Thursday, August 26, 2010

Lai Lai's (Mother-in-law) Birthday Cake


Summer is a busy baking time for me.  Birthdays of Adrian, Livie, and Lai Lai are all in the summer. Ho's is coming up in September too.  It's Lai Lai's birthday today. When  I asked her what she would like, her requirements were so simple that the gave me no clue of what the cake should be:: no mousse, more cake. She actually likes my chocolate zucchini cake, but I can't use that as the birthday cake!  Since I made Black Forest for Livie, vanilla cake for Adrian, I'm running out of cake idea,.  So I went back to my blog record and saw the chestnut cream cake again.  Finally Lai Lai approved the flavour, so chestnut cake it is.

Last time I bought some canned chestnut puree made in France which was too sweet and the texture was too "jellyish".  I ended up grinding some ready to eat snack pack chestnut to make puree myself.  I didn't have time to do that again.  My sis recommended this expensive Hero canned chestnut puree.  Wow, $18 a can.   It better be good.  I spooned a little in my mouth, mmm... I don't have to grind the nuts this time!

I also altered my sister's sponge cake recipe by replacing some of the all purpose flour with cake flour.  The cake came out soft but dense enough to be springy.  Too bad my hand was not fast enough, some of the butter sank to the bottom.  Other than that, I consider the cake layers to be very successful.



Since I didn't grind any chestnut, I toasted some almond slices to cover the side.  Everybody was happy with the roasted nutty taste.



Now what should I make for Ho's birthday on Wednesday...?

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