Edith Chong Pei See: A Thief?

Some readers share my recipes on their blogs, such as here, here and here. The bloggers in these examples rewrite the instructions, in their own words. I am flattered and happy that they share my recipes with their readers.

Sadly, not all bloggers are honest. Some people just copy and paste from my blog.

Copying word for word, or almost word for word, is an infringement of copyright, even when the original author is credited. If it weren't, we can all upload best selling books and make loads of money, right?

When I find unscrupulous bloggers who steal my posts, I leave this message on their blog:

Dear Thief

Copying and pasting from my blog is an infringement of copyright. Delete the text you have stolen, you despicable, low-down thief!

When the thieves get the message, all of them delete not only the stolen text but their entire post. There is, however, one exception: Edith Chong Pei See.

Edith Chong Pei See has an old blog, Precious Moments, and a current blog, Rumbling Tummy. The latter has this message, in red, on its home page:



SO CALLED stolen recipes? So the recipes on Precious Moments aren't REALLY stolen?

I am the blogger Rumbling Tummy refers to. Let me set the record straight.

Here is what's published on my post for sambal udang:

Cut dried chillies, red chillies, shallots and buah keras into small pieces. Pound or grind till smooth. Fry in vegetable oil over medium-low to low heat till medium brown. Add belachan and stir through. Add sugar, salt and tamarind water. Simmer till thick and oil separates. Add prawns and heat till just cooked, stirring and turning as necessary to cook evenly . . . . Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

This is a screenshot of what's on Precious Moments on 6 May 2015, before it's edited:



Precious Moments' text is the same as mine, word for word. That's a flagrant violation of copyright.

Edith Chong Pei See copied another recipe, dry chicken curry, almost word for word. This is a screenshot of the recipe on Precious Moments as on 6 May 2015, before it's edited:




Using my writing without my permission is stealing. If a person steals, she's a thief. If she's a thief, she's pond scum. Don't you agree?

Have you also had stuff stolen from your blog? Are you also a victim of copyright violation? What do you do? Do you just grin and bear it?

Matcha Swiss Roll

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Matcha!

Matcha who?

Much ado about Swiss rolls.

This is another Swiss roll post, the third on this blog. 

My matcha sheet cake is barely sweet, to keep it in character with green tea which is drunk without sugar. It has quite little oil because matcha doesn't absorb much oil. My vanilla sheet cake, in comparison, has twice as much. Green tea powder also helps "lighten" the cake. You know how tea makes food seem less rich? Matcha does that with cake.

If you don't know much about matcha, please read my post on matcha layer cake. You'll find information on what type of matcha to buy and how to store it. 

My matcha sheet cake uses the chiffon method. Making the batter is quite easy. Just do the usual stuff that applies to all cakes, e.g. measuring the ingredients correctly, not over- or underbeating, not over- or undermixing, etc.

The baking part is less straightforward. When I bake the cake, I block the oven's bottom heat around two-thirds of the way. Why? To keep the inside of the cake moist whilst allowing the crust to dry out sufficiently. Without blocking the bottom heat, the crust would be sticky when the inside is just right. And if the bottom heat is blocked too early, the bottom of the cake would stick to the parchment paper.

What makes the crust dry out slowly? Matcha. Some of the fine powder rises to the top of the cake when heated. Do wet leaves dry well in the oven? No, not as well as flour which has starch to help it set. That's why the crust needs the tray's help.

I like to fill my matcha roll with matcha whipped cream and red beans. You can, of course, make sweetened red beans from scratch. But chances are your homemade version won't be as fragrant as Japanese canned red beans unless your beans are from Hokkaido. Chinese red beans are far inferior.

I've tried two brands of red beans: Hashimoto and Imuraya. Both are fragrant but I prefer Hashimoto. It has more bite and is less sweet.

Imuraya beans are mushy and the syrup, because it's thickened with cornstarch, is very gloopy. The gloop clings to the beans, adding to the sweetness and mushiness. Unlike Imuraya, Hashimoto is thickened with sorbitol. The syrup isn't as thick at room temperature, so I can drain it.

One small can of Hashimoto, 190 g, yields 130 g after it's drained. Leftovers may be refrigerated for a few weeks or frozen for a few months.

I like my matcha roll "naked", i.e. it's rolled inside out and there's no icing. I think the green, spongy look is quite pretty. Is rolling the cake difficult? Not at all. The cake handles well (provided it's made right). If you don't know much about rolling Swiss rolls, please read my post on vanilla Swiss roll.

After you make the Swiss roll, have a small piece to see what it's like. Take note of the taste and remember it. Keep the rest of the roll in the fridge, covered, for two days. Your saintly patience will be rewarded with a matcha flavour that's more intense than two days prior, and melded with the red beans. After taking a bite, you'll never again eat matcha Swiss roll that's freshly made . . . or store-bought.

Here's my video to walk you through the recipe:

MATCHA SWISS ROLL (抹茶瑞士蛋糕卷) (Recipe for one small roll) Cake 10 g very hot water  1/2 tbsp green tea powder 30 g egg yolks 10 g castor sugar 15 g corn oil 15 g cake flour 70 g egg whites 1/16 tsp cream of tartar 20 g castor sugar soft butter for greasing pan Filling 75 g fresh dairy cream, 35% fat 1/2 tsp green tea powder 40 g drained red beans, Hashimoto brand (beans need at least 30 min to drain well) If you double the recipe, use a 13" x 10" pan. 1. To make cake, preheat oven to 200°C. Grease 10" x 7" cake pan with butter. Line with 14" x 7" parchment paper, making sure paper has no air pockets or creases. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. 2. Add water to green tea powder. Stir till smooth. Cover. Set aside. 3. Whisk egg yolks with 10 g castor sugar till thick and pale. Add corn oil. Whisk till thick. Add green tea paste. Mix till even. Sift cake flour into mixture in 2 batches. Mix till just even after each batch. 4. Whisk egg whites on medium-low speed till very frothy. Add cream of tartar. Whisk till thick foam forms. Gradually add 20 g castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Reduce speed to low. Keep whisking till firm, hooked peak stage. 5. Loosen egg yolk mixture from bottom of bowl. Add egg whites in 2 batches. Mix with whisk till almost even after each batch. Scrape down and fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging bowl against worktop 2-3 times. 6. Scrape batter into cake pan, slowly and from 1' high. Spread as evenly as possible. Jiggle vigorously till batter is level, banging cake pan against worktop 2-3 times. 7. Bake cake on middle shelf of oven till risen, about 9 minutes (10 minutes if recipe is doubled). Place baking tray in bottom of oven. Continue baking till crust is lightly brown and middle of cake doesn't make squishing sound when pressed, 4-5 minutes (5-6 minutes if recipe is doubled), checking once every 30-45 seconds towards the end. 8. Remove pan from oven. Drop from 1' high 2-3 times. Loosen cake with knife. Drag onto wire rack. Leave till cold. Remove from wire rack. Place new parchment paper on cake. Flip cake upside down. Peel old parchment paper from cake, slowly. Flip again. 9. To make filling, whip cream till thick enough to hold its shape. Add green tea powder. Whisk till thick enough to stick to whisk. 10. To assemble Swiss roll, spread cake with whipped cream, then red beans. Roll. Refrigerate for 2 days, covered. Remove from fridge. Cut with serrated knife, wiping knife clean after each cut. Tuck in when cake is soft but filling is still firm.

Marble Butter Sponge Cake (Tang Mian Method)

Tàng, 烫: scald.

Miàn, 面: flour.

Tang mian is roux, made by cooking flour in bubbling hot butter.

Tang mian cake has the fluffiness of chiffon cake and the butteriness of butter cake. It has the best of two cake worlds but that's not all. It is smooth, smoother than chiffon or butter cake could ever be.

Some people call tang mian "cooked dough" instead of "roux". And the cake is sometimes called "黄金蛋糕" or "golden sponge cake". Hey, a rose by any other name . . . .

Mixing bubbling hot butter with flour intensifies the butter aroma significantly. If butter were just melted and added to the batter, or it's just beaten till fluffy, the cake would taste less buttery. Even beurre noisette isn't as good.

Cooking flour in hot butter makes the cake smooth. Why? Because when flour is coated with fat, it doesn't form gluten when it's mixed with non-fat liquids. No gluten is good news for cakes because gluten has a rough texture. In fact, pure gluten looks quite like sea sponge.

Once the roux is made, it's transferred into a bowl and mixed with cold milk. The milk is absorbed by the starch in the flour, creating a thick paste that's very hot. Unlike gluten which is rough, thickened starch has a smooth texture. That's why tang mian cake is smoother than other types of cake (when it's done right).

After the edge of the heat cools down, a small amount of egg white is added to the thick paste. When this is done is critical to the success of the cake. Why? Because the timing affects the consistency of the starch. If the starch is too thick/thin, the cake won't rise well. If the starch is just right, the cake will be very smooth. You know how good wine feels smooth in the mouth? Hey, cake can be smooth too!

After combining the roux with egg white, along with vanilla extract and salt, I add egg yolks. These are added one at a time so that they are mixed but not emulsified with the starch. The yolk batter mustn't stick to the whisk. Otherwise, it's too thick and the cake is doomed.

The bulk of the egg whites in the recipe are whisked, separately with sugar and cream of tartar, till firm peak stage.

If the batter is bubbly after whisked egg whites are added to the yolk mixture, it's too thin. Thin batter allows air bubbles to escape easily, so the cake won't rise well. It also allows air bubbles to expand easily when heated, so the cake will be pockmarked.

The batter is poured into the cake pan, slowly and from about 30 cm high. This releases big air bubbles in the batter, so the crumb will be fine and smooth.

If the batter falls in clumps when it's poured, it's too thick. Big air bubbles remain trapped in the batter, turning into unsightly holes in the cake when the baking is done. If the batter is too thick to rise well, the cake will be short and dense.

What makes the batter too thick? The roux is too hot when egg white is added, or the meringue is overwhisked. And vice versa would make the batter too thin.

After baking, the cake must be inverted whilst it's cooling down. If it's underbaked, it'll fall out of the pan and you can wave goodbye to its fluffiness. If the cake is overbaked, it'll be too dry. When the cake is baked just right, it's delightfully moist and fluffy . . . . Oh hang on . . . I think there's someone at the door.

Knock, knock! Who's there? Tang mian! Tang mian who? Timing is everything!

Want to get the timing right so that your cake is fluffy, moist, smooth and buttery? Here's how:

MARBLE BUTTER SPONGE CAKE (TANG MIAN METHOD) (Recipe for one 18 cm cake) 60 g unsalted butter 45 g cake flour 30 g full-fat milk, cold 20 g egg white 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/16 tsp salt 45 g egg yolks 105 g egg whites 1/16 tsp cream of tartar 50 g castor sugar 1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Line bottom of 18 x 6 cm round cake pan with 2 layers of parchment paper. 2. Cook butter over medium-low heat, stirring with whisk, till just bubbling thoroughly. Turn off heat. (If your stove is electric, remove pan from stove.) 3. Add cake flour to butter. Stir till smooth. Transfer into mixing bowl with scraper. Add milk. Mix vigorously with whisk till just combined. 4. Feel sides of bowl, which should be very hot. Wait till edge of heat eases, about 30 seconds. Add vanilla extract, salt and 20 g egg white. Whisk till combined. Add egg yolks in 3 batches. Whisk till combined after each addition. 5. Whisk 105 g egg whites on medium-low speed till frothy. Add cream of tartar. Whisk till thick foam forms. Gradually add castor sugar, still whisking. Continue to whisk till soft peak stage. Reduce speed to low. Whisk till firm peak stage (i.e. peak is hooked). 6. Yolk mixture is now slightly bubbly. Stir with whisk to remove bubbles. Add egg whites in 3 batches. Mix with whisk till almost even after each addition. Scrape down and fold with spatula till just even, banging mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times. 7. Transfer 20 g batter into small bowl. Add 1 tsp cocoa powder. Mix thoroughly. 8. Pour remaining batter into cake pan in 3 batches, slowly and from 30 cm high. After each batch, dot with cocoa batter and drag sharp end of skewer through dots. Jiggle batter till level, tapping pan against worktop 3-4 times. 9. Bake cake in bottom of oven till batter doesn't jiggle when shaken, 22-23 minutes. Move pan to lower-middle shelf. Increase temperature to 180°C. Bake till middle of cake doesn't make squishing sound when pressed, about 10-12 minutes. 10. Remove cake from oven. Leave on wire rack, inverted, till cool. Knock sides of pan till cake is loosened. Invert and remove pan. Invert cake right way up. Cut and serve.

Chocolate Swiss Roll (巧克力瑞士蛋糕卷)

If you've never made Swiss roll before, or never made one successfully, please don't try my chocolate Swiss roll recipe.

Making chocolate Swiss roll is a bit tricky. Why? Because cocoa powder complicates things. If you want a straightforward recipe, go for vanilla roll. That's almost idiot-proof (not that idiots are the lowest common denominator).

Cocoa powder makes the cake less stretchable, so you have to be careful not to overbake the cake. Even slight overbaking makes the cake crack when you roll it.

Cocoa powder also makes the crust sticky, so you have to be careful not to underbake the cake. The more underbaked the crust is, the stickier it is.

The cake is perfectly done when it just turns springy in the middle. After it's cooled down, the crust should be a bit sticky around the edges. That's OK because the ends will be trimmed, or tucked inside/below after the cake is rolled.

If the entire crust isn't sticky, that's not a good thing at all. The cake is too dry and will likely crack when you roll it.

If the entire crust is sticky, it's gonna stick to whatever it rests on. Of course, that's not a problem if you ice the cake. Or if you go for the skinless look and roll the cake inside out.

Even when you've got the cake baked just right, you may still have a problem when you're rolling the cake. Why? Because the crust doesn't really stick to the crumb, so it comes off very easily. The loose crust is caused by cocoa powder which, as I said, complicates things.

Chocolate cakes have haphephobia (fear of being touched). Direct contact with the crust must be minimized if you don't want to damage it. How? Like this:

⋈ Put the cake on a piece of parchment paper, face down. Spread with whatever filling you like.

⋈ Start rolling the cake by making a fold in the cake. The fold must be very small, or the cake will be oval instead of round after rolling.

⋈ After the first fold is tucked in tightly, lift and tilt the parchment paper with your left hand (if you're right-handed). As the cake moves forward, it may bulge here and there. Gently flatten the bulges with your right hand so that the roll is tight and even. If you're making a very long roll, you'd need a rolling pin (or the core of your parchment paper or aluminium foil) to do this.

Because the cake doesn't handle well, it cracks (when you roll it) if it's too thick. And if it's too thin, the inside may be too dry when the crust is just right. Hence, you must scale the recipe according to your pan size. You don't want too little or too much batter in the pan. 

Why make such a fuss over a cake? Why not just let it crack? You can hide the cracks with icing, icing sugar, chocolate rice/shavings, nuts, whatever. Nobody would know, right?

Yup, covering up is an easy way out. But you'd have bought a chocolate Swiss roll if you had wanted the easy way out. Or at least made a Swiss roll without cocoa powder. Or just eat the bloomin' cake without rolling it!

For those who want to make a good but uncomplicated Swiss roll, click here for my vanilla recipe.  For those who want to make a chocolate roll for the sake of making it, because eating is only half the fun:

CHOCOLATE SWISS ROLL (巧克力瑞士蛋糕卷) (Recipe for one 12" roll) 15 g corn oil 10 g alkalized cocoa powder, Green & Black's brand 15 g castor sugar 10 g water pinch salt 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 30 g egg yolks 15 g cake flour 70 g egg whites 30 g castor sugar 75 g whipped cream If you double the recipe, you need a pan that's 18"x 12". 1. To make cake, preheat oven to 200°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Grease 12" x 9" pan with butter. Line pan with 12" x 12" parchment paper. 2. Heat oil till hot but not smoking (if you put your hand near the oil, you should feel searing heat). Add to cocoa powder. Whisk thoroughly. Add 15 g castor sugar. Whisk thoroughly. Add water. Whisk till thick paste forms. Add salt, vanilla extract and egg yolks. Whisk till sugar dissolves. Sift half of cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till even. Sift remaining cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till even. 3. Whisk egg whites on medium-slow speed till thick foam forms. Gradually add 30 g castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites are at soft peak stage. Reduce speed to slow and continue to whisk till firm peak stage (when whisk is lifted, egg whites form peak that's hooked). 4. Loosen egg yolk mixture from bottom of mixing bowl with whisk. Add egg whites in 2 batches. Mix with whisk after each addition till batter looks even. Scrape down and fold with spatula till batter is truly even. 5. Pour batter into cake pan. Spread with spatula as evenly as possible, pushing batter into corners of pan. Jiggle vigorously till batter is level. Tap pan against worktop twice. 6. Bake cake on middle shelf till middle of cake is springy when pressed, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Drop pan from 1' high 3-4 times. Unmould cake onto wire rack. Peel parchment paper from sides of cake. Leave till cool. 7. To assemble Swiss roll, place cake on clean parchment paper, face down. Peel parchment paper from bottom  of cake. Spread evenly with whipped cream. Roll cake as shown in video. Do not remove parchment paper till cake is transferred to serving plate (so that cake may be moved easily without touching the crust). 8. To cut Swiss roll neatly, chill till filling is set. Cut with serrated knife, wiping knife clean with paper towels after each cut. Transfer to serving plate. Discard parchment paper. 9. To store overnight, place Swiss roll in cake pan. Place pan in plastic bag, making sure bag doesn't touch Swiss roll. Refrigerate. Remove from fridge about 15 minutes before serving. Cut immediately. Transfer to serving plate. Discard parchment paper. Serve when cake is soft but filling is still cold.

Vanilla Swiss Roll (香草瑞士蛋糕卷)

There're a few common problems with making Swiss rolls: (1) The cake is hard and dry. (2) The crust sticks to the paper the cake is wrapped in. (3) The crust cracks when you roll the cake.

Good Swiss roll starts with, of course, a sheet cake that's fluffy. You know what's wrong with a lot of Swiss roll recipes? They have way too much flour.

A cake that's 1-2 cm tall should have very little flour because it doesn't need much structural support. If it has as much flour as a cake that's 5-7 cm tall, it would be dense and hard.

There's no point in baking a cake that's fluffy but dried out. What makes my cake moist? Oil. It has more oil than flour. If you're on a low-carb, high-fat diet, this is the cake for you!

Water doesn't help make a sheet cake moist. Why? Because the cake is so thin, H₂O in the batter evaporates very quickly. It's gotta be fat that keeps the cake moist. 

Of course, don't overbake the cake or it'll be dry no matter how much fat it has. Timing is critical because a 1-2 cm thick cake may overbake in 1-2 minutes. Make sure the cake is removed from the oven once the middle is springy when pressed lightly.

How to stop the crust from sticking to the paper it's wrapped in? Easy. Just don't wrap the cake in paper.

A lot of Swiss roll recipes tell you to roll the cake whilst it's piping hot, when it's most flexible and least likely to crack. This (the rolling, not telling) is done after placing the cake on a piece of parchment paper, and then dusting the crust with icing sugar.

The cake is rolled along with the paper, which stops the cake from sticking to itself.

The sugar is supposed to stop the crust from sticking to the paper, in theory. In practice, however, it doesn't because the cake releases moisture as it cools down. The paper traps the moisture that makes the crust wet and, hence, sticky.

How about wrapping the cake in a tea towel which breathes better than parchment paper? That works if the cake is quite dry when it's removed from the oven. But who wants a dried out Swiss roll, right? If it's moist as it should be, it'd still stick to the tea towel.

I let my sheet cake cool down on a wire rack after it's baked, without rolling or covering it.

Is my cake dry after it's cooled down? Not at all, because it has loads of fat and it's not overbaked.

Does my cake crack when I roll it after it's cooled down?

Nope, it doesn't because it's very flexible. The cake can stretch and bend into a roll without breaking. The flexibility is due to the way the eggs are beaten. The whites are whisked to firm peak stage, then the yolks are added one at a time and whisked thoroughly. Compared to the whole egg or chiffon method, this makes a cake that's more stretchable.

Some people wrap their Swiss roll, after rolling, to set the shape. If you want to do that, I suggest you use a tea towel. Parchment paper, if tightly wrapped around the cake for a few hours, will stick to the crust.

I prefer not to wrap the cake. There's really no need to do so provided the filling is firm when I'm rolling the cake.

If you use dairy cream filling, it must be firm when you're spreading it on the cake. And you must work quickly so it's still firm when you roll the cake. If it isn't, put the cake in the freezer for five minutes or so.

Here's how I make a Swiss roll (without pushing him down a mountain):

VANILLA SWISS ROLL (香草瑞士蛋糕卷) (Recipe for one 13" roll) Cake 140 g egg whites 60 g castor sugar 60 g egg yolks 40 g cake flour 1/16 tsp fine salt 1 tsp vanilla extract 60 g corn oil butter for greasing pan Filling 80 g chocolate spread       or 215 g whipped cream (click here for recipe) 1 can (312 g) mandarin orange, drained and chilled This recipe is double the pygmy-sized (10" x 7") cake in the video. 1. To make cake, preheat oven to 200°C. Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above. Grease 13" x 10" pan with butter. Line pan with 13" x 13" parchment paper. 2. Whisk egg whites on medium-slow speed till thick foam forms. Gradually add castor sugar whilst continuing to whisk. Keep whisking till egg whites are at soft peak stage. Reduce speed to slow and continue to whisk till firm peak stage (when whisk is lifted, egg whites form peak that's hooked). 3. Add yolks to whites in 4 batches. Whisk on slow speed till evenly mixed after each addition. Sift half of cake flour into mixture. Add salt. Mix with whisk till almost even. Sift remaining cake flour into mixture. Mix with whisk till just even. Add vanilla extract and corn oil. Fold with spatula till just evenly mixed, banging mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times. 4. Pour batter into cake pan. Spread with spatula as evenly as possible, pushing batter into corners of pan. Jiggle till batter is level. Tap pan against worktop twice. Bake on middle shelf till middle of cake is springy when pressed, 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven. Drop pan from 1' high 3-4 times. Unmould cake onto wire rack. Peel parchment paper from sides of cake. Leave till cool. 5. To assemble, place cake on new sheet of parchment paper, face down. Peel parchment paper from bottom of cake. Spread evenly with chocolate spread or whipped cream. Place mandarin orange, if using, in middle of cake. Roll cake as shown in video. 6. To cut chocolate spread Swiss roll neatly, dip serrated knife in hot water before each cut and wipe dry/clean with paper towel. For orange and cream Swiss roll, chill till cream filling is set, then use a serrated knife that's wiped clean after each cut. 7. Orange and cream Swiss roll is best eaten after an overnight rest in the fridge, when the filling has had time to perfume the cake. Chocolate spread Swiss roll should be chilled or eaten once it's made. Otherwise, oil separates from the spread and seeps into the cake, making it hard.