual one..lol!

For the sabayon, i didn't use liquor but instead added the orange juice with a tiny bit of triple sec and folded in 200ml (the entire tub) of pure cream instead of 120ml cos i didn't want left over pure cream..but it tasted great anyway..i think it tasted slightly more creamy which i like..lol! 

VERDICT: Totally delicious yummy chiffon with sabayon sauce. The perfect combination i have to say!! Do not skip the sabayon..it's light and so yummy!   

Caramelized Pineapple Pudding with Homemade Brioche

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 342: Caramelized Pineapple Pudding with Homemade Brioche

Made the brioche over a few nights after work.  I made it on Thursday and baked it only on Sat.  The bread turned out absolutely tasty despite it looking lopsided..LOL! I think i didn't press it down hard enough or i didn't seal off the open seams properly enough and hence you see the 'air bubbles' on the raised side.   I was quite surprised how easy it is to make and i can drag the process over a few days on my own time without rushing to bake it immediately. :D So tasty that i'm not too sure if i would have enough left for baking the pineapple pudding..lol!

Ok..i did have left overs for the pudding because i wrapped it so well that nobody wanted to open the wrapping and eat the bread..lol! Despite not very sure if anyone would like the pudding or not, i went ahead to make it anyway.  Finally, for the first time (i think), i managed to take step by step photos while i'm baking at the same time.  In order to save time uploading the photos, i made them into a collage instead.

I didn't have any leftover of the cream..you can see from the tray, it's all absorbed up by the bread. Probably cos i didn't read instructions and ended up pouring all the cream & milk into the saucepan instead of keeping half..i only realised my mistake when i read further and it asked for the other half of the milk and i was like 'eh..where's the other half?!?!?"..nevermind..i proceeded with it anyway..without the extra cream which i didn't think would make huge difference.

Roasting the pineapples is such a pain..so hot at 200c and to bast it every 5 mins and not even sure how long i had to roast them either....i didn't even want to stand near the oven let alone open the oven door to bast the pineapples with the super hot heat all around..i can't even open my eyes! And i have to be honest that part of my mind kept wondering if my nice shiny wmf pan would be stained with all the dark pineapple caramel juice....:p.. as you all know by now i like all my stuff to be super clean and spotless..no grease or stains if i can help it (ya..even my oven after 2 years is still quite spot-free..lol!).   Oh..couldn't find canned pineapple juice, so i used the juice from the other half of the pineapple instead.  My domestic helper helped me core the fresh pineapple and remove the buds..this is one thing i don't know how to do (besides ironing as well..i totally suck at ironing :p)..and she from Philippines can do it very well..see that nice pattern she cut in a decorative line down and this will remove all the buds of the pineapple.

And i want to complain about the caramel! (I followed instructions without misreading anything this time).  The caramel stayed at the bottom of the ramekins and didn't quite dissolve after 40mins in the waterbath..and i had to microwave it to soften so i can pour it out. But the moment it is poured on top of the pineapple, the caramel hardens really HARD like toffee candy (and at times like spun sugar like strings)! How to eat?

VERDICT:  I think this pudding can do without the caramel..it's super sweet with the caramel imo..plus the caramel kept harding into toffee like candy on top..(see above photos..one lump).  The bread pudding on it's own tasted really good paired with the juicy roasted pineapples and the fragrant pineapple-caramel juice.  Everyone enjoyed it but this is not something i would like to bake again..too much time & effort and it's really not worth all the trouble imo.

The Brioche on the other hand wins a thumbs up from me.  Super yummy, super light, buttery and delicious! And it is easy to make..and i reiterate again that like the fact that it can be staggered over days..so i can make then over a course of a few nights after work and bake only when i'm ready...:D

Daniel's Cake

My friend wanted all her husband's favourite things to be incorporated in the cake and wanted them in 3D. I was quite happy with the cake until delivery time. Because the cake structure for the golf bag wasn't strong enough, and while carrying down the stairs and in the car, the structure moved and caused the bottom tier of the cake to crack and break...so the entire cake sank 3 inches to the bottom. Thank God that the fondant didn't crack that badly and i was able to patch up a bit. But the cake ended up looking like saggy old bag with a heavy bottom. I was sooo upset and disappointed with myself for not going with my instincts that the structure wasn't strong enough.  I told my husband 5 times that I think the rod isn't strong enough but he kept saying it is OK and reassured me that it will be alright. True enough, my worse fears happened right before my eyes, the cake cracked and moved.. my heart sank  and i almost cried.

My friend was very nice about it and comforted me and she just called to tell me that nobody at the party noticed the golfbag cake sagged until she mentioned it. But honestly, I'm still feeling quite lousy about it.  My heart ached further when I saw the after party photo of the sagging cake and tilting to one side.  I think I'll need some time to recover.. 

Everything is made with edible material. The golf bag, notebook, and keyboard all are made of cake, sushi is made with cakeballs, xrays are handpainted gelatine sheets and the rest of the stuff made with gumpaste and RKT.

Side View of the cake

details of the cake

details of the caviar, bellini with caviar, sushi

details of the sugar rose, golf clubs

Lesson learnt:  Trust my own instinct and always insist on a stronger structure when everyone else say otherwise...cos only I know how my cake is going to turn out... I think I should learn how to do carpentry work too instead of relying on others.... lol!

I planned to bake this week's HCB cake but i think now i'm too sad & disappointed to want to bake anything after my golfbag cake sank... 

Food (Frederick) Cake

This is what i have been doing and preparing hence unable to bake my weekly HCB assignments...getting all the gumpaste ready to harden and dry..which takes longer to dry in our climate. 

I've been asked by my friend to make a cake for her nephew's 21st birthday and she told me that he loves food. Hence it's all about food.  My friend said i have include pocky, lobster, sushi and an assortment of other food if possible. 

Everything is made from edible material, including the disposal box, sauce containers, green leaves.  Pocky and Chicken Nugget is hand-painted.  I was looking for sodium alginate to make fish roe or shall i say juice caviar..trying my hand in molecular gastronomy or trying to copy Heston Blumenthal..hahaha.. but i couldn't find such chemicals here..(even normal antibiotics are not allowed to be bought over the counter unless with doctor's certification..see..how to buy chemicals?!). Thus, i had to crack my head and used a more economy way of making tiny gummy balls instead. :D

The cake almost left me in tears..don't know why the cake kept breaking up and i couldn't get the pocky cake to stand upright...thankfully i had extra cake and remade it again..but had to make it bigger than what i had planned in order for it to be sturdy enough to stand.

Thank God everything turned out well in the end. I did pray very hard. :D  And God gave me a verse in Philippians 4:6-7.  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. "

Baby Shoe Template - For Kelcey

Want to be able to make these gorgeous Mary Jane baby shoes and at the same time help someone?  Even if you are not a cake maker, you could also head over to Jo's blog and donate £2.50 so we can send Kelcey something nice for her birthday!  Kelcey age 9 years is suffering from a disease known as T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. 

Hop down to my flickr-pal Jo Ranson's blog at http://the-icing-on-the-cake.blogspot.com/2010/08/mary-jane-template-mary-jane-template-2.html to either donate or purchase a copy of the template from her site.  

For more details and to know more about Kelcey, do check out flickr-pal Kathryn's blog at http://4goodnesscake.blogspot.com 

Thanks!

Faithy


Disclaimer: I didn't make the above baby shoes, Jo did and i just used her photo. :D  

Apple Crumble Pie

Was planning to bake this week HCB's Blueberry Plum Upside-down Torte but trip to the supermarket for blueberries and plums made me change my mind.  They were expensive and i wasn't sure if i like soggy top cakes.  So i ended up buying granny smith apples instead and baked apple pie..lol!  Honestly, to tell you guys the truth, i'm a bit sick of cakes.  I needed to take a break and bake something else! 

I sms-ed a friend and she emailed me her recipe. I tweaked the filling a bit, adding raisins and a bit of brandy.  I should have bought more apples since they were quite small...thus ended up with not enough filling imo.   

But overall, it's yummy and delicious! Every one in my family enjoyed it.. i guess probably everyone got sick of eating cakes weekly too..hahahaha

and .... Happy 45th Birthday Singapore! 

Butter Cake (Oily)

I was hunting around for a local flavored butter cake, that is suppose to be very oily and buttery (and not dense like pound cake).  My sis-in-law said she loves rich buttery cake and i thought since her birthday is coming up, i thought i'll bake her something that she'll like. But first i needed to find the correct butter cake recipe!  The past recipes i've tried were either too eggy or too pound cake like.  I wanted something light and yet buttery & oily (that's the type of butter cake she requested for!) without an over-powering egg taste, ie the main note should be Butter...

FINALLY i found the type of butter cake i was looking for!   I googled and stumbled upon this blog Food 4 Tots and her recipe on Basic Butter Cake looked so good.  Recipe looked easy enough and i figured, why not just give it a go. I tried it and true enough, it's really oily and buttery and light too. What thrills me the most is the top stayed rather level and didn't crack or had a volcano top as with all butter cakes i've tried.  

By far the best butter cake i've encountered so far.  Definitely a keeper!

Cow Cake

Are you thinking what i am thinking?  The cow looks like a cross breed between a cow and a pig right? LOL!  

I want to thank my flickr pal,  [Schmish] for helping me with the cake structure. She was so sweet to draw out the cake structure for me so i can have a clearer idea what i should be doing for a 3D standing cow cake and she was also patient enough to entertain all my silly questions about DIY. I am really not a diy person and neither is my husband (20 years of marriage and i've never seen him hold a power tool before or a normal non-electric saw...) and i have absolutely no clue how to use a power tool either.  I showed my husband her drawing and he said he can do it. So, he helped me out with the cake structure, however, he insisted that the 'legs' shouldn't be that long cos cow doesn't have long legs and to trust his judgement... But just as i expected, the 'legs' he provided weren't long enough and i ended up with a short-legged cow..LOL! And the 'legs' were UNeven in length too!   I had to hide the legs (or pretend the legs to be covered with tall grass!).  With my not so great cake sculpting skill coupled with his less than satisfactory diy skill, my cow at certain angle looked like a pig!.  

Nevertheless,  I had fun making this cake...i had a lot of first time with this cake..lol! First time i made a structure for a cake, and first time used airbrush and first time i 'steamed' my cake.   Before i 'steamed' (like Cake Boss) my cake to give it a shine, the airbrushing looked better, but after i 'steamed' it, the airbrushing looked much darker..and quite patchy!  My lesson, never steam airbrush cakes until i have mastered the art of airbrushing first.  I know i'm suppose to practice on a piece of paper first but i didn't..i just went hands-on with it! :p    This is not a paying cake, so i get to 'experiment' right? 

Happy Birthday Hannah!  Hannah is born in the year of cow, hence she requested for a cow cake. :D  

Lemon Meringue Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 250: Lemon Meringue Cake

While reading the recipe, i noticed that the photo of the cake part is very thin, ie it looked rather flat to me with loads of meringue topping.  I decided then that i would prefer slightly more cake than that thin flat looking cake in the photo.  Hence i baked my sponge in 2 x 8" instead of what the recipe called for, ie 2 x 9".  

However, to my alarm, my 8" sponge cake turned out really high!! Each layer is about 2.5 - 3 inches high.  I had enough height to layer the sponge into 2 quite comfortably.  So in the end i had plenty of cake ..lol..a bit too much..hahaha.  Some photos can be so deceiving!  

I made a few mistakes in this recipe..while making the syrup, i poured all the lemon juice into the sugar syrup instead..then the meringue part, too.. i didn't save the part of the sugar or part of the lemon juice  for the second half of the recipe..:p  This cake reminded me of the other lemon cake, i think was 'Woody's Lemon Cake" where i also made some mistakes..lol!..and both cakes have lemon curd!

I had a hard time frosting the meringue onto the cake cos it feels different from buttercream, so sticky..like all lump together. Not sure if it is because i over-beat the meringue..but it was so sticky. My first time frosting with meringue.  And i realised that since my cake is so tall, i can't frost too high either, cos i can't place it in the fridge after. My fridge doesn't have that height to accommodate it. I piped out some shapes etc..cos i can't get it level it nicely..cos it kept sticking to the spatula. 

Verdict:  I find this cake tasted similar to the other lemon cake we made a while back because of the presence of lemon curd.  And i do find it a bit too sweet and i've already half the syrup. But maybe it's also my doing, since i layered it so high...i should have gone with my initial instinct to just make 2 individual 8" cakes instead.   My husband likes the sour taste of the lemon curd and think has great flavor.  My daughter didn't like it cos she finds the lemon curd too sour.  I find overall the cake is a little bit sweet and so is the meringue..(I think there's something wrong with my sweet tastebuds)! Strange..one cake but everyone of us has different opinions! 

Chocolate Banana Stud Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 96: Chocolate Banana Stud Cake

I never remember to take step by step photos!!  I think it's not easy to bake and take photos at the same time cos when i bake, i really concentrate..yup..Really! lol! 

I made the ganache like just before i baked the cake..lol! But...i put the ganache in the freezer to expedite the hardening process..and it seems to work quite well..just in time when i need to frost the cake.  I added rum to the ganache. 

The recipe is easy..pretty straight forward. Except when looking at the recipe, i can't find the oven temperature!  So i baked at 175c for 45mins.   I baked in 2 6" cake pan instead.  I wanted to layer the cake and at the same time, i thought to myself, the smaller the surface area, the lesser studs i need to put onto the cake..LOL!   I measured the weight of the banana and realized that it is slightly more than 1 banana..(i ate the left-over of the 2nd banana).  

After the cake cooled, i frosted ganache over and realised it is not very easy to frost on such a soft cake. The cake is exceptionally soft and tender. The cake kept wobbling..lol!  I look at the chocolate chips and felt lazy....so tiny & so many to put on the cake..  then I found some M&Ms...these were the halloween ones sold Oct last year and nobody bothered to eat them..including me..lol!  I thought i better use it up to decorate cake instead before this coming halloween and before the expiry of the M&Ms.  Plus M&Ms surface area larger..so means less work..lol!

Verdict:  Cake is exceptionally tender & soft with a hint of banana flavor and melts in the mouth.  My daughter didn't like the ganache and said it was bitter. But that's my fault i think cos i couldn't tell if the chocolate i used was 75% or 65% cocoa...the print on the paper faded off..   Now that she complained bitter, i guess must be 75%..:p  To my husband & me its ok cos i like dark chocolate...plus with all the other chocolate, I thought should blend in quite nicely.  I like the texture of the chocolate cake..although i'm not a fan of the combination of banana and chocolate though.    My husband doesn't like anything banana and yet said this cake is yummy, says so much for itself right?  

PS: However nobody really liked the chips or M&Ms..neither did i..we all threw out the chips after taking a bite with the chips on (what a waste..i thought of recycling the unwanted chips into cookies..lol!..of coz i didn't..just a mere thought that's all..). Eating chips or M&Ms on its own is fine..but eating with the cake..i don't like cos it mask the actual flavor of the cake which on its own is delicious enough imo. 

Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 325: Mini Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes

I have some disposable aluminum mini loaf pans which i bought about a year ago. I bought them with the intention to bake Dorie Greenspan's chocolate mini pound cake but i never got round doing it..:p  I have a long list of to-dos but get distracted most of the time.  The aluminum pan is slightly larger than the required ones, so the batter filled in the 2 pans exactly.

Recipe is easy. I noticed that there's typo error in the metric measurement. I suppose..it is to read grams instead of ounces for the weight of sugar and cake flour.  I was lazy to use vanilla bean, so i used bottled vanilla bean paste instead. However, i used vanilla sugar in place of rubbing the vanilla beans onto the sugar.  I didn't make the vanilla cognac syrup, i took the short cut and added cognac to my already triple-sec syrup which i had in the fridge...somehow i like the combo of triple-sec and cognac!

Verdict: Very yummy. Light & tender crumbs.  I should have added more syrup though - but i forgot to brush the underside of the cake..maybe that's the reason..   Definitely a to-bake again cake, since it's simple and easy..and i have plenty of syrup left in my fridge too..lol!    My only complain is made only 2 small cakes..and the cake is gone in one sitting!  lol!  My son loves it...didn't complain about the vanilla bean seeds..

Chocolate Ice-cream Cake

Rose Heavenly Cakes, Page 142: Chocolate Ice Cream Cake or Sandwich

The only thing that puzzled me when reading this recipe was the difference between ice cream cake and ice cream sandwich. Well, the picture on page 144 is ice cream cake, but it also looked like a sandwich to me!  But as i read on further ice-cream sandwich is suppose to be bite size. The ice cream sandwich that i know is ice-cream sandwiched with light paper thin waffle biscuit or with a slice of sweet-bread... sold by the ice cream man on his bike with the ice-cream freezer attached to the bike and a huge umbrella with it...(no longer at friendly neighborhood places anymore but i see them along Orchard Road).   Anyway, i hope that one of HCB will do a sandwich version so i can have an idea how the sandwich version will look like. 

So..needless to say, i went for the cake version.  Anyway, i found it too troublesome to divide the recipe by 3/4. (Ok..i admit, my maths is really bad now..use to be really good in school but after i left school, i can't even calculate anything mentally without the calculator or excel program anymore..! My husband being Chinese educated, is superb with mental calculation and he's my "walking calculator"..hahaha....but he wasn't around at the time while i was trying to figure this out and i didn't have a calculator at home..plus my iphone was temporary hijacked by my son who refused to return it back to me..)  In the end, I made the entire batch of batter and poured like 3/4 over the 10" pan and the leftover I made them into cupcakes.  Am I smart or what? LOL! 

After whisking the egg yolks and sugar, i was a bit confused if i should continue to use the whisk attachment or change to the flat beater to beat in the flour and the rest.  But since the book didn't say to change it...i just continued with the whisk attachment till the end of the recipe.  So far so good, cos my cake turned out alright, i think.  At first i was worried cos the cake was higher on one side while in the oven..however, it flattened off evenly during cooling. 

I made the coffee stracciatella ice-cream by Sherry Yard. I chose her recipe cos i wanted to try making stracciatella plus her recipe said it'll made 1 quart of ice-cream. I have no idea what 1 quart is since we use metric system here and book instruction said to use either 1 or 2 quart ice-cream - saves me time from all the conversion just to follow a recipe that makes 1 quart...hahaha!   I was worried as to how to melt store bought ice-cream properly, so i figured making my own and immediately pouring into the pan and freezing it after would be perfect...like kill 2 birds with one stone?

This is the only baking-in-progress photo i have as this was the only time i remembered about photographing steps and yelled at my daughter to quickly take a photo of me pouring the ice-cream into the pan.   And my kitchen is now air-conditioned...so..YAY!..i don't have to complain about the hot weather anymore..except my higher electricity bills though..lol! 

While the cake is in the freezer..I made the Chocolate Snowball Hot Fudge Sauce. I used Lindt 85% chocolate because i can't find their 99% though..i am sure i thought i've seen it before.  I reduced a little bit of the sugar since my chocolate wasn't 99%.  Instructions pretty easy and the hot fudge tasted really good and i like the texture. So i dipped my cupcakes (from the leftover batter) into the hot fudge sauce as frosting. Turns out to be a really good idea! The hot fudge sauce on cupcakes is yummy plus it is still glossy after placed in the fridge.

I left the ice-cream cake in the freezer overnight till the next day.  And while waiting for the ice-cream cake to 'ripen' in the freezer, at least i have cupcakes to savor first! The cupcakes with fudge sauce is extremely chocolatey & highly addictive!

And the next day..i couldn't wait anymore and was very eager to try the cake.  However, I was too lazy to wipe the pan around it with hot towel, so i just hold my breath and unmold the spring-form pan just like that. No problems at all! It just came out really nicely in fact and the sides all nicely intact...see below photo..how beautiful the sides are..:D

Now with aircon in my kitchen, i can take lots of photos of my ice-cream cake without worrying it will melt...:D  So, more ice-cream cake photos....

Verdict:-  OMG, Best Ever! Totally heavenly, totally awesome, totally out of this world.. you can already tell how much i am in love with this cake...lol! This is by far the best ever ice-cream cake i've ever eaten! The cake is really soft and stayed soft in the freezer. Moist, soft with fine crumbs...extremely good!   Eaten alone with the hot fudge as in the cupcakes i made, it tasted slightly different, has a more intense chocolatey taste on its own as compared to when eaten with ice-cream.   Either way, the cake is exceptionally good.  Perfect when paired with Sherry Yard's coffee stracciatella ice-cream...the stracciatella in the ice-cream added texture and light crunch....   Definitely a must bake again cake!   Sorry, too excited..forgot to mention about my family...they all loved the cake unanimously!

P/S: Normally don't drink coffee, i wonder if I am on sugar high or coffee high since just noticed that I typed a lot today..which i normally don't..words are hard to come by for me..lol!