Lemon Cake (Bake it or "Cook" it with Rice Cooker)

Today I will share how to make a lemon cake. This lemon cake is great addition to your coffee break or tea time. It´s citrus flavor that makes me love this cake. The flavor comes from lemon zest and lemon juice, which added to the batter. Zest is the outer layer (the colorful layer) of citrus fruit skin. The citrus flavor and the sweetness of this cake give you a sweet fresh kick to get through the day :)

With this recipe, you can obtain a great result by either baking or "cooking" it with rice cooker. This recipe is suitable for the family size rice cooker. If you have the mini one (0,7 L), you can halve the amount of the ingredients! 

Lemon Cake

Ingredients:

Cake batter:

200 gr (20 tbsp) all-purpose flour   

50 gr (3 tbsp) corn starch

1 ½ tbsp baking powder 

¼ tsp salt

250 gr unsalted butter (soft)

220 -250 gr (16-18 tbsp) granulated sugar 
 4 medium egg,

5 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice ( from ca. ½ of big sized lemon)

Lemon flavored glaze:

100 gr powdered sugar (icing sugar)

4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Methods:

For the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.  Grease your  rice cooker pan with butter.  (If you want to bake it with oven, don´t forget to flour your pan)
2. Mix flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl then set aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Zest the lemon with zester tool or with fine grater.  While zesting,  be careful not to include the white pith. It is bitter.  Add lemon juice then mix until the batter combined.
5. Add the flour mixture alternately with eggs to the lemon-flavored butter-sugar mixture.  After each addition, mix until combined.
6. Beat until the batter becomes smooth.
7. Pour the batter into  the prepared rice cooker pan or baking pan.
8. After placing the rice cooker pan into rice cooker, press the cook button. Cooking time will vary.  The button could shift to "keep warm" mode, just wait for another 10 minutes. But don´t force it. Your cake still can be cooked even in "keep warm" mode.                                                                                                                                    Or, if you want to use oven, bake it for 25-30 minutes.  
9. Insert  a skewer to the center of the cake to check if it is done. If the skewer comes out clean, your cake is done. 
10. Remove the cake from the rice cooker pan or baking pan then invert it onto the serving plate.
11. Glaze the cake before you serve it.

For the glaze: 

1. Combine powdered sugar with lemon juice then mix until all  powdered sugar dissolved.
2. Spread the lemon flavored glaze over cooled cake. Store cake in refrigerator.

Note:

• My cooking time for lemon cake is 50 minutes.  
• If you bake the cake and wanting the cake to be lighter in color, after 15 or 20 minutes you should cover our cake with aluminum foil then bake it again until it is done.

Cat Tongue Biscuit (Langue de Chat or Kue Lidah Kucing)

Looking for something simple yet tasty for Eid al Fitr celebration? Why not making  Cat Tongue biscuit?

Cat tongue biscuits

This French biscuit has a unique name (langue de chat or cat tongue) because of it´s oval shape and size that similar to a cat’s tongue. This classic biscuit is sweet and crispy and can be a great addition to your favorite hot beverages, vanilla ice cream and other dessert like crème brûlée, custards, puddings, etc.

Making chocolate cat tongue biscuits with mold

I got this beautiful langue de chat mold for 15.000 IDR/pcs (ca. 1 Euro) in one of supermarkt in Palembang, Indonesia (my hometown).  If you can´t find this mold, just use any baking tray.  You could get the pretty shape of this cookies, If you were an expert on piping the batter.  Don´t bother about the shape, it is still tasty :)

Cat tongue biscuit shape: without mold (left) and with mold (right)

Let's begin!

Ingredients :

125 g all-purpose flour, sifted

 (* Chocolate version: 110 g flour + 1 tbsp or 5 g Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder)

125 g soft butter
100 g granulated sugar
100 g egg whites (ca. 3 egg whites from medium size eggs)
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract/vanilla essence (optional)

*Garnish (optional):  100 gr medium sweet chocolate
                                1 tbsp butter
 

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and place the oven rack  in the middle of the oven.  Lightly butter the mold or if you use baking tray just use parchment paper to make it simple ;)
   
2. Beat butter and sugar until the mixture becomes fluffy and has a pale color.
3. Add sifted flour then mix well. (*chocolate version: at the same time, add the sifted cocoa powder)
4. Add white eggs then mix well until the mixture becomes fluffy.
5. Add salt and vanilla extract (optional) then mix well until combined.
6. Fill a piping bag fitted with a decorating tip or nozzle (ca.1 cm in diameter).  Or you can also use 1 liter-plastic bag.  After filling it with batter, cut the tip.
7. Pipe the batter on to the mold or if you use baking tray pipe the batter around 6 - 8 cm-long lines with ca. 3 cm gaps in between.
8. Bake the cookies in preheated oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown.
9. Let them cooled completely then store them in an airtight container.

   
   

   
   

Make sure the biscuits are cooled completely before storing them in a container

Note:

• To melt chocolate and butter, can easily be done by using steamer pan or a folding steamer basket. 
• Store the left over chocolate dip in freezer.  It can be used as garnish or topping for other cookies.

I love to hear from you guys, where you can find this cat tongue´s mold or how much you paid for it, or just share your experience if you try this recipe :)