Sweets and Loves

A Charming Blackforest Cake

2012-01-23T12:30:00.000+08:00

It was a case of right time, right place. I was at I12 Katong's supermarket when I spotted the jar of preserved morello cherries. Been wanting to make Hidemi Sugino's rendition of the blackforest cake, hence I grabbed a jar and made these :). It was for a good reason, my darling Darren's birthday! Haven't made an entremet in months...I hope the taste will turn out fine...haha.

I first spotted the recipe on Evan's blog. Her version of Charmed (Sugino's name for this cake) is absolutely lovely. I had some problems with the dark chocolate chantilly but eventually it turned out alright. The steps were really easy to follow, one of the easiest entremets to make, but not the easiest to get it perfect.

I loved the taste of preserved morello cherries, had it with my pint of Awesomely Chocolate ice cream from Udders, which was very yummy! This particular brand had it lightly sweetened...I would have preferred it more tart though :).

Unfortunately, I gotta wait for my darling to be back in Singapore before I can present this to him and celebrate his birthday. Well, at least I had a liiiitle bit of time to make a cake for him this time round!

By the way, anyone has experienced issues with the whipped cream hardening after folding in the melted chocolate? I wonder what went wrong with mine, as mine kinda "seized" when I folded in the chocolate, even after I cooled it. I wish the texture of my chantilly could be softer and smoother though...any suggestions?

Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks for Chinese New Year

2012-01-21T23:03:00.001+08:00

For some reason, January passed in a blink of the eye. It's now nearing the end of the month and we're heading into Chinese New Year! Gosh, where did the first month of 2012 go? I really wonder, hmmm...

This year, I received a big Bengawan Solo hamper plus loads of CNY goodies including Kueh Bangkit, Bak Kwa, Famous Amos Cookies, Danish Cookies etc. I reckon there was no need for me to make any, plus I didn't have much time. Hence this was the only thing I made - Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks.

I made these twice before, once very recently for Christmas Favours, and they've received very good reviews and feedback! Even mum, who's usually very critical of my bakes, commented that these were really good. Hence, I decided to make a double batch of this for the new year!

I simply love the raw crunchy texture of cocoa nibs with its full and deep cocoa flavour. It's like eating chocolate, but without the sweetness! Baked to a crispy crunch, these are especially good with a cup of tea or coffee!

A friend of mine gave me a sachet of mint hot chocolate during Christmas, hence I can't resist having them with these Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks. They were absolutely delicious :).

Before I leave you the recipe, just wanna wish all of you a very Happy Chinese New Year! May you PROSPER BEYOND MEASURE! Yippee!

Almond Cocoa Nib Sticks

adapted from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich

Ingredients:

3/4 cup ground almonds

1 cup + 2 tbsp plain flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup cocoa nibs

Preparation:

1. Combine ground almonds, flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a mass of bread crumbs.

2. Combine the water, vanilla and almond extract, drizzle them into the bowl and pulse just until the dough looks damp. Add the cocoa nibs and pulse until evenly dispersed. The dough will not form a smooth cohesive mass, it will be crumbly but it will stick together when you press it.

3. Turn out the dough onto a sheet of foil and form it into a 6 by 9 inch rectangle that is 1/2 inch thick. Fold the foil over the dough and press firmly with your hands to compress it, then wrap it airtight. Slide a cookie sheet under it and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Slice the dough into 1/2 cm thick slices and place them on the lined cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart.

5. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the cookies are golden.

Pink Peppermint Macarons for the New Year!

2012-01-08T23:10:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year! I'm so glad 2011 has passed, and that I survived it! Looking forward to an awesome 2012, which I know will definitely be a great great year of unceasing fruitfulness!

Secondly, am glad to be baking again. After surviving the last few mad and crazy months of 2011, I can finally take a short breather and indulge myself in some me-baking-time...heh.

I made these with the intention of celebrating New Year, yet the colour turned out to be more suitable for Valentine's Day instead! Well, at least they were cherry enough to bring forth the year :). I made one of my favourite flavours of all time - peppermint chocolate - and sandwiched the mint chocolate ganache between plain macaron shells. They turned out simply heavenly :).

It's such a luxury to sip a cuppa tea, with some macarons at the side. I love these simple pleasures of life, so simple yet so enjoyable and comforting. When I have a home to call my own next time, I'll be sure to dedicate a nice tea corner by a window to enjoy a warm cup of afternoon tea.

This year, hope to explore more unique macaron flavours and move out of my comfort zone! I wonder if that will eventually materialise...haha! We'll see :).

Christmas 2012

2011-12-25T23:57:00.000+08:00

It's Christmas time once again! Another awesome year has passed and I have many things to thank God for this year. Time to sit back, relax and count the blessings :).

Since I'm really short on time this year, my colleagues and I decided to organise a combined baking session to make cookies for all our very helpful colleagues in the office! Here's what we made:

Chocolate Almond Rounds & Almond Cocoa Nib Cookies with handmade tags :).

I hope our colleagues love them as much as we enjoyed making them! I love these handmade tags!

As for family dinner this year, we had turkey, roast potatoes, mango avocado prawn salad and a chocolate logcake. Here's an overview of the spread :).

Mango Avocado Prawn Salad with Honey Dressing

Fruit Platter - Rainer Cherries, Korean Strawberries, Grapes and Longans

Table Setting with half the dinner spraed

Mini fresh Christmas Tree!

I didn't have the full set of photos as I went to finish up the turkey and potatoes after taking these, hence the incomplete pics! Anyway, thought I'd share these with you anyway as I haven't been blogging much these days.

Merry Christmas!!

Cookie Topped Chocolate Cream Puffs

2011-09-04T09:05:00.000+08:00

You know, I lost my phone over the weekend. It's horrible and I hate this feeling, especially when I have no clue how I lost it...it just disappeared. Well, looking on the bright side, I got a spanking new phone that does not have the iPhone button issues like my old phone...though it burnt a hole in my pocket. Sigh...these things happen don't they? I wish they didn't though...haha.

I made these Cookie Topped Chocolate Cream Puffs last week, months after my not-so-successful attempt at making eclairs. I have no idea what went wrong in my first attempt but the choux pastry really wasn't crisp nor tasty. This time round, I tried a different recipe adapted from Chelle's blog. The results turned out fabulous and I simply love how these cream puffs taste! They were less buttery and milky than the previous recipe I tried, perfect for my dairy-sensitive tastebuds :).

On the downside, I think my cream puffs turned out really ugly. The thick-skinned me still posted this up anyway...haha...simply because they were so delicious! Seriously, don't be put off by their looks. They could have looked alot better if I'd used a smaller piece of cookie dough on each of these little pastries. They would have spread a little more and looked more cute than burnt :).

Oh well, regardless of their looks, I love these nonetheless. I made a simple pastry cream using Pierre Herme's recipe and filled them with it...oooh....these were sooo chocolaty and yummy!

Recently, I also bought a new victorian style tiered plate for high tea. I'm dreaming of having a nice homemade afternoon tea with some of my friends one of these days! I hope it materialises real soon! Haha :).

Stamped Shortbreads

2011-08-21T22:45:00.001+08:00

It was a special occasion, our 5 month anniversary, and we reached the point where we needed more grace in our relationship. Though I know "anniversary" is not quite the right word to describe it, but still, we used it used it anyway. Thought it would be nice to make something sweet and personal for him...and stamped shortbreads came up. I used a simple recipe from Daily Delicious and the cute little wordpress I had to create these. I have to say, I think they look pretty cute!

These were so easy to make that I had a dozen other cookie ideas as I was shaping them before baking. I can totally visualise how people will be so happy to receive personalised cookies like this!

To showcase the wordings, I packed them in a transparent box with a simple ribbon for the recipient. All the words that I wanted to say, prepared in the form that I know best - cookies.

And here's the recipes :).

Stamped Shortbreads

adapted from Daily Delicious

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter (cold and cut into pieces)

⅛tsp salt
40g icing sugar
120g cake flour
45g rice flour

Preparation:
1. Place the butter into a bowl and sift cake flour, rice flour, icing sugar and salt over the butter.
2. Cut the butter and flour mixture into small pieces (or you can use your fingers), when the mixture looks like small bits of bread crumb, pour out of the bowl onto a work surface.
3. Knead the crumbs until stick together and smooth.
4.Wrap with the plastic, flatten the dough into the shape of a disk, refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
5. When ready to back, preheat the oven to 160°C
6. Roll the dough until 5mm thick. Cut into the desired shapes, place on the prepared baking sheet and stamp the cookies with the prepared wordpress
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a light golden colour.

Chocolate Mousse Tart

2011-08-14T14:26:00.001+08:00

Hey hey it's Sunday! How I love slow and lazy Sunday mornings when I can wake up at any time I want and take my time to indulge in my favourite activities. Somehow I think brunch are made for Sundays, and I kinda wish I had a long relaxing brunch today, which didn't quite happen. The next best thing will be to spend a few hours in the kitchen, baking up something sweet and pretty :).

My initial plan was to make a layered cake...either a pure chocolate layered cake or a matcha chocolate version. I rummaged through the kitchen to see if I have all the ingredients I needed and found one key missing - eggs. Sigh, no cake for me today.

My thoughts went back to a lovely tart that I saw yesterday on Cannelle et Vanille - a Chocolate Tahini Tart. With no tahini on hand, I decided to go for a simple, yet decadent Chocolate Mousse Tart.

Putting this together was such a breeze. The tart crust was easy to handle and I got one of my prettiest tart crust ever made! No fuss at all. However, I'm not a big fan of this crust as it's a little dry for my liking. I'd opt for Dorie Greenspan's trusty recipe or Pierre Herme's chocolate pate sablee anytime.

The mousse was a simple blend of whipped cream with melted chocolate - easy and foolproof. I still love my mousse with egg yolks in this but the simplicity of this recipe rocks. Haha.

For the recipe, head to Aran's blog here.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Earl Grey Milk Chocolate and Mocha Kahlua Macarons

2011-08-01T22:05:00.004+08:00

A trip to Antoinette inspired me to make my own batch of macarons. I simply adore that place, its chic yet homely French decor...and its colourful array of desserts. Its well made macarons - smooth, pristine shells with sweet, flavourful fillings...I can still remember how it's Earl Grey Milk Chocolate flavour tasted with its raspberry centre. So good that I wish I can replicate the same flavour at home :).

When inspiration comes, the best thing to do with it is to bake with the flow. I decided to make a batch of 2 flavours - Earl Grey Milk Chocolate and Mocha Kahlua. I went with the flow and decided on the proportion of the flavourings in an instant, without putting too much thought into it. And guess what, this eventually yielded one of my most successful macaron batches ever.

Taking into account my previous experience with using Twinings earl grey tea in baked items, I bumped up the flavour in the macarons by using 3 full tea bags in the shells...to the point where I can smell the prominent earl grey scent even prior to baking them. The cream for the milk chocolate ganache was infused with another 3 tea bags, before mixing it into a ganache. Eventually, the earl grey flavour was very prominent, though I felt it could do with a little bit more balance and a softer texture. I'd be sure to increase the proportion of cream to milk chocolate the next time round.

Earl Grey Milk Chocolate Macarons

The second flavour is inspired by the new bottle of Kahlua my brother got me earlier last month. And I thought, how nice it would be to have Kahlua in my macaron fillings! I stumbled upon this lovely recipe for Mocha Kahlua Buttercream and decided to give it a good shot. This eventually turned out to be absolutely delicious! Imagine chewy dark chocolate macarons shells sandwiching a light coffee cocoa flavoured buttercream with a hint of Kahlua. Given another chance, I would add a tsp more Kahlua so that the liquor flavour is more prominent. But nevertheless, this was an instant hit with everyone who tried it :).

Mocha Kahlua Macarons

Yummy! I love both these flavours tremendously. Pretty sure I'll be repeating these flavours in the days to come, possibly with one or two minor tweaks to the recipe combination. Alright, I shall leave you with a final image of the macarons' innards.

Enjoy!

Macaron innards

Fruit Rouges

2011-07-24T01:46:00.003+08:00

On one of the rare days I have a day off, I decided to bake a cake...a REAL cake. Meaning, with layers and frosting and all. After 2 months of time-strapped baking, I can finally devote half a day completely to baking a good cake.

I've been eyeing this Fruit Rouges recipe by Hidemi Sugino for the longest time but haven't gone on to make it as the fruit puree I was eyeing was pretty expensive in my opinion. But thanks to my darling, who gave me some vouchers to spend at the baking supplies store, I get to buy a tub off the shelf without paying a single cent, weeee! Finally, I can bake this cake!

As you can see, my jaconde ended up plain as my attempt to pipe jam onto the jaconde batter failed terribly. The jam sunk into the cake and looked like deep slashes instead of pretty stripes. Anyone experienced the same problem? I gave up after a while and went with a foolproof plain jaconde instead. Nevertheless, the jaconde tastes really good! I'm amazed how it turned out even without using any oil or butter. It's one recipe for keeps!

Taste-wise, I love the tartness of the raspberry gelee and the mousse. As a result, the cake doesn't feel heavy at all...and I kept picking at the leftover pieces of the gelee as they were delicious! I'm not sure how this cake will go down with the men...but I'm pretty sure the ladies will love it...with the raspberries and pretty pink layers and all <3.

Since it's a ladies' cake, I packed one of these for my girlfriend in a simple white box decorated with pink ribbon. I hope she'll love this as much as I do :).

Earl Grey & Orange Chocolate Sables

2011-07-10T10:46:00.000+08:00

Earl Grey...my love affair with it started more than 3 months ago at a chocolate buffet with free flow of tea. I picked Earl Grey then and the flavour endeared to me ever since. There are so many possibilities with this variety of tea, I can imagine making entremets, chiffon cakes, cookies and macarons with it...all bearing its signature intoxicating scent. For a start, I made Earl Grey Sables - a buttery, crumbly cookie with a light Earl Grey scent.

I love the texture of these cookies, and how it's not too oily nor too sweet. The Earl Grey scent was really light, you can smell it, taste it, but to me it's a little faint. On my next try, I'll be sure to bump up the amount of tea used in here. Nevertheless, my darling loved the cookies, and I felt instantly reassured by that sweet remark :).

Inspired by a previous trip to Antoinette (which has a good selection of French sables), I decided to whip up a batch of Orange Chocolate Sables as well. This batch has an irresistible citrus scent! I love how the addition of orange zest and a few drops of lemon extract made the citrus flavour really pop in the cookies. Coupled with Valrhona Caraibe chocolate bits, I totally adore this flavour combination.

Both flavours were made using the same basic recipe from the Rose Cranberry Cookies recipe. I made some simple tweaks, by adding ground Earl Grey leaves and orange zest with chopped chocolate for the respective flavours. I'm thinking of doing a Lemon Lavender as well as a Chocolate Fleur de Sel version to fill up my cookie jars too!

In the meantime, I have one FULL cookie jar worth of sables to enjoy for now :). Can't wait for the next opportunity to bake again!

Caramel Madeleines

2011-06-25T13:58:00.002+08:00

Time flies when you're busy. It's been more than a month since my last post and I miss my blog! I miss baking and conjuring up sweet treats in my kitchen. I did a short clean-up of my baking supplies stash and found many expired items...no choice but to throw them all away...feels kinda wasted, oh well.

When there's no cocoa powder or lemons in my house, the next best flavour for madeleines would be caramel. Came across Shirley's post on Pierre Herme's Caramel Apricot Madeleines and decided to give it a try. Just like how she described it, the recipe yielded moist and fluffy madeleines with a nice burnt sugar taste that I love :). I have to agree that this is an excellent madeleine recipe!

These were so yummy that I had 2 at one go straight out of the oven, no kidding! My madeleines were alot darker in colour that Shirley's, which I think is due to the colour of the caramel I used. Mine was so dark it's almost black...hence I had brown coloured madeleines as a result, not as pretty as those Shirley made!

In any case, I'm happy with how these turned out. More pictures and the recipe below :).

Caramel Madeleines

adapted from Kokken

Ingredients:

36g castor sugar

10g glucose
1g vanilla extract
65g egg
65g plain flour
2g baking powder
65g melted butter
37g caramel

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Sift flour and baking powder together.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, glucose using a hand whisk until well blended. (do not whisk)
4. Add in caramel and mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour in 3 additions mixing well after each addition.
6. Add in melted butter in 3 additions, mixing well after each addition.
7. Leave to stand for 20mins.
8. Place batter into a piping bag and pipe into a buttered and floured madeleine pan.
9. Bake at 200C for 8 minutes.

Yields 12 madeleines.

Orange Chocolate Macarons

2011-05-22T14:18:00.000+08:00

Phew, what a first week of work it's been for me. I'm glad I survived when I could have potentially drowned in that mountain of work and new things to learn. Though I've been busy, I'm really excited and happy with the things I'm doing at my new place. I get to dabble with my favourite sports and the major sporting events that are being shown on television, something I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. It's getting reaaally close to my dream job and I'm all excited about it!

On the other side of the spectrum, things have been soooo hectic it really takes some getting used to at this point. I pray that it shall get easier as the days go by :).

I made these Orange Chocolate Macarons just before I started work this week. A friend of mine wanted to come over to my place for a baking session and I happily obliged. I always felt that I had to prepare in advance for such baking sessions hence I don't always say yes when such requests come in, just so that I won't feel too stressed out by the amount of preparation work I had to do beforehand. But recently, the requests are coming in at a much higher frequency that I decided to make an extra effort to accept more of them instead. Receiving these requests are definitely compliments to my baking and also encourages me to step out of my comfort zone to do something different for a change.

These Orange Chocolate Macarons were a such a breeze to make, yet yielding delicious macs all the same! I used my trusty Italian Meringue recipe and sandwiched the shells with a orange chocolate ganache made from Lindt's orange chocolate bar. I love this particular chocolate bar because of its lovely orange fragrance and the little chewy bits that are incorporated into the chocolate...very delicious! So far, the reviews I received were all positive, hence this is definitely a recipe for keeps - to reproduce again in the days to come :).

Okay, it's time to get a little more rest before work starts again tomorrow. Happy Weekend to you all!

Marbled Matcha Peach Tea Chiffon Cake

2011-05-12T11:40:00.000+08:00

I never quite had a fascination for tea like the one I had for chocolate. I have now amassed enough varieties of chocolate at home to fill up one entire shelf of my baking supplies collection. Anyways, this all changed after an outing with my bestie to TWG Tea Salon & Boutique to celebrate her birthday. I always thought that their selection of teas were confined to the sole shelf of packaged teas they have, until I opened their full tea menu.

Gosh, there were soooo many varieties of tea that I didn't even know where to begin. Spoilt for choice, we decided to ask the service staff for recommendations instead of getting lost in all the different varieties available. We settled for Snow Needles Tea, a light, floral tea perfect for the evening to accompany our macaron selection. Yes, macarons...I do love TWG's macarons for their lovely texture, balanced level of sweetness and the alluring tea-infused flavours. They were oh so goood! I decided there and then that I have to try my hand at using tea in my baked goods.

Up till now, I've only dabbled with using matcha powder in cakes and cookies. I've always wanted to posess a good variety of earl grey tea to use it in madeleines, macarons and tea cakes. So far, I haven't bought one yet and am looking for a nice one to try. Any suggestions?

I scanned my tiny tea collection for inspiration and spotted my Twinings Peach Tea. An idea came to mind and I decided to incorporate peach tea and matcha into a marbled chiffon cake. The fruity tea flavours melded perfectly and I love the resulting sweet smelling fragrance of the tea leaves in this chiffon...lovely :).

I left the tea leaves in the chiffon instead of filtering them out. Reviews from my friends on that were alright and they didn't feel it tasted weird or awful, which was a relief to me. This cake is so light and soft that I finished close to half a cake at one go - perfect to enjoy with a good cuppa tea on a cool, rainy day :).

Marbling cakes is one of the best ways to get 2 of my favourite flavours into the same cake, and it produces a pretty swirly effect too. I love looking at such pretty marbled cakes...somehow it cheers me up instantly...haha.

I used the base recipe from my last Chocolate Chiffon Cake and made slight adjustments for the replacement of cocoa powder with matcha powder and peach tea. I'm a little lazy today to post up the recipe but do drop me a note if you would like me to share that alright? I'd be happy to type them out in a while :).

Breakfast Pancakes

2011-05-05T16:50:00.000+08:00

Election fever has taken over most, if not all Singaporeans. With such an unprecedented political environmental unlike that we've seen in preceding years, this year's elections is set to be a fiercely fought battle on many fronts. Somehow this got me thinking about the Singapore of older days (not that I have that many years under my belt), and how much Singapore has changed and transformed to become the modern city it is today.

I can honestly say I love being here, staying here and I love my country, as this is the place I call my home. This is family, this is Singapore, a place that I've grown up in and grown to love. Much of my adult years have been spent either in university or working in the corporate world and I have to say, this is a remarkable place to live in. There are many areas in which we can do better, without a doubt, but it is still one of the best places to live in - clean, comfortable and safe. I don't wish to take any of these for granted given the very exciting and volatile world events that are happening all around us. It's probably not the time to take a chance with the cards we have on our hands and take a risky bet on the future of our country. These are exciting times for us indeed, scenes that we'd love to see since years ago and now we are seeing it happen right before our very eyes. Now that it has happened, what do we do next? What do we want next? These are questions that have been weighing on my heart in recent days...

That aside, today is my first day of freedom from work! Years of working at the same company caused me to have an emotional attachment to the company and my colleagues, hence a teary and emotional farewell was inevitable yesterday. It feels good to be able to not work for the time being, yet at the same time, I feel sad that the place I call my second home is no longer that to me now.

On the other hand, this frees me up (finally) to have a slow, homey breakfast all by myself. I've been meaning to have homemade pancakes for the longest time and finally made them today! After reading Evan's post, I decided to try out this recipe that I've bookmarked for the longest time.

And the result? I love them! They are light, fluffy and very delicious with some whipped cream on the side :).

Looking around the kitchen for further inspiration, I topped these with some citron tea concentrate and they tasted even more awesome. I love these pancakes!

Haha, I was overly ambitious and I doubled the recipe when I made the recipe. It yielded me soooo much batter than there's no way I can finish them even with my family of four. I'll just have to keep them for tomorrow's breakfast, and perhaps try them out other alternative flavours :).

Breakfast Pancakes

adapted from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, separated
2 tsps caster sugar
1 tbsp oil

Preparation:

1. Combine flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl and mix well.
2. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolk and milk followed by oil. Mix well and add in the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
3. Whisk egg white until foamy and gradually add the sugar and whisk till soft peak form. Fold the meringue into the mixture above. (the batter can be refrigerated overnight to prevent it from spreading too much when cooking)
4. Heat griddle or a non-stick frying pan on medium low heat then scoop batter, about 1 ladleful onto the pan. cook until bubbles appear evenly on the surface, flip it over and cook until golden.
5. Serve with whipped cream, chocolate sauce or maple syrup according to your personal preferences.

Black Bottomed Banana Squares

2011-05-02T12:06:00.002+08:00

I'm back! I can't believe how long I've been missing in action when it comes to baking. Life has been extremely hectic for the past month I barely had time to breathe. Now that the majority of my work is completed and I'm looking to move on in my career, it's time to take a short breather and prepare my mind, body and spirit for the exciting journey ahead! :)

I have around 1.5 weeks before I start my new job...scary, but at the same time, I feel excited! Some of the spare time I have will be used to churn out some desserts, just so that my oven won't feel too neglected...haha.

I came across this lovely recipe on Min's blog for chocolate bottomed banana squares....couldn't find a more delightful chocolate banana combination in a banana cake format than this! Love the pretty contrast between the white and black layers, and the speckled crust with dark chocolate chips...looks sooo cute! Tempted, I set out to bake this yesterday and here are the results...

Pretty cute aren't they? I do find the chocolate layer a little dry for my liking. I'd probably cut the amount of flour in the chocolate layer the next time round so that it's easier on the palate. Otherwise, I love this cake! The sweet banana fragrance and the deep chocolate flavour makes it a winning combination in any case :).

This bake came at a timely moment too, in time for Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight! I'm submitting this for this month's challenge!

Black Bottomed Banana Squares

adapted from Min's blog

Ingredients:

113g unsalted butter

60g castor sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium bananas, mashed
180g cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
30g cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preparation:
1. Cream the butter with sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add the egg, vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Beat till well incorporated.
3. Add the flour in 3 additions and fold into the mixture with a rubber spatula.
4. Divide the mixture into half and add the cocoa powder into one half of the mixture.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into an 8" by 8" square pan, followed by the banana mixture. Top with dark chocolate chips.
6. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll

2011-03-28T22:06:00.003+08:00

Haven't been able to bake much this month, I really miss baking. I miss dreaming about the different flavour combinations and concoctions, shopping for ingredients and putting them together into pretty and delicious desserts. There's something about baking that makes it a highly therapeutic activity and gives me a sense of accomplishment every single time. I wish I'll have more time and opportunities to bake in the months ahead...I have so many more things to accomplish still!

I saw a bunch of bananas sitting at the kitchen counter and decided at a whim to make this Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll. I'm pretty sick of the overly sweet desserts outside and was craving for a rustic and homely cake. Besides chiffons, swiss rolls are the next item on my list of homely cakes...and plus, they are quick to put together and easy on the palate!

I was undecided on whether to use my leftover Van Houten chocolate chips or opt for the more luxurious Valrhona Caraibe for this. Eventually, I decided to use the latter...no point using the cheaper chocolate especially since it's for my loved ones' consumption. The cake turned out pretty tasty, not too sweet! Though I'd like it more if the sponge was more moist and the bananas more sweet and ripe. Perhaps brushing some sugar syrup over the sponge will help? Any other suggestions ? Else I might just try that next time :).

Ooooh...I am also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #5 - Fruity March (Mar 2011) hosted by Jess from Bakericious!

Am digging into a slice right now...will leave you with the recipe in the meantime :).

Chocolate Banana Swiss Roll

adapted from Eggplant10

Ingredients:

[Sponge]

25g unsalted butter, melted

45g cake flour, sifted

80g egg yolks

25g castor sugar

20g cocoa powder, sifted

10g cold water

120g egg whites

60g castor sugar

10g corn flour

[Chocolate Whipped Cream]
160g whipping cream
90g chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp milk

Preparation:
[Sponge]
1. Whisk egg yolks with castor sugar over a double boiler until it becomes a pale and thick mixture.
2. Add sifted cocoa powder and cold water and whisk till well incorporated.
3. Beat egg whites in an electric stand mixer till foamy, slowly add the castor sugar and corn flour and beat till stiff peak form.
4. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk and cocoa mixture until there are no more traces of egg whites left, then fold in another 1/3, followed by the last 1/3 of the meringue.
5. Fold in the sifted cake flour, followed by the melted butter.
6. Pour the batter into a line sheet pan and level. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes. Cool on the wire rack until ready to use.

[Chocolate Whipped Cream]
1. Whip the cream until soft peak form.
2. Melt the chocolate and milk over a double boiler and mix till smooth.
3. Fold the melted chocolate mixture into the whipped cream and chill till ready to use.

[Assembly]
1. Spread a layer of whipped cream onto the sponge. Line the bananas on top of the whipped cream and roll.
2. Chill in the refrigerator till ready to serve.

Mango Mousse Cake - Happy Birthday to ME!

2011-03-19T22:58:00.008+08:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

Haha I'm quite amused by this myself but I actually baked myself a birthday cake! I've been so soooo busy over the past two months that I hardly had time to rest, much less for baking. I probably did some simple bakes like financiers and chiffon cakes but didn't have the extra motivation or energy to take pictures and post them up here...haha.

Anyway, this year's birthday was a blast! Most of it made awesome by a very special someone. I really appreciate the thought and effort that goes into the little details, to make this occasion an extra special one for me. God is really really good, I had awesome company to celebrate my birthday with, and have extraordinary memories for keeps too! I wish I can slowly savour every moment, every person, every experience :).

Because this was a "rushed" cake given my pretty crazy schedule, I decided to go with a simple Mango Mousse Cake. Mum bought some really sweet and juicy mangoes a while ago and I decided to go with what I had on hand instead of the initially-planned Fruit Rouges cake. I put this together in under 3 hours and I think it looks pretty decent!

For today's dinner, I went to The Line at Shangri-La Hotel with my family. We are so stuffed that we can't even eat one more slice of cake! I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to cut the cake then...hence no pictures of the sliced cake as of now. I made this using a much-raved about recipe from Rei's blog. I tested the mousse and it tasted good! I hope the overall cake will taste alright too!

Ooh...I can't resist sharing these pretty pink tulips I received for my birthday with you too...so lovely!

I am submitting the Mango Mouse Cake to Aspiring Bakers#5 - Fruity March ( Mar2011) hosted by Jess from Bakericious. Recipe follows...

Mango Mousse Cake

adapted from All The Matters

Ingredients:

[Sponge Cake ]

(A)
2 egg whites
40g fine sugar
(B)
2 egg yolks
30g fine sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
50g milk
24g corn oil
68g cake flour (sifted)
1/4 Tsp bicarbonate of soda (sifted)

[Mango Mousse]

8g gelatine sheets
25g hot water
150g whipping cream
1.5 tbsp icing sugar
200g mango puree (if refrigerated, bring to room temperature)
140g diced mango

[Mango Glaze]
100g mango puree (bring to room temperature)
3 gelatin sheets
3 tbsp boiling water

Preparation:

[Sponge Cake]

1) Prepare and line a 7 x 7 inch baking tin. In a clean bowl, whisk egg white until foamy. Slowly add sugar and whisk till stiff peak form.

2) In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale and fluffy.

3) Add vanilla essence, milk and corn oil to egg yolk mixture then fold in the sifted flour mixture.

4) Fold in the egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture.

5) Bake at 150°C for around 30 minutes or till skewer comes clean. Let the cake cool and slice horizontally 2 slices and trim them into 6 x 6 inch square.

[Mango Mousse]

1) In a mixing bowl, whip whipping cream with icing sugar to soft peak state. Refrigerate to chill.

2) In a small bowl, dissolve gelatine sheets in hot water. When the gelatine is fully dissolved, add to mango puree. Add rum to the mixture. Mix well.

3) Add the mango mixture to whipped cream. Mix well until incorporated.

4) Use a 7 x 7 inch cake ring, place a layer of cake and pour in mango mousse, or use a large piping tip to pipe the mixture. Do take note of the corners. Add mango cubes and cover them with some mousse. Let it slighty set for about 10 minutes in the fridge.

5) Lay another cake layer and pour the remaining mousse. Let it set for 30 to 45 minutes in the fridge.

[Mango Glaze]

6) Dissolve gelatine in hot water. Mix in mango puree. Wait till the mousse is set and the topping is cooled, arrange sliced fruits, if using, pour in the topping carefully. Let the cake chill for at least 3 hours before removing the cake ring.

Yields a 7 by 7 inch square cake.

Mango Passion Coconut Macarons

2011-02-21T21:39:00.000+08:00

This reminds me of a love story. When I first saw her, she seemed innocently pure with an inner radiance that's ultra attractive. And when I finally tasted her, the sweet, fruity fragrance melded perfectly with its crisp outer shell...it was love.....at......first.......bite :).

Ok I'm exaggerating. But I really love the flavour combination of these Mango Passion Coconut Macarons. The rich, tropical flavour of mango and passionfruit tames the overtly outstanding coconut flavour, providing a smooth and creamy complement to the chewy coconut bits.

I first tried this flavour when Chelle gave me a selection of hers, and I really loved it! She made hers using a French buttercream recipe and was delicious! My first attempt at French buttercream failed miserably though...all become one melty mess...hence I stuck with the trusty Swiss meringue buttercream instead. Nevertheless, it was delicious!

Though the flavour was good, the shells came out a little odd. These must be the oddest shells I ever produced from the Italian meringue method. The feet were so compact, so unlike how they usually turn out....I wonder why? I'm reluctant to believe that the addition of dessicated coconut into the macaron batter caused this imbalance....is this really it?

Aside from weird feet, these were still good to fill and equally scrumptious! Hmmm, what flavours should I try next? I'm feeling adventurous now...haha!

Rose Cranberry Cookies

2011-02-02T11:56:00.002+08:00

It's Chinese New Year Eve! I'm getting excited about the New Year and I hope you are too. Somehow I haven't quite gotten into the mood yet but I'm sure it'll get to me eventually!

Haven't had time to properly sit down and post up all my CNY cookies. Besides the Almond Cookies, Almond Crisps and Lemon Lavender Sables, I also made my all-time favourite cookie - Rose Cranberry Cookies and a batch of Chocolate Almond Rounds, which were equally delicious! If you've never tried making these Rose Cranberry Cookies, then you should, cos every girl will love it! It's that addictive :).

Instead of shaping the dough into a flat disk, I chilled them in logs and sliced them into rounds before baking. I prefer this way of making as it's neater and has less leftover dough than the former method. The pretty pink flecks in this cookie are just sooo cute!

This last shot was a wedding-inspired shot...reminds me of the long train of a wedding dress!

Thank God that I didn't have to go through the lengthy process of peeling the rose petals...my mum did it for me! Hence I just had to do the easy part and put the dough together and bake them. I absolutely love these cookies, for their looks as well as their taste. I surely hope my relatives will enjoy them as much as I do!

Lemon Lavender Sables

2011-01-24T23:43:00.006+08:00

What cookies are you making this Chinese New Year? I'm curious :).

Scanning through the newspapers, magazines and blogs today, I saw so many different cookie varieties. Among them, the almond, pork floss, sesame, seaweed, cashew, peanut varieties seem to be some of the most commonly available ones here...and of course, how can I miss out the hot favourite, pineapple tarts! For me, I hope to do things a little differently. Instead of having snacks that are commonly available at my other friends and relatives' houses, I chose a more floral route...hence these flower-inspired Lemon Lavender Sables!

If you ever get a chance to make these, I assure you that the fragrance of these cookies will get you hooked! It's like having aromatherapy in my own little kitchen. After retrieving a baked tray from the oven, I sat right in front of the hot tray, looking at these pretty golden rounds and enjoying their sweet floral fragrance. I simply adore the smell!

Taste-wise, these cookies have the shortbread texture - crisp on the outside yet buttery and crumbly at each bite. I love how sables so versatile, and take on the different flavours just like how a woman clothes herself in different styles of clothing. She varies her appearance on each day, yet stays ever so lovely and alluring.

Hmmm I'm wondering what other floral combinations can I try out. Suggestions anyone? :)

Oooh...I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #3 My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011) as well. The details can be found here!

Lemon Lavender Sables

adapted from Happy Home Baking

Ingredients:

7 ounces (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon dried lavender
Grated zest from one lemon
180g plain flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Preparation:
1. Sift flour and cornstarch, set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed until smooth, add icing sugar and beat until well blended.
3. Beat in the egg yolk, followed by salt, dried lavender and lemon zest.
4. Add the flour mixture and blend with a spatula. Mix just until flour is incorporated.
5. Gather dough to form a ball, and shape it into a log. Wrap and chill dough for at least 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Slice the log into 1/4 inch thick rounds and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are set but not brown. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Almond Cookies for Chinese New Year

2011-01-20T18:28:00.001+08:00

I finally had time to start my CNY baking for the year! Been scanning through all the blogs for some inspiration and saw that German Butter Cookies were really popular in the blogosphere! Hmmm butter cookies aren't really my cup of tea so I opted for one of my all time favourites - Almond Cookies instead. I chose Jess' recipe for these and they baked up wonderfully well! The dough was a cinch to make and all I had to do was to roll them into balls, top with almond bits and bake! What a breeze!

And these were what I got in slightly under 2 hours :).

Cute little almond cookies! I wish I'd invested in prettier cups to hold these, but decided to curb my spending and use what I have instead...so brown cups will have to do!

Besides these Almond Cookies, which were very very delicious and not overly sweet, I also made the very popular Almond Crisps from last year's recipe. These were alot more tedious as I had to repeatedly spread the batter onto the baking sheet, bake and remove them. By the end of 3 hours, I was exhausted! However, these cookies are so delicious I'm pretty sure I'll make them again and again.

Now that I'm done with my first batch of CNY cookies, I'm motivated to do up the rest! 4 more varieties to go and a kueh lapis too if I'm in the mood :). I'm also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #3 My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011). The details can be found here.

Happy CNY Baking!

Almond Cookies

adapted from J3ss Kitchen

Ingredients:
150g self raising flour
60g icing sugar
80g ground almond
80g diced almonds
100g corn oil
1/2 tsp almond essence
Almond bits for decoration

Preparation:
1. Sift together flour and icing sugar, add in ground almond and diced almonds, mix well.
2. Mix almond essence into corn oil and stir well.
3. Mix both ingredients together to form a soft dough. (the dough will come together when you roll them)
4. Shape into small round balls and place into small paper casing and press it slightly.
5. Decorate with toppings of your choice and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 15-20mins or until slightly brown.
6. Cool completely on wire rack before storing into airtight containers.

Yields approximately 50 cookies.

Browned Butter Hazelnut Praline Madeleines

2011-01-11T22:50:00.002+08:00

Madeleines...I almost forgot that I used to love these little French cakes until that one bad experience at a local bakery when I tasted an oily and dense version of it. One day when Chelle passed me two of these delicious Browned Butter Hazelnut Praline Madeleines along with some very yummy macarons, all my sweet good memories with madeleines finally came back.

Honestly, I always knew only two flavours of madeleines - lemon and chocolate. The other flavour which I've seen before is matcha, but I'm not that big a fan of matcha so it didn't quite attract me. But these...are truly amazing! At first bite, I couldn't quite make out what flavour it was...there was a hint of cinnamon and some nutty bits. Subsequent bites caused the flavour to be more apparent...and of course I asked the giver what flavour it was before I found out the entire story. I told myself I have to make these madeleines (that was before I started procrastinating) but it never quite happened until only recently. I saw that Chelle shared the recipe and some of my friends asked for madeleines. Seriously, I never knew how popular they were until 4 of my friends simultaneously asked for them. Looks like they have quite a big and loyal following here!

Normally, the madeleine batter would call for refrigeration overnight. But looking at the recipe, it states a minimum of 3 hours and a maximum of 2 days. As I was too eager to taste them, I made them straight out of the fridge after 3 hours. I wonder if the length of refrigeration affected the results? Or perhaps it was my overzealousness in filling the batter into the madeleine moulds. My madeleines cracked at the humps...hmmm...

Getting this was new to me, I don't recall having cracked humps before the last time...I wonder why? Appearance aside, these were absolutely delicious! I ate 3 of them at one go and gave the rest to my family and friends. Making these also gave me a chance to use my (almost) new madeleine moulds from Japan. I love how beautifully brown they turned out in them with some help from non-stick cooking spray!

Yummy! This recipe is definitely for keeps! Do give it try if you love madeleines as much as me and my friends do. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed :).

Mogador Macarons

2011-01-04T23:48:00.000+08:00

It's 4 days into 2011! How's your 2011 been so far? The days passed by so quickly I didn't even realise we're so far into the year already. I'm still quite hung up over 2010...haha.

CNY's gonna arrive in about a month's time and my mum just told me we could start our CNY baking next week! Man...at the rate at which these holidays are coming at us, we hardly have time to breathe properly!

Anyway, I'm still looking forward to CNY,. It means more days off, more eating and more baking for me...yay!

Before I go into that, there's still my last batch of macarons for 2010. Since I already had all the ground almonds and icing sugar finely ground and pre-sieved for easy baking (yes I do that alot!), and my last batch was sitting on the counter waiting to be used, I decided to whip up a batch of Mogador Macarons, which are basically passionfruit milk chocolate macarons. I went with the French meringue recipe this time round and made slight adjustments to the milk chocolate ganache recipe used here by increasing the passionfruit pulp to 50g for a more intense passionfruit fragrance. The results were positive! Family loved them and commented that the sweetness level was just right :).

Of my 3 almost successful attempts at French meringue, this one falls into the middle spectrum with mixed success. My shells were much nicer than my last attempt at the same flavour, but still not as pretty as my Matcha Red Bean Macarons (which haven't made its appearance on this blog yet). Somehow, French meringue still eludes me...I'm pretty determined to make it work for me in time to come. Hopefully it will!

Oooh I also got myself a new lens, like finally! Been talking about getting it for close to a year and when I bought it, I couldn't resist clicking a few more shots just to test the difference in image quality.

I love that this new lens allows more light into my shots and blurs out the background more for the focus to be on the subject. So cool! *squeals*

I have a question though...I wonder if adding butter into the ganache causes one to have oily shells after filling? If you know the answer, please leave a comment and let me know!

Well, on the up side, it makes the shells shinier, glossier for more attractive photography...haha!

Strawberry Shortcake and New Year Resolutions

2010-12-30T20:32:00.003+08:00

I was on a break from work for almost the whole of this week, yet the days scurried by and it's almost the end of 2010, wow. In real life, this was definitely my best year yet. Though busy, but I enjoyed every single moment of it, really. In baking, this was a year of breakthroughs - I never thought I'd ever produce an entremet but I did, never thought I would have the patience and determination to pull off daunting bakes yet I did with mum's constant help and encouragement.

To end off the year, I made a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake using Patisserie Glace's sponge recipe and the stabilised whipped cream recipe from here. Korean strawberries were in season, popping up in my face everywhere from supermarts to fruit shops and makeshift fruit stalls.

I couldn't resist, grabbed two punnets of varying varieties and promptly set out to make this. The recipe was a breeze to follow, but I can't say the same for the decorations part. It took me two tries to get the little cream dots to look decent and the lines to look straight. Well, I'm glad it at least turned out alright! I might have went overboard with the cream and spread too much between the layers...hopefully it'll taste alright! *fingers crossed*

**Update: Ok, my friends have tasted the cake and gave the thumbs up for the sponge and cream! Feedback was that the sponge is light and fluffy and the cream was lovely :).

Ok, now time for New Year resolutions. I figured I would like to at least write down some of the baking resolutions for the year ahead to keep me a liiiiittttle more focused...haha...so here goes!

1. Pâte à choux

I tried this once but it didn't turn out too well! Hopefully with more practice it will succeed.

2. Tiramisu

One of the most popular desserts among my circle of friends but I never got around to making it!

3. Bread

Another one of my must-fulfill resolutions! Been saying I wanna bake breads for far toooo long...

4. Puff Pastry

Mille-feuille is one of my all-time favourite desserts! With berries!

5. Plasir Sucre

Possibly my favourite entremet and I've been eyeing the recipe for the looongest time! Time to get the book and start making this already.

Hmmm, I probably have a ton more of these at the back of my head, but I seriously "intend" to finish all these in the New Year! Off with the fickle-mindedness and time to be more focused! Heh.

Happy New Year everyone!

Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients
[Sponge]
3 medium eggs
60g sugar
15ml warm milk
60g cake flour, sifted
20g unsalted butter, melted

[Whipped Cream]
2 tsp gelatin powder
8 tsp cold water
1.5 cup whipping cream, cold
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

250g punnet of strawberries, sliced and whole

Preparation
[Sponge]
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line the bottom and sides of a 15cm cake pan with parchment.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the sugar and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar is combined and mixture is warm to the touch.
3. Transfer mixture to electric mixer and turn up to medium speed. When the mixture is white and fluffy, add the milk and beat for another 1-2 minutes until it's light and fluffy again.
4. Add the flour and gently mix in one direction until well incorporated. Do not overmix.
5. Do the same with the butter.
6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 17 minutes. When it's done, remove from oven and cool on wire rack. When cooled, slice into 3 layers.

[Whipped Cream]
1. Chill mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Put the cold water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes. Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature.
3. Remove mixing bowl and beaters from freezer. In the mixing bowl, combine the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and whip until slightly thickened. Then, while beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture. Then whip the mixture at high speed until medium soft peaks.

[To Assemble]
1. Spread a layer of whipped cream onto the bottom layer, top with sliced strawberries and spread another layer of whipped cream on it. Sandwich with a layer of sponge.
2. Repeat step 1.
3. Cover the rest of the cake (top and sides) with whipped cream. Decorate with remaining whole strawberries.

Yields a 15cm round cake.

Merry Christmas and My First Buche de Noel

2010-12-25T22:09:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas! Just had the awesomest Christmas family dinner ever. My mum whipped up a couple of dishes, a Roasted Rosemary and Honey Mustard Pork Loin and Grilled King Prawn Thai-Style Noodle Salad, bought some Fresh Oysters as well as Salmon and Scallop Sashimi, and put together a simple Vegetable Salad for the big day. All I had to do was to make sure I have a dessert in time to end off the meal!

My mum's a real genius, and often, a perfectionist and an over-doer. But that's also what I love about her...haha. I merely suggested having a simple, home-cooked Christmas dinner and she went over the top and spent two whole days shopping for ingredients and putting together this delicious spread.

Appetisers from top: Grilled King Prawn Thai-Style Noodle Salad, Fresh Oysters, Salmon and Scallop Sashimi

The sashimi were fresh and good! Didn't touch the oysters at all cos I really detest oysters...but they do look good!

This was my favourite dish of the night - Grilled King Prawn Thai-Style Noodle Salad. The sauce was absolutely delicious! Restaurant-standard definitely :).

The mains - Roasted Rosemary and Honey Mustard Pork Loin, was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. I love the flavourful and tender meat with juicy insides...super yummy!

Vegetable Salad, for a balanced meal :).

And you know what, this totally blew me away:

A Tropical Fruit Punch, done in a fresh and novel way! It was basically orange juice and pineapple juice with pineapple chunks and fresh blueberries, topped with a starfruit slice! This is super delicious and cheery!

After seeing the amount of effort she put into the dinner, I feel a little bad about my dessert. I "cheated" and left out one of the layers as I was too busy running around doing things and errands the entire month. Hence, this was what I ended up with:

A pure chocolate Buche de Noel, comprising chocolate mousse, chocolate hazelnut praline feuillitine, chocolate caramel ganache and chocolate dacquoise decorated with hazelnut praline pieces and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. It was pretty simple and straightforward to put together, since I "cheated". The overall taste was good and my family members each had two slices at a go, which is really good to see! I'm glad they enjoyed it. Given a second try, I would have loved some raspberries or liquor to give the chocolate noel a little more kick.

Despite the mad rush to get all the presents and cards together, this is my favourite Christmas of all time. The times spent with my friends, family and loved ones were so so precious. I wish every Christmas can be like this, or even better.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Favours - A Sweet Way for Giving Thanks

2010-12-20T00:20:00.001+08:00

Feeling really really tired at this point in time but felt I had to pen this down somehow. I had the awesomest Christmas party ever just an hour ago - one with awesome people within whom were awesome hearts. These were people in whom God is very real in their lives, and they were the very same people who are very real in my life. I really appreciate them for who they are, how they inspire me to be who I can be and the vision they've put in my life.

The Christmas Macarons I shared in my last post, they were wiped out within seconds, literally. I was really awed by their response, even overwhelmed to a certain extent. It was definitely worth the time and effort put into making three different batches of macarons (yes I made three - mint dark chocolate, orange hazelnut dark chocolate and hazelnut praline to be exact) - just to see how much they enjoyed them.

Besides the macs, I also put together these chocolate almond rounds, baked using the same recipe I used the last time round. These were hardy enough to withstand the movement and shaking without breaking, yet are delicious enough for a midday snack, hence the choice. I found these lovely plastic tube boxes at Phoon Huat, jazzed them up a little with doilies, ribbons and stickers...and there you have it - Christmas Favours!

My favourite part of Christmas giving is always in the wrapping of presents. I didn't have time to shop around for presents and thought this will make fast and personal handmade gifts. I'm glad they turned out pretty well and conveyed my thanks across to the ones who matter to me. It definitely does not mean that those who don't receive it don't matter. Each and every one of you who've come into my life, you matter to me. With my limited time and resources, this was the best I could do to convey my thanks in action.

Using the same boxes, I filled them with some of my favourite candy for some of my favourite people as well! Don't this look cute too?

Now I wish I'd kept some candy for myself!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Macarons - Tis the Season to be Jolly lalalalala lalalala

2010-12-15T01:39:00.007+08:00

Tis the season to be jolly lalalalala lalalala...hoho Christmas is coming! In just 10 days time! I'm starting to panic...I have tons of presents I haven't buy, many favours and desserts (including a Buche de Noel) I haven't planned nor prepared for, and cards to write! Ahhhhh!

Okay I need to calm down, I pray that everything turns out well and the tasks get done eventually. Haha...I kinda feel better now :).

My first Christmas bake this year is Christmas Macarons. I just love the very festive colour and flavour combination - red and green shells with mint chocolate ganache - totally gets me into the Christmas mood! These are actually made for an upcoming Christmas party this week...talk about being last minute!

Interestingly, my red and green macaron batter were of slightly different consistencies even when they were from the same batch. The red shells turned out alot nicer and smoother with prettier feet compared to the latter...I wonder why.

The filling for these Christmas Macarons caused me a little bit of trouble. I tried 3 types of chocolate - Ghiradhelli 72% dark chocolate, Valrhona Manjari and Valrhona Equatoriale. The first two were wayyyy too bitter. I was so upset that i used up two of my favourite chocolate without any success. In the end, I had to make an additional trip down to the bakery store to get Valrhona Equatoriale, which turned out perfectly matched with the peppermint essence.

Anyway, minor setbacks aside, these are such a joy to photograph! I hope my recipients will enjoy them as much as I do :).

I'm submitting this to the Christmas giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot. She has a really lovely blog, do hop over to visit!

Oh, since this fits the Aspiring Bakers theme for the month, I'm also submitting this to the group! Check the the link here to participate!

Christmas Macarons

Ingredients:
[Shells]
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
120g egg whites (divided equally into two portions)
150g granulated sugar
40g water
1/4 tsp cherry red powdered colouring
1/4 tsp green powdered colouring

[Mint Dark Chocolate Ganache]
80g Valrhona Equatoriale 55% dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
80g heavy cream
10g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp peppermint essence

Preparation:
[Shells]
1. Pulse the ground almonds and confectioners' sugar together in a food processor. Sift together the blended mixture and divide into two equal portions. Set aside.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook till the sugar syrup reaches 118 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, beat 60g of the egg whites in the electric mixer on medium speed till soft peak form. When the sugar syrup is ready (both should come together at about the same time), pour the syrup in a steady stream into the egg whites with the mixer running on low. Increase the speed to high and beat till you get a thick, glossy meringue and the mixture is cool to the touch (around 10 minutes).
3. Mix half of the remaining egg whites with the first portion of the almond/sugar mixture, and the other half of the egg whites with the second portion of the almond/sugar mixture. Add the green colouring to the first portion, and the red colouring to the second portion. Fold in half of the meringue into each mixture. Fold gently till it flows like lava, with a thick, steady stream flowing from the spatula. Be careful not to overwork the batter as a couple more turns will result in over-runny batter.
4. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with big round tips. Pipe onto pre-drawn circles on parchment paper. Leave it out to set for around 25-30 minutes before baking it at 150 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes.
5. Once done, remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let cool for a few minutes before removing the shells from the parchment.

[Mint Dark Chocolate Ganache]
1. Warm the cream in a small saucepan. Pour the cream into a bowl containing the chopped chocolate and let steep for a minute before stirring. Stir in the peppermint essence until a smooth ganache is formed.
2. Let the ganache cool till 40 degrees Celsius, then stir in the unsalted butter until smooth.
3. Pipe a dollop of the ganache onto the red macaron shell and sandwich with a green macaron shell.
4. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Yields 30 macarons.

Valencia - An Orange Chocolate and Hazelnut Entremet

2010-12-09T10:30:00.003+08:00

Wow, it's December already! And it seems like everyone is in the holiday mood :). In recent weeks, I've received requests from some of my gal pals to visit my place for a baking session, one of it from the birthday girl herself. She wanted to bake an orange-flavoured cake, hence I searched the net and my books archive to find a suitable recipe for the occasion. I've been eyeing this Sadaharu Aoki's Valencia recipe on Evan's blog for ages, but never got around to it cos of all the "new" ingredients I needed to buy - like almond paste, orange marmalade, feuilletine and cognac. In the end, I decided to leave out the liquor and plunge into this seemingly complicated 5-layer entremet anyway!

The girls' schedules are really challenging to coordinate. We finally decided on a weekday night, with around 2.5 hours to play around with. I made the almond paste from scratch (it's alot cheaper this way), as well as the hazelnut dacquoise and chocolate almond sponge layers beforehand, while the girls made the hazelnut praline feuilletine, milk chocolate mousse and orange mousse layers within 2 hours...amazing! As a result, we completed the most complicated entremet I've ever done...almost like a milestone!

Tonight, we will be celebrating Christa's (very belated) birthday. Lacking ideas, I stuck a Happy Birthday tag onto the cake so that it looks like a birthday cake! I seriously need to go for some cake decorating lessons before all my cakes start to look the same! I also trimmed the cake to a smaller 6-inch size as there's only going to be 3 of us at the cosy celebration. I cut the rest into slices and topped them with a shard of hazelnut praline each :).

If you noticed, I actually made the orange mousse thicker, 1.5 times the amount in the written recipe, for more citrus oomph. The entremet ended up really tall, which my mum wasted no time in pointing out =.=". I can't even cheat a little with my mum watching us so closely...roar. After tasting it, I find it really good! The different textures and flavours melded well together, much tastier than a recent cake I purchased of the same flavour combination.

Can't wait for tonight! We're going to this quaint cafe called The Garden Slug :). I hope the girls will like this too...excited!

Orange Chocolate Chiffon Cake

2010-11-30T22:19:00.002+08:00

Squeezing this in at the very last minute! This post was specially done up for Small Small Baker's Aspiring Bakers November Event. The theme for the month is chiffon cakes! As you may know, I love chiffon cakes as they're light, fluffy and easy on the palate. However, I haven't baked any for some time since macarons have taken over as the regulars on my blog in recent months...haha. Well, it's now time for a chiffon cake resurgence!

Throughout the month, I scoured the blogosphere and saw many interesting variations of the chiffon cake, like the mango coconut chiffon and sakura chiffon by Cosy Bake, hazelnut chiffon cake by Frozen Wings and the purple sweet potato chiffon cake by Evan's Kitchen Ramblings - all very pretty and delicious looking cakes! I toyed with the idea of making a very girly Rose Raspberry Lychee Chiffon versus a more rustic Orange Chocolate Chiffon and eventually settled for the latter. I rummaged through my baking stash, mixed up the the two different flavoured batters and got two 16cm chiffon cakes and one mini chiffon into the oven within half an hour. Ahhh the beauty of making simple, rustic cakes like this - no fuss at all! :)

The resultant cake was soft, fluffy with a fresh orange fragrance and light chocolatey taste - perfect for breakfast or as a light-as-air midday snack! The orange zest added to the batter makes this smell so so good!

If you'd like to try it out, the recipe is listed below. Can't wait to see what the rest of the bloggers came up with this month! :)

Orange Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:

(A)

95g egg yolks
25g castor sugar
zest of 1 small orange
pinch of salt

(B)
80g vegetable oil
80g orange juice

(C)
95g cake flour

(D)
10g cocoa powder
10g cake flour

(E)
200g egg whites
110g castor sugar
15g corn flour

Preparation:
1. Rub the zest with the sugar. Whisk together all the ingredients in (A) in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add in (B) in their respective order and mix well at each addition.
3. Fold in (C) and incorporate till the mixture is smooth.
4. Divide the egg yolks mixture into two equal portions in two separate mixing bowls.
5. Mix 10g cake flour into one of the egg yolks mixture and 10g cocoa powder into the other bowl of egg yolks mixture. Whisk the mixture till well incorporated.
6. Beat egg whites in a clean large bowl until foamy. Mix together the sugar and corn flour and add in gradually into the egg whites. Beat till stiff peak form.
7. Gently fold in half of the egg whites mixture into the cocoa egg yolk mixture and the other half into the plain mixture. Mix till there are no traces of egg whites.
8. Spoon in the plain batter into three or four different corners of the tube pan, then cover with cocoa batter, layer by layer till all the batter has been used. Bake in a preheated oven at 170c for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer is inserted and comes out clean.
9. Invert the cake immediately on a wire rack and let cool before unmoulding the cake.

Yields 2 16 cm chiffon and 1 mini chiffon.

Coffee Caramel Mousse Cake

2010-11-28T14:11:00.003+08:00

November's coming to an end and soon, December will come along and cap off a wonderful year of 2010. This has been a crazy, crazy month for me - one that's filled with ups and downs and adventures along the way. Just earlier this week, I was at a children's camp, helping to plan the programmes and games for these kids. I never had a special inclination towards children, neither do I have special favour with them, but this camp changed everything. Not only did I grow to like them, at the end of the three-day camp, there was an interesting attachment to them. Strange, but very real. For a camp that I didn't know what to expect from it, I ended up enjoying the company of the children and learnt and received much more from it - a lifetime experience I wouldn't trade for the world :).

November's also a month of birthdays. A number of my good friends' birthdays fall during this month and hence I decided to make this Coffee Caramel Mousse cake for these lovely November babies. The cake consists of three main layers - chocolate almond jaconde, coffee mouse and caramel mousse. As usual, my decorating skills are virtually non-existent. I tried painting brush strokes with coffee before glazing the cake but made a mistake of not allowing my coffee strokes to dry thoroughly first. As a result, the glaze and the strokes all combined into one brown mass...sigh...

Layers from bottom: Chocolate Almond Jaconde, Coffee Mousse, Caramel Mousse, Instant Jelly Glaze

Despite my cake looking less pretty than desired, the general reviews I received were good! Thank God for sweet and forgiving friends like this who make me feel a little more encouraged haha :).

Besides the square cake I made for my friends, I had enough leftovers to put together three mini rounds with an extra layer of chocolate jaconde in between just like the original recipe. However, after tasting both versions, I preferred the square cake version with just a single layer of jaconde with the two layers of mousse. The extra layer of cake made this dessert too cakey in my opinion.

Looking at this, I really really NEED to brush up on my cake decorating skills. Then again, it's probably something that will come with more practice and experience with making whole, layered cakes. Oh well >.<...

Coffee Caramel Mousse Cake

recipe adapted from Ken Nishio

Ingredients:

[Chocolate Jaconde]

105g eggs

55g ground almonds

55g powdered sugar

20g flour

5g cocoa powder

50g egg white

25g granulated sugar

12.5g unsalted butter (melted)

Almond flakes

[Coffee Mousse]

60g egg yolk

60g sugar

5g custard powder

5g gelatin

250g milk

10g instant coffee

250g whipping cream

[Caramel Mousse]

140g sugar

160g whipping cream

50g salted butter

4g gelatin

160g whipping cream

20g granulated sugar

Preparation:

[Chocolate Jaconde]

1. Stir together ground almonds and powdered sugar in a mixing mould, add in the eggs and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

2. Whip the egg whites with the granulated sugar at high speed until stiff peaks form.

3. Take half of the meringue and fold into the first mixture. Add sifted cocoa powder and flour and fold until well-combined. Fold in the rest of the meringue

4. Add in melted butter and stir to combine.

5. Pour the mixture into a prepared sheet pan lined with parchment and bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

6. Let cool on the rack before cutting.

[Coffee Mousse]

1. Soften the gelatin sheets in ice water.

2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale.

3. Add in the custard powder and whisk to combine.

4. Heat up the milk in a saucepan until boiling point, add in the instant coffee granules and stir to combine.

5. Pour the milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat till 80 degrees Celsius. Remove the mixture from heat and let cool in an ice bath.

6.Whip the whipping cream until medium stiff peaks and fold it into the coffee mixture.

[Caramel Mousse]

1. Soften the gelatin sheets in ice water.

2. To make the dry caramel, heat sugar in a medium saucepan over small fire until the sugar is melted and turns a dark amber. In the meantime, heat up the whipping cream in a separate saucepan.

3. Slowly, pour the warm cream into the caramelised sugar. Remove the mixture from heat and let cool in an ice bath.

4. When the mixture reaches 40 degrees Celsius, add in the salted butter and softened gelatin and stir till smooth. Sieve the mixture.

5. Whip the whipping cream and sugar until soft peak form. Fold it into the caramel mixture.

[To Assemble]

1. Cut the chocolate jaconde using a square cake ring. Brush the cake with sugar syrup and pour the coffee mousse over it. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Pour the caramel mousse over the coffee mousse. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

3. To glaze, heat 10g instant jelly, 50g sugar and 250g water in a saucepan. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before pouring over the caramel mousse layer. Refrigerate till set.

Salted Caramel Macarons

2010-11-17T10:15:00.005+08:00

This recipe, I've bookmarked for months, but never got around to making them till now. I love all things with salted caramel. Caramel alone is just too sweet for me. With the addition of a pinch of salt, this makes salted caramel extremely palatable to me. There's a deep, sultry character to this - a little mysterious, a little sexy. Totally my type :).

I also tried painting macarons for the first time. Inspired by the macaron goddess Tartlette herself, I decided to try my hand at it by painting the ivory white macaron shells with brown gel colouring. They aren't the prettiest strokes but they do help make the macarons look more interesting than just plain white shells :).

Armed with Pierre Herme's salted caramel macaron recipe, I made caramel from scratch for the first time. I read numerous posts with warnings of splashbacks upon adding cream into the sugar and butter mixture, but none of that happened to me. Making caramel isn't that intimidating after all. I'm sure God was taking good care of me while I was attempting those potentially dangerous kitchen stunts...haha :P.

I'm really happy with how this batch of macarons turned out. The shells had nice, compact feet, and the filling was good and didn't make my shells soggy - definitely a keeper! However, because the filling was salted caramel cream instead of salted caramel, the caramel taste was much lighter, but creamier, smoother and easier on the palate.

After all these batches of macarons, I concluded one thing - making macarons are extremely fun! I love the entire process - from ensuring that my shells have smooth domes and prominent feet, to decorating the shells (with paint or other decorative toppings), to creating delicious fillings to complement these lovely shells - each step of the macaron-making process allows so much room for creativity that it makes it really fun and exciting!

Furthermore, macarons are extremely addictive. A full batch of macarons disappears within days in my household. I barely have enough to pass on to my friends if I didn't reserve them first. Tsk tsk to all the macaron pinchers at home...haha.

Will leave you with the recipe for now. I'm sure there will be more salted caramel macaron batches to come...which leaves me wondering what flavours shall I make for Christmas? Hmmmmm...back to the drawing board...

Salted Caramel Macarons

Ingredients:

[Shells]

150g ground almonds

150g icing sugar
120g egg whites (divided equally into two portions)
150g granulated sugar
40g water

[Salted Caramel Cream]
165g granulated sugar
165g single cream
32.5g salted butter
145g unsalted butter

Preparation:
[Shells]
1. Sift together the ground almonds and confectioner's sugar. Set aside.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook till the sugar syrup reaches 118 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, beat 60g of the egg whites in the electric mixer on medium speed till soft peak form. When the sugar syrup is ready (both should come together at about the same time), pour the syrup in a steady stream into the egg whites with the mixer running on low. Increase the speed to high and beat till you get a thick, glossy meringue and the mixture is cool to the touch (around 10 minutes).
3. Mix the other 60g of the egg whites with the almond/sugar mixture. Add a third of the meringue into the mixture and fold gently. Add another third and fold before adding the final third. Fold gently till it flows like lava, with a thick, steady stream flowing from the spatula. Be careful not to overwork the batter as a couple more turns will result in over-runny batter.
4. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with big round tips. Pipe onto pre-drawn circles on parchment paper. Leave it out to set for around 25-30 minutes before baking it at 150 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes.
5. Once done, remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let cool for a few minutes before removing the shells from the parchment.

[Salted Caramel Cream]
1. Warm the cream but don’t boil, set aside. Pour about 50g of sugar into a large saucepan set over medium heat and cook until melted then add another 50g. Continue until all the sugar is melted. Allow the melted sugar to caramelise until a very dark amber colour. Being cautious of splashbacks, add the salted butter and mix with a spatula. Slowly add in the cream and then cook until the caramel reaches 108C over low heat. Pour into a baking dish and put plastic wrap in contact with the caramels surface. Keep in the fridge until cold.
2. Beat the butter in the bowl of your mixer for about 8 to 10 mins, then add the caramel in two additions and beat till combined. If the mixture is very soft allow to firm up in the fridge slightly before filling the macarons.
3. Pipe a dollop of the cream on the macaron shell and sandwich with another shell.

Yields 50 mini macarons.

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Muffins

2010-11-10T10:02:00.007+08:00

Muffins evoke a sense of warmth in me, they are like warm comfort food that perks me up on a sleepy morning and provides that touch of sweetness that makes me a little happier. Though I love muffins, I can be pretty picky about the muffins I eat. It's tough to find good muffins that are readily available here. The most readily available muffin that is acceptable for me comes from Starbucks. I love the Chocolate Hazelnut Muffin, the Blueberry Muffin and the Banana Walnut Muffin. I love how crisp the tops are and how soft and fluffy the insides are, especially when they are warmed up. Other muffin variations, like the dense and buttery ones, I don't quite like. I normally take the first bite and will decide not to finish it if it's not to my taste.

As a result, I prefer to make my own muffins. I'm very particular about the muffin's texture, and it shouldn't have an overly buttery taste. I like them soft, fluffy, light and suitable for breakfast :).

I've tried making muffins using two methods - first with the dry vs wet mixture method, the second with the creaming of butter method. Personally, I prefer the former, as it yields softer muffins that I prefer. Also, I tend to prefer muffins made with vegetable oil instead of butter. Weird, I know. But that's cos I'm not a big fan of butter in the first place...haha.

Filled muffin cups before going into the oven

These Raspberry Dark Chocolate Muffins originated from Chelle's post some time ago. I've been wanting to make them but was distracted by the multiple batches of macarons and cakes that I've been churning out. The recipe uses the muffin method of mixing the dry ingredients together and the wet ingredients together, before combining them to form a batter. However, be careful not to overmix the batter as I've learnt from experience that overmixing yields tougher, denser muffins. It's okay to have little flecks of flour scattered in your batter! It's better than having a batch of tough muffins for sure!

Digging in!

These smelt really really good when they were coming out of the oven. The faint smell of raspberries and the buttery fragrance filled my entire kitchen. I can't wait but dug straight into one right away!

Clockwise from top left: Muffins fresh out from the oven, digging in, last bite, half left!

It took just four bites for me to polish off a muffin...haha. Not that I'm super greedy but these aren't that huge actually :P. I love the combination of raspberries and dark chocolate in these muffins. However, I do find them a tad buttery, though I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem with butter lovers. I might just replace it with oil the next time I make them again.

Otherwise, these were a lovely treat! Anything with raspberries and dark chocolate together makes it worth having! Yummm :).

Raspberry Rose Dark Chocolate Macarons

2010-11-05T18:07:00.000+08:00

Guess what? Haha I made macarons again! I know I said that I was going to take a break from macaron making but it happened that one of my best girlfriend's birthday was coming up and I had promised her some earlier on. Hence, I made this batch of macs in two different flavours specially for her. I went through my latest chocolate stash to find inspiration and decided to make these lovely Raspberry Rose Dark Chocolate Macarons and Salted Caramel Macarons (coming up soon). The colours for the raspberry rose ones are lovely and the flavour combination so girly - I'm excited just thinking about it!

Since I love all things pink, of course I would favour the pink-coloured ones more. This is the first time I'm taking work-in-progress pictures despite the bad night lighting. I had lotsa fun making these pretty babies - with rose petal flavoured shells and a dark chocolate ganache topped with chopped raspberries...very yummy I would say!

Clockwise from top left: Chopped Ghirardhelli 60% dark chocolate, piped shells on parchment, filling the coloured shells, rose petal topped shells waiting to be filled.

Managing the water content of the fresh raspberries was a little tricky though. I tried to cover all the raspberries with chocolate ganache, but I still found the macs to be a little soggy on the inside after a day or two. Hmmm....any ideas/suggestions on how I can do this better? I love the flavour combination but the way I combined them doesn't seem to make these last. They're fine after 3 days in the fridge, just that they have a tendency to give way easily at each bite...hmmmm...I wonder why?

Fresh red raspberries

These pretty pink babies were such a joy to photograph. I think pink just makes everything more pretty doesn't it? Haha! Or maybe it's just me :P.

I hope the birthday girl likes these! It's my way of saying Happy Birthday my dear and I hope you will enjoy them on your special day :).

Which makes me wonder if anyone's going to make me anything on my birthday? I will be very happy if someone does...haha :).

Will just leave you with the Raspberry Chocolate Ganache recipe. I made the shells using the Italian Meringue recipe. You can find the recipe here.

Raspberry Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

100g Ghirardhelli 60% Dark Chocolate (chopped)

100g heavy cream

6 raspberries (chopped)

Preparation:

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

2. Heat the cream in a medium saucepan until boiling point. Pour over chopped chocolate and let steep for 1-2 minutes. Stir till smooth

3. Refrigerate until pipeable consistency before piping a dollop of the ganache onto the shells, top with chopped raspberries and cover with another dollop of chocolate ganache.

4. Top with another shell and refrigerate till set.

Fills 50 mini macarons.

My Not-So-Secret Chocolate Stash

2010-11-02T23:01:00.004+08:00

Hoho guess what? went a little crazy and had a mini chocolate shopping spree last week.

And came back with not one, not two, but FIVE chocolate bars. Boy, am I a happy girl :).

I've always lamented the lack of chocolate varieties on the shelves here. Before I started baking, the only varieties I knew were either Cadbury, Van Houten, Hersheys (supermart selection) or Godiva and Sins (premium varieties). Taking up baking really opened my eyes to a myriad of chocolate varieties and brands that are good, yet still very affordable.

I discovered Ghirardhelli, one of my favourite supermart chocolate brands now, by accident when one of my swap pals sent me a HUGE bag of Ghirardhelli mint dark chocolate. I'm a huge fan of the mint and dark chocolate combination and one bite into it, I was sold. I snacked non-stop on the stash I received till one day when I'm left with none. Then I started hunting for Ghirardhelli on our local shelves. Years ago, it might have been an impossible task but now, it's almost everywhere. I happily grabbed a couple of bars at the supermart the other day when I saw them on offer, how timely! :)

The first bar I grabbed was this - the Raspberry Dark Chocolate - my current favourite flavour! I tried a very expensive version bought from Candylicious, before discovering this at a nearby supermart...haha...silly me, spent so much money on a heavily overpriced bag of chocolates then.

I also grabbed two bars of dark chocolate - the 60% Evening Dream and the 72% Twilight Delight - at half the price of what I initially saw. Phew, what a relief to know that I can eventually find these here.

Besides Ghirardhelli, I also bought a bar of Lindt Orange Intense and Movenpick Espresso Krokant. I've not tried these before so I thought I'd give them a chance! No prizes for guessing what I'm intending to use them for...haha. I'm actually pretty predictable, if you know me.

So excited! Can't wait to use my new chocolate stash. Shhhh just don't tell my mum in case she screams :P.

Hazelnut Praline Macarons and a Girly Bake-Off

2010-10-26T23:14:00.002+08:00

Friends are amazing. They are there when you're happy, down or simply need a listening ear. I'm really blessed to have friends accompanying me through the different seasons of life - some friendships lasted long, some short, some rather unpredictable at times. Just last Sunday, I had two of my favourite girlfriends at my place for a macaron baking session. One was a primary school friend whom I have known for (gosh) over 16 years while the other was a junior college friend whom I've been great friends with till now. Really appreciate them for sticking with me through thick and thin, through my emotional, unreasonable times and putting up with my mood swings and occasional tantrums. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with, which makes them even more precious to me knowing what they "suffered" haha. Bottomline is, I love my friends! All of them :).

Well, after seeing my multiple posts and photos of my "mini" macaron successes, these two girls were really excited and wanted to try baking them. So last Sunday, we set out to do just that. After evaluating the pros and cons of using French vs Italian meringue methods, I settled on Italian as it is more foolproof and yields more consistent results. Somehow I feel my French meringue macarons don't keep as well? Or perhaps it's just me...hmmmm....

Anyway, we decided on making Hazelnut Praline Macarons after seeing this post. I've not tried using hazelnuts in my shells before hence it was especially attractive for me as opposed to making a tried and tested flavour which I already did before.

Preparation alone took me a couple of days - I had to shop for ingredients, weigh them, portion them out, ground the nuts and sieve them beforehand. I also made hazelnut praline for the first time and grounded them into fine bits for filling the shells. As a newbie in making caramel, I figured (only afterward) that I took the pot off the heat too quickly before the sugar had a chance to brown fully. Hence instead of achieving a dark amber caramel, I got a nice golden-hued caramel instead. Oh well, I think they still look pretty decent though I would have loved a stronger burnt sugar taste.

The most funny part of the baking process is watching them pipe the macaron shells. One of the girls actually piped them like ladyfinger rounds, swirling from the outside to the centre to make little swirl mountains (like frozen yogurt or soft serve ice cream)....it was epic! Haha. The good thing is, all of them baked well and came out looking nice and round - even the bottoms were perfectly smooth and dry, not sticky at all!

All in all, it was a truly enjoyable session with the girls and I also made my most successful batch of macarons to date. The texture of the shells was good - crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside - with smooth tops and good bottoms. I especially loved the flavour combination - hazelnut shells filled with Jivara chocolate nutella ganache and hazelnut praline bits - absolutely scrumptious! Perhaps it was the dream combination of awesome company, jovial mood and adequate number of hands in the kitchen that put together this delicious batch of macarons :). Baking in a good mood does help make more delicious desserts (I'm saying this from experience :P).

This time round, we made these into smaller-sized macarons perfect for a light midday snack. I passed some to my mum to try and she really liked the hazelnut flavour with the crunchy praline bits. I guess that means these have passed the taste test and may make them way back to the dessert table in time to come. My dear girlfriends are also hooked on making macarons (like me) after the first successful attempt and are aiming to replicate the results in their own kitchens. Cool, good luck girls! :).

As for me, I'll be taking a break from macaron-making for now. Too many whites used, too many yolks left. Any ideas on what I can do with the leftover yolks? If you have, let me know :).

Hazelnut Praline Macarons

Ingredients:

[Hazelnut Praline]

150g hazelnuts, roasted and skins removed

175g sugar
60 ml water

[Hazelnut Shells]
90g ground almonds

60g ground hazelnuts

150g confectioner’s sugar

120 g egg whites (divided equally into two portions)
150g granulated sugar
40g water

[Jivara Nutella Ganache]
200g Valrhona Jivara (40%), roughly chopped

100g heavy cream

1 tablespoon Nutella

2 tablespoons hazelnut praline bits

Preparation:

[Hazelnut Praline]

1. Preheat oven to 140 degrees Celsius.

2. Spread hazelnuts evenly on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, moving them around with a spatula halfway through . Let cool.

3. Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves and turns a dark amber color. Watch this carefully because the sugar mixture can go from caramelised to burnt in the blink of an eye. If using a candy thermometer, cooked until it reaches around 175 degrees. However, you can easily tell when it's done by the color of the sugar.

4. Pour the cooked sugar over the hazelnuts and let cool. Once cool, break the sugar and hazelnuts into pieces and process in a food processor until finely ground.

[Hazelnut Shells]
1. Sift together the ground almonds and confectioner's sugar. Set aside.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook till the sugar syrup reaches 118 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, beat 60g of the egg whites in the electric mixer on medium speed till soft peak form. When the sugar syrup is ready (both should come together at about the same time), pour the syrup in a steady stream into the egg whites with the mixer running on low. Increase the speed to high and beat till you get a thick, glossy meringue and the mixture is cool to the touch (around 10 minutes).
3. Mix the other 60g of the egg whites with the almond/sugar mixture. Add a third of the meringue into the mixture and fold gently. Add another third and fold before adding the final third. Fold gently till it flows like lava, with a thick, steady stream flowing from the spatula. Be careful not to overwork the batter as a couple more turns will result in over-runny batter.
4. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with big round tips. Pipe onto pre-drawn circles on parchment paper. Leave it out to set for around 25-30 minutes before baking it at 150 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes.
5. Once done, remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let cool for a few minutes before removing the shells from the parchment.

[Jivara Nutella Ganache]

1. Heat the cream in a saucepan till its boiling point. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and nutella and let steep for a few minutes. Stir till smooth before adding in hazelnut praline bits. Let cool till it firms up and is ready to be used.
2. Pipe ganache mixture onto macaron shells and top with hazelnut praline bits before sandwiching with another shell.

Yields 50 mini macarons.

Matcha Sablés

2010-10-24T22:07:00.004+08:00

As I'm writing this, I'm feeling very very tired. Work's been pretty crazy plus I'm helping to plan for a children's camp that's coming in a month's time. Weekends are all packed and hardly leaves me time for my family, friends and my blog. Waking up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings are not on my list of favourite things to do, but I often had to do so. Hmmmm I look forward to the day when I can sleep to my heart's content on both weekend mornings! That'll be soooo cool :).

In the midst of all these, I'm also preparing for a soon-to-come baking session with my gal pals....so exciting! Normally, I love to bake alone as it gives me time and space to work and get a little messy. However, I'm looking forward to the bonding time with them as I'm sure it'll be much more fun and awesome with good company in the kitchen :).

Most of the spare time in the past week have been spent preparing for the session - buying ingredients, weighing and portioning them, cleaning up the kitchen and getting things in place. Hardly had time to explore and start on the various desserts that have been on my mind for some time! At the same time, I'm longing for some homemade treats that I can store away for that quiet snacking session when the craving strikes.

Recently, these cute matcha sables have been showing up all over the blogosphere - a sign that they are really really good! I first tried them when Chelle offered them to me sometime back. They were so delicious I made up my mind to make them one day. However, it took me many months before I really got down to it...haha.

In the end, I made two rolls of this, the first with the egg white glaze and the second one without. Conclusion is I definitely preferred the second one. It tastes more like sables and less like Chinese-style cookies. Also, I'll be sure to make these with coarse granulated sugar next time (used castor in this picture as that was the only sugar I could find at home) to increase the crunchiness in the cookie. Nevertheless, this recipe is for keeps! :)

Matcha Sablés

adapted from Okashi by Keiko Ishida

Ingredients:
240g plain flour – chilled
15g green tea powder
150g unsalted butter (room temperature)
130g icing sugar
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
Granulated Sugar

Preparation:
1. Sift flour and green tea powder twice, set it aside.
2. Cream butter, icing sugar and salt until soft and creamy.
3. Add egg yolks and mix well.
4. Add flour and green tea powder mixture and fold in with a spatula.
5. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 15 mins.
6. Divide dough in half and place both portions in 2 large pieces of parchment paper.
7. Shape into logs about 3.5cm in diameter. Wrap logs with parchment paper and refrigerate until firm.
8. If not using immediately, wrap with cling film and freeze.
9. Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Cut logs into 7mm thick rounds. Dip edges in granulated sugar.
10. Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
11. Bake for about 25 mins, remove and leave to cool on wire rack before serving.

Yields 32 cookies.

Toasted Coconut and Raspberry Charlotte

2010-10-09T21:42:00.007+08:00

Have you ever had a recipe bookmarked for months, or even years, yet you never get around to making it? I have. In fact, I have tons of such recipes. Perhaps I'm easily distracted, fickle-minded, or just plainly indecisive...but I've changed my mind time and time again even after deciding to bake that particular recipe over that particular weekend. Hmmm...I'm sounding like a tough cookie to crack huh?

This is one recipe that I've bookmarked for really long. I've always loved pretty looking charlottes. They are always the first to catch my eye whenever I pass by a bakery. There's something special about the round ladyfinger wall that really cheers me up and brightens up my day.

When i made these Toasted Coconut and Raspberry Charlottes using Tartlette's recipe, I thought they turned out really really cute! My rendition's far from perfect and I'm not a big fan of the slightly milky-tasting raspberry mousse, but I loved these all the same simply because they are charlottes (yes, I know I'm weird)!

Perhaps next time, I'll make the raspberry mousse without the custard base, make individual lady's fingers instead of piping them together like what I did here and experiment with a mixture of berries for the mousse filling. One thing I really liked about these are the homemade lady's fingers - they are super duper delicious! Topped with toasted coconut, these are highly addictive and were immediately swiped clean by my family.

Hmmm...I might just bake another batch of these for the snack cravings that I have during weekday afternoons....then again, perhaps not, it's just too dangerous to have a box of these lying around my office desk....haha :P.

Passionfruit Milk Chocolate Macarons - Getting Over My Fears...

2010-10-02T11:52:00.003+08:00

So glad to be baking and posting again. The past few weeks has been Craaaazily busy for me and so will this coming week. Rushing from place to place, hardly had time for a real good rest. Finally, I slept to my heart's content today. It was a good loooong rest which I really enjoyed - a much needed one too.

Amidst all the hustle and bustle of life, I NEEDED to do some baking to preserve my sanity. Haha, yes, bake to preserve my sanity. I feel baking takes my mind off the other things in life and makes me focus all my attention on the task before me. What better way to do this than to make macarons? These finicky cookies demanded my FULL attention, not allowing me to rest on my laurels. Plus, I decided to attempt my baking nemesis - the French Meringue Macaron - once again despite my previous two massive failures.

I made sure I did my research and read as many tips and troubleshooting posts I can find. Of all the posts, I read this and this the most times as I found them really detailed and helpful. Thank God for all these bloggers who took their time and energy to help people like me who, for the life of me, can't figure out the personality and behaviour of these little French cookies.

I used Tartlette's recipe for this batch, one that I failed with twice, convinced that the crucial factor that needed change was ME rather than the recipe itself. The batter looked alot more convincing this time, and it took me less than 50 strokes of macaronnage to get everything to come together nicely. However, I felt the batter was a little runny and prayed for the best when I sent the piped shells into the oven. The piped shells are so FLAT! I waited, and waited, and finally saw them rose to their feet. I was ecstatic! However, the feet continued to spread and resulted in FLAT macarons. Sob...well, at least they looked like macarons this time! French meringue isn't that bad after all...

See...my flat macarons!

In some ways, I like the French meringue macarons for its simplicity. Whip the egg whites to a stiff meringue, add the powdered sugar and ground almonds, a few quick turns and you're good to go. However, I do find this method more temperamental and less forgiving than the Italian meringue method.

There are many tweaks I still need to make. For one, I need to lower the oven temperature and cut the baking time. I baked these at 150 degrees C for 15 minutes on my centre rack. They ended up like crisp cookies with browned tops and the bottoms were still a little sticky. I'll be sure to place them in the lower rack of my oven next time to dry the bottoms.

Next is the filling. I've long wanted to try the passionfruit milk chocolate combination myself and I happened to buy a pack of passionfruits from the supermart the other day. I strained the puree, boil it together with the cream and poured over milk chocolate before stirring to incorporate the mixture. I also added some butter and mix to emulsify it. You know what, this combination tastes great! I'm torn between my lemon chocolate macarons and this. Perhaps because I love the tanginess of these fruits complementing my favourite chocolate. These are really good!

I'm still on my quest to improve these French meringue macarons. Still aren't quite happy about how they looked. One thing I really liked about these are their flat, less rounded tops compared to my Italian meringue macarons. I can hardly stack my Italian meringue macarons like these! Hmmm...now I feel like reaching for another macaron again...greedy me!

Passionfruit Milk Chocolate Macarons

Ingredients:
[Shells]
60 grams egg whites (aged for 48 hours)
20 grams granulated sugar
140 grams powdered sugar
80 grams ground almonds
cocoa powder, for sprinkling

[Passionfruit Milk Chocolate Ganache]
100 grams milk chocolate
40 grams passionfruit pulp
20 grams heavy cream
15 grams butter

Preparation:
[Shells]
1. Sift the powdered sugar and ground almonds mixture.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue that looks like shaving cream. Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry.
3. Add the dry mixture to the meringue in three separate additions. Give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
4. Fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe small rounds (1 inch in diameter) onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit out for 30 to 45 minutes to harden their shells a bit.
5. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 140C. When ready, bake for 13 minutes. Let cool. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store the shells in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks

[Passionfruit Milk Chocolate Ganache]
1. Chop the milk chocolate into small pieces. Boil the strained passionfruit pulp and heavy cream together and pour over chocolate. Stir until incorporated and the ganache forms.
2. Wait a couple of minutes for the ganache to cool a bit and add the softened butter. Stir to create and emulsion. Let it harden a bit until it is pipeable and fill the macarons.

Yields 16 filled macarons.

Matcha, Red Bean and Chocolate Entremet - Celebrating My Very 1st Blogversary

2010-09-19T21:06:00.003+08:00

When I first started this blog, I had intended it to be detailed journey of my baking expeditions with an archive of recipes that I've tried before. Never would I have imagined I would progress to making multi-layered cakes and colourful, pretty desserts. Prior to starting this blog, I've always been a homebaker contented with making simple, homey treats for my family and friends. However, joining the blogging community also allowed me to meet many talented bakers and be inspired by their gorgeous desserts.

It's intriguing that I actually remembered my blogversary by accident. Months before this, I planned to celebrate my blogversary by making something nice and special, but along the way I've already forgotten about it. I made this Matcha, Red Bean and Chocolate Entremet because I was inspired by a new book I bought...and as I was writing this post I began to think about how my posts have progressed since the beginning. While browsing through my old posts, I realised that today marks my blog's first anniversary! How timely and apt that this entremet came at the right place at the right time :).

The process of making this cake was surprisingly manageable. The key is to spread out the components into separate days so that you won't feel overwhelmed by the number of components to make and the waiting time in between. I made this over three days and it came together fairly easily. I've almost admired how people like Chelle and Evan are able to make entremet after entremet without feeling tired. Sometimes after making one, I already don't feel like baking for the rest of the month, yet they seem to have the patience and perseverance to keep going on.

As usual, I'm not good at making layered cakes, hence I was pretty cheesed that the layers weren't perfectly gelled together. However, I'm glad that the texture and taste of the cake turned out really well. The mousse was airy and light while the chocolate ganache layer wasn't overpowering. The bits of red bean really added a nice dimension to the taste and texture as well. Overall, I really enjoyed this combination and would make this again if the occasion calls for it :).

Layers from top: matcha whipped cream, matcha mousse, chocolate sponge, chocolate ganache with red bean, chocolate sponge

While making these using my individual mousse rings for the first time, I realised I don't have enough of them to go around. Hence I put the rest of the leftover ingredients into glass cups and made them in verinnes instead. I guess they'll still taste as good!

The past one year has been an awesome journey. I'm glad I made the decision that day to start this blog. Thanks for being a part of my journey :). I'm really glad to be able to get to know all of you and share our loves, passions and experiences together. I guess I can expect a 2nd...and a 3rd anniversary maybe? That's a little too far to forsee...haha.

Well, in the meantime, Happy Anniversary to Sweets & Loves! :)

Matcha, Red Bean and Chocolate Entremet

adapted from the original Matcha Kyoto Mousse Cake recipe by Kanae Kobayashi

Ingredients:

[Chocolate Sponge Cake]

Egg whites 160g (about 5 egg whites)

Castor sugar 90g

Unsweetened chocolate 80g (chopped)

Whipping cream 45ml

Cake flour 45g

[Chocolate Ganache with Red Bean]

Bittersweet chocolate 80g (I used 60%)

Whipping cream 120ml

Canned azuki beans

[Matcha Mousse]

Fresh milk 160ml

Matcha powder 10g

Castor sugar 50g

Gelatin sheets 6g (I used 2.5 sheets)

Whipping cream 120ml

[Matcha Whipped Cream]

Whipping cream 200ml

Castor sugar 20g

Matcha powder 5g

Preparation:

[Chocolate Sponge Cake]

1. Beat egg whites in a standing mixer until foamy. Gradually add in the sugar and beat till stiff peak form.

2. Heat the cream until almost boiling and pour it over chopped chocolate. Stir till smooth.

3. Add half of the meringue into the chocolate mixture and fold till well-blended. Fold in the sifted cake flour, followed by the rest of the meringue.

4. Pour into a prepared sheet pan and bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

[Chocolate Ganache with Red Bean]

1. Heat the cream until almost boiling and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Stir till smooth.

[Matcha Mousse]

1. Soften the gelatin sheets in cold water and set aside.

2. Stir together the matcha powder and castor sugar. Heat the milk until almost boiling and pour it into the matcha and sugar mixture. Stir till smooth.

3. Wring the excess water from the gelatin sheets and add to the mixture. Stir till the gelatin sheets are well-blended into the mixture.

4. Beat the whipping cream until fully whipped. Fold the whipped cream into the matcha mixture till well-combined.

[Matcha Whipped Cream]

1. Stir together the matcha powder and castor sugar. Gradually add the whipping cream with the standing mixer on low. When all the cream has been added in, whip the mixture on medium high speed until medium peak form.

[To Assemble]

1. Cut out two layers of chocolate sponge with the mousse ring. Place one layer at the bottom and pour the chocolate ganache over it. Press down the red beans and top with another chocolate sponge layer. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Pour the matcha mousse over the set chocolate base. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

3. Top the matcha mousse with a layer of matcha whipped cream. Dust a layer of snow sugar over the whipped cream layer before sprinkling matcha powder over it for garnishing.

Yields 8 2.5" by 1.75" round cakes.

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread

2010-09-12T22:20:00.002+08:00

I'm back! Anybody missed me? Haha honestly I don't expect anyone one to, perhaps with the exception of my mum :P. The trip to KL was amazingly awesome. Camp was great and I feel refreshed with a much more relaxed and peaceful heart. Camps are really special to me. The past two have been life-changing and I believe this one won't fall short either. Really looking forward to the good things that are going to happen in the days to come :).

I made these Espresso Chocolate Shortbread with the intention to bring them along for the trip. But at the last minute, I decided against it. There was going to be so much food and feeding at the camp that I rendered these unecessary, hence the decision was made. However, when I had hunger pangs in the middle of the night and no food was available, I regretted it! Arghhh I dislike my lack of kiasu-ness in times of need...

You know, I've never been a big fan of shortbread. The reason being I don't like butter. I never liked butter, milk, cheese due to their creaminess. Well, at least until I discovered Elle & Vire french butter. Using this makes me appreciate the lovely, refined taste of french butter and slowly develop a love for shortbread. For me, using good butter in shortbread is a must as the butter flavour really comes out in these cookies. Oh, and good chocolate too, of course :).

Shortbread cookies are so crisp, so hardy - good for travelling! I was inspired by all the TWD posts on Dorie's Espresso Chocolate Shortbread and decided to make them myself. The results were great - the cookies were crisp with a nice melt-in-your-mouth texture. The espresso-chocolate combination is also another winner, melty chocolate bits with hints of espresso providing that extra "kick".

Hmmm these are really yummy. At the rate I'm going, I'm really beginning to develop a liking for shortbread. I'm really tempted to make matcha shortbread or sables the next time round...hmmm...wish me luck? :)

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread

adapted from Baking from my home to yours

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 tablespoon boiling water
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation:
1. Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.
2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.
3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9-x-10½ -inch rectangle that’s ¼ inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.
4. When ready to bake, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife cut the dough into 1½-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale – they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.
7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Yields 32 cookies

Thoughts...and a Strawberry Shortcake

2010-09-03T22:02:00.002+08:00

Sometimes I wish I had friends who surprise me with the treats they bake. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't bake. Either that or they don't have time to bake. Mum used to make very delicious lemon cakes, lime cakes and durian cakes but lately she doesn't do that anymore. Perhaps I've hijacked her kitchen for my own selfish motives and she didn't feel the need to do so anymore :(.

To be honest, I'm really bad at making layered cakes. I never seemed to have enough patience to last through the entire process without major glitches. It happened the last time and it happened again this time. Sigh, I probably need more patience training and correction of attitude before I attempt another layered cake. It's just too tedious unless I had the right motives and occasion to make them. Then again, sometimes I will crave for more complicated cakes in flavours that I love. Otherwise, simple, down-to-earth treats will do the trick.

There are a couple of things which I'm working on currently, and hopefully I'll be able to finish them soon if I don't get lost along the way. Among them is changing my blog template and format to, hopefully a better one, and the finishing up of my long-overdue photobook on my Taiwan trip 2.5 months ago. Gosh, I'm so so slow...my friends have already finished up theirs while I'm barely halfway through mine. I guess I'm the master of procrastination >.<.

On a day when I'm feeling a little down yet a little itchy-fingers, I decided to make a simple Strawberry Shortcake. I came across a gorgeous inspiration piece on Daily Delicious, a blog I often visit and admire for her lovely taste and style. It seemed pretty simple and I guessed I should be able to put the components together in a jiffy.

This cake is a breeze to make. I used sheet pans to bake the cake layers so that I won't have to worry about getting even slices. However, due to my laziness, I only soaked one layer in sugar syrup when I ought to do both. Mum commented the top layer was slightly dry, which I agree. Oops! I forgot I was serving a cake to someone who knows her stuff. I shall resolve not to be lazy anymore and do a really nice and detailed job next time.

Sigh...I'm going to KL for a 5 days next week and thinking about missing out on baking makes me a lil' sad. Oh well, I'm sure I'm gonna have an awesome time then. Baking can wait!

Strawberry Shortcake
adapted from Daily Delicious
(original recipe from 12か月のハッピーバースデーケーキ by Miwa Nakanishi)

Ingredients:

For Genoise:
3 eggs
90g sugar
90g cake flour (sifted)
20g unsalted butter (melted)
20ml milk

For Syrup:
80g sugar
100ml water
10ml liquer

For Whipped Cream:
350ml whipping cream
40g icing sugar
10 strawberries

Preparation:
1. Heat the sugar and the water together into the pan until the mixture comes to a boil. Set aside and let it cool to room temperature. When cooled, mix in the liqueur.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare the pan by lining it with parchment.
3. Beat the eggs with a stand mixer until the mixture becomes lighter in color. Gradually add in the sugar and beat until you reach ribbon stage.
4. Take ¾ cup of the egg mixture and mix it with the melted butter.
5. Sift the flour into the remaining egg mixture and fold gently until combined.
6. Combined the egg and butter mixture with the egg and flour mixture. Fold gently to combine, add the milk and fold. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
7. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

To assemble:
1. Slice up 8 of the strawberries. Cut out two layers of the genoise and fit one layer into the pan.
2. Whip the cream together with icing sugar until medium stiff peaks.
3. Soak the cake with the prepared sugar syrup and arrange the strawberries on the cake.
4. Pour the whipped cream over the strawberries and spread till even. Place the other soaked layer of the cake on top of the cream and cover with the rest of the whipped cream.
5. Garnish with halved strawberries and refrigerate to set.

Makes a 18cm square cake.

Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream

2010-08-28T15:06:00.006+08:00

I love waxing lyrical over food, especially desserts. When I've discovered a new dish, new flavour or a new combination that left a deep impression on my mind, I can't get it out of my head and have a tendency to crave for it. This happened to me when I tasted this Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream.

Well, sidetrack first. This week was a pretty busy week for me. I had sooo many things going on and was basically rushing from place to place the whole week. Though busy, I really enjoyed all the activities and am very thankful for the people who are placed in my life. I'm also really looking forward to camp, which is coming in in slightly more than a week's time....excited!!

Ok, back to the yummy ice cream. At first, I was skeptical about trying out this flavour. I don't like coconut...and I normally steer away from it as far as possible. However, I had a feeling that my family will enjoy this refreshing flavour hence I went ahead with it.

Boy, was I majorly surprised. I fell in love with it at my first spoonful - the creamy, fragrant coconut milk melding with the slightly tart cherries like a dream. I could hardly taste the rose but it doesn't really matter, this was absolutely delicious.

It's a must to use fresh coconut milk for this as the packaged ones have an overly strong coconut flavour that I don't quite like. Oh, and use good cherries too. The dark cherries I use were absolutely delightful.

If you'd like an added crunch, sprinkle some cocoa nibs over the ice cream. I love how the cocoa nibs provide an interesting added dimension to this gorgeous flavour :).

Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream

adapted from Tartlette

For the Rose-infused Cherries
145 grams pitted and quartered cherries
60 ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
100 grams sugar
12 food-grade dried rose buds (more or less depending on your own liking)

Preparation:
1. Place all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn the heat off and let steep one hour (longer for an even intense rose flavor). Remove the rose buds and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Ice Cream
250 ml heavy cream
250 ml whole milk
250 ml whole coconut milk
200 grams granulated sugar

Preparation:
1. In a large saucepan set over medium low heat, bring the cream, milk, coconut milk and sugar to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, preferably overnight.
2. Process the mixture into your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's intructions.
3. Once the ice cream has reached soft serve consistency, pour into a freezable container. With a spatula, swirl in the cherries and a few tablespoons of their liquid. Freeze a couple of hours before serving.

Yields slightly less than 1 quart.

Macaron au Chocolat Amer

2010-08-24T00:17:00.001+08:00

Macarons, macarons, macarons...I wonder when will my fascination with them will end. To be honest, I didn't expect to fall in love with them at all. When I first saw them at Canele Patisserie, I was drawn by the lovely spectrum of colours they came in, yet at the same time I was put off by all the colouring that went into these delicate cookies. I can still recall my very first bite into a macaron...and my impression of it wasn't great. To me, it was just an overly sweet cookie with a slight chew to it, very unlike the kind of cookies I normally love.

So when did my love for macarons start? Honestly, I can't remember. My first two tries to make macarons using the French method turned out to be total disasters. I took a one year hiatus from them until I mustered enough courage to try them again. During that one year, I read many online posts on this finicky cookie - how it's extremely sensitive to temperature and folding and humidity...almost as temperamental as a woman like me. However as I tried to understand it more, I began to fall in love with it...and know more about the intricacies of what makes it tick and what doesn't. Though I do have a couple of successful batches under my belt now, I'm still very much an amateur yearning to grow in my understanding and knowledge of this temperamental ice princess.

In my quest to understand the art and science of macarons, I decided to experiment with Pierre Herme's Macaron au Chocolat Amer recipe. Adding melted cocoa mass into the shells was an extremely scary process! My meringue turned out really flat and soft compared to my previous tries! "There it goes..." I thought to myself...and I thought the batch will never make it. I was prepared to chuck everything into the bin if it did fail me, but thankfully it didn't. My macarons had feet (though weird ones) and tasted pretty good! They aren't as pretty as the previous batches, but they do look like they're safe for consumption.

I whipped up the bittersweet ganache filling as directed, making use of unsweetened chocolate. After assembling the macarons and allowing them to rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours, I tasted them. I was pleasantly surprised at how the addition of unsweetened chocolate rounds off the sweetness nicely. My mum even commented that the shells aren't as sweet as before (which was a common grouse among my older relatives). This was really encouraging, even though they didn't turn out as pretty as I would have liked.

Besides unsweetened chocolate, I used Valrhona Guanaja and added butter to the bittersweet ganache. Personally, I prefer the Guanaja-based ganache to the Manjari. This has a more intense chocolate favour and balances out the sweetness of the shells very nicely.

If you'd like to experiment for yourself, the recipe is taken from here. I'd love to be able to make the perfect Macaron au Chocolat Amer like Veronica from Kitchen Musings one day...

Oatmeal Cookies - Healthy, Wholesome Goodness

2010-08-19T23:04:00.003+08:00

This week is a very exciting and eventful week for me. Not only is my week filled with many fun activities, it also includes a trip to watch the Youth Olympic Games yesterday! To me, this event is really special as it is like a mini version of my dream happening right in my own backyard. I've been longing to, yet putting it off for the longest time, to travel overseas to watch the Summer Olympics. It hasn't quite happened yet (it will eventually), but I'm really thankful and glad that we have our own mini version right here in Singapore. To many, it probably doesn't mean alot to them but it shows how far we've come since independence, how strong we've grown and how developed we've become despite our small size. It's easy to just brush it off as just another sporting event when you're not a sports fan, but really, if you think about it, it's much more than just sport.

The Olympics embodies a unique spirit - one of excellence, perseverance, strength, unity and camaraderie. As the papers aptly put it, winning is not everything, it's about putting your best foot forward wherever you're from. Sometimes I feel this applies to many situations, not just in sport. As long as we've put in our utmost best despite what our circumstances say, I think we can say without a doubt, that we've achieved.

Pardon the contemplative me today...perhaps I'm just feeling much more excited about life than usual...haha! Had a cookie craving earlier this week and hence I made a batch of Oatmeal Cookies. This all started with a not-so-recent trip to Phoon Huat when I spotted a packet of oatmeal going for a real good price. So without hesitating, I grabbed a pack and resolved to make oatmeal cookies one day. With soooo many good oatmeal cookie recipes out there, I was totally spoilt for choice. I've been meaning to try the oatmeal cookie recipes by Sherry Yard and Dorie Greenspan, but after some perusing, I settled on the one by Happy Homebaker, which she highly recommended on her blog. Since the ingredients can all be found in my baking stash, I put these together fairly quickly and easily!

I baked these for a much longer time, around 20 minutes in total at a lower temperature of 175 degrees and they turned out beautiful! Remember to toast the nuts first before you add them in too as it really brings out the nutty flavour. Taste-wise, these cookies are delish! Crunchy yet not too sweet, the perfect "healthy" afternoon snack. Well, to me, no cookies are healthy even though they may taste so...haha. But these cookies does contain less butter and sugar so they can pass off as "healthier choice" cookies!

The recipe can be found here. One more recipe for keeps in my cookie jar!

Lemon Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake

2010-08-14T12:57:00.006+08:00

The past two weeks has been full of ups and downs for me. Many things going through my mind - interests, distractions, possibilities, issues etc. caused me to struggle for clarity of mind. Yesterday, all these came to a standstill. The word was clear, the focus came back - it was so simple. Thank God for placing so many dear people in my life who in one way or another, played a crucial role in bringing clarity back.

Earlier this week was my dad's birthday. Since my family loves mousse cakes, I decided to go with a simple Lemon Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake seen here. I love this blog, her taste is always so refined and classy and the photos are gorgeous.

This cake was pretty easy to put together despite the multiple components. I left out the creme chantilly at the end as I had some problems with it. Mum volunteered to help decorate the cake and I came back to see that she sprinkled rose petals over the top and finished it with a layer of jelly glaze...haha. Though I think they look more like dried cranberries here, I was pleasantly surprised yet amused at her improvisation. Seems like my leftover rose petals from the cookies and macarons came in very useful!

Taste-wise, this was lovely. I like the lemon-chocolate combination that adds a tinge of sourness to the rich dark chocolate flavour. The lemon cream was especially yummy, though I feel it would taste best with French butter instead of the one I used. This is one recipe for keeps. I think I may make it again and try to do it better next time :).

Rose Macarons - With White or Dark Chocolate?

2010-08-07T11:14:00.003+08:00

Finally, I understand why mac-fanatics do the things they do - churn out tray after tray of macarons in a spectrum of colours with various fillings ranging from ganache to buttercream to jam, curd and mascarpone cheese. It's hard not to get hooked on these delicate treats once you've fallen in love with them. I used to prowl places that make good macarons here, like Canele Patisserie, Obolo and the recently opened Jewel Artisans. But after discovering that my little oven can also churn out these babies, there's no more reason to go unless I'm exploring new flavours.

Since my last try, my mum brought some over to my grandma and relatives' place for them to try. Interestingly, they loved it! Considering that they normally don't fancy sweet desserts, this was a first! Hence, we decided to make another batch and this time I left the choice of flavour to mum. Gave her two options and she took the second one, which was to make Rose Macarons. It wasn't hard to predict or guess as she normally would want me to veer away from chocolate, which I'm practically obsessed over.

This time round, I used the same Italian Meringue recipe and added 3g of rose pink powder colouring. I think I was a little heavy handed as my macarons turned out bright pink! These were a joy to photograph, despite the not-so-cooperative weather (it was raining outside this morning). I also sprinkled some rose petals on the shells before baking them, just for that added romantic touch :). These were then sandwiched with two different ganaches - the first is a rose-flavoured white chocolate ganache, which didn't sit too well with me as I didn't go for the best chocolate I could find, and the second is a dark chocolate ganache made with Varhona Manjari. Trust me, the type of chocolate you use makes a whole world of difference. Don't compromise if you can as the results will be worth it.

Fillings-wise, there's definitely alot more room for improvement. I won't be posting the recipe until I'm happy with it. This means, back to the drawing board for more experimenting. One thing for sure, this won't be the end of my macaron series. There's still the other option which has been on my mind for some time and I can't wait to try it out. I'll leave you with these till then!

Macarons - Finally, success!

2010-07-25T23:07:00.009+08:00

I made macarons. Yes, you heard right - I FINALLY made macarons. Did I ever share about my previous two failed attempts at making this lovely french cookie? Perhaps not, cos it's supposed to be stored away in the deepest end of my memory. not to be dug out. Those experiences are too painful to be worth recalling.

Half a year on since my last attempt at making macarons using the French method, I decided to muster my courage and attempt the Italian meringue or sucre cuit method. Pastry chefs swear by it, even the famed Pierre Herme uses it, what excuse do I have to not try it? None. None at all.

Looking at the recipe, it does look a tad more tricky than the French method. But after breaking down the steps, the only additional one was the cooking of the sugar syrup to 118 degrees, which is supposed to yield a more stable meringue structure. There were a couple of differences in the ingredient composition as well, but after peering closely, this doesn't seem much more difficult than the French method.

After doing some more research and scrutinising various recipes, I decided to use Pierre Herme's. Since he's the pastry king, it should be fine right? If it isn't, it would be my fault, not his, narrowing down the error sources ...haha.

This time round, I put my heart and soul into making these delicate cookies. Sifting ground almonds can be such a pain, but I did it patiently for almost 30 minutes straight. Even mum was really encouraging, telling me to take my time in the kitchen. I didn't do everything according to plan - my instant read thermometer didn't quite reach 118 degrees, possibly because of the shallow level of liquid. Once it passed the 100 mark, saucepan brimming with bubbles, I decided to pour it in. The meringue turned out thick and glossy - just like how the recipe described, and the macaron batter looked really promising.

Once the pan was in the oven, I couldn't bear to look. I lay my head on the kitchen table and prayed that it will be a success. 3 minutes on, I peeped - no feet. Sigh. 6 minutes on, I couldn't resist and peeped again - ahhhhh I see feet! Finally! I was so happy I swear I could have danced right out of the kitchen...haha.

Finally! the elusive macaron is no longer elusive to me...

Finally! I no longer shudder with fear at the mention of its name...

Finally! no more disappointments...

Finally! I can make these lovely cookies in the comfort of my very own kitchen :)

These may not be the prettiest macarons, but it definitely gave me hope. Hope to try again, to refine and perfect the recipe according to the way I like it. And hope does not disappoint :).

Since I wasn't expecting to succeed, I didn't colour the macarons. My previous attempts turned out to be one gloppy mess. Thank God this didn't happen to me this time. I sandwiched the macaron shells with a simple chocolate ganache made with Valrhona Manjari. The deep chocolate flavour with a slight hint of bitterness offsets the sweetness of the shells perfectly. However, mum felt it's still on the sweet side. Guess I'll have to try to reduce the sugar content in these cookies next time.

But for now, I'm happy and relieved to be spared of failure once again. Chocolate and macarons (especially from my own kitchen) makes me a very happy girl! :)

Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

adapted from Pierre Herme

Ingredients:

150g ground almonds

150g confectioner’s sugar

120 g egg whites (divided equally into two portions)

150g castor sugar

40g water

100g Valrhona Manjari (coarsely chopped)

100g heavy cream

Preparation:

1. Sift together the ground almonds and confectioner's sugar. Set aside.

2. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook till the sugar syrup reaches 118 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, beat 60g of the egg whites in the electric mixer on medium speed till soft peak form. When the sugar syrup is ready (both should come together at about the same time), pour the syrup in a steady stream into the egg whites with the mixer running on low. Increase the speed to high and beat till you get a thick, glossy meringue and the mixture is cool to the touch (around 10 minutes).

3. Mix the other 60g of the egg whites with the almond/sugar mixture. Add a third of the meringue into the mixture and fold gently. Add another third and fold before adding the final third. Fold gently till it flows like lava, with a thick, steady stream flowing from the spatula. Be careful not to overwork the batter as a couple more turns will result in over-runny batter.

4. Transfer the batter into piping bags fitted with big round tips. Pipe onto pre-drawn circles on parchment paper. Leave it out to set for around 25-30 minutes before baking it at 150 degrees Celsius for 13-15 minutes.

5. Once done, remove the baking sheet from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Let cool for a few minutes before removing the shells from the parchment.

6. Heat the cream in a saucepan till its boiling point. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and let steep for a few minutes. Stir till smooth and let cool till it firms up and is ready to be used.

7. Sandwich macaron shells with chocolate ganache.

Mango Tart - A Cheery Good Way to Start the Week

2010-07-12T22:51:00.003+08:00

You know what, I need to go on a baking supplies ban. Last week, Chelle and I finally made a trip down to Chinatown to explore Sia Huat. Though they didn't stock as much baking supplies as I would have liked, the trip was fruitful. I bought the ramekins I've been eyeing for ages real cheap, and got myself some tart rings in the process! Boy, this place is evil. The damage wasn't too much, as the prices were really reasonable. Some of the things I bought from Phoon Huat were also a tad cheaper there. I think I may make a trip there again someday, perhaps when I've got my ban lifted...haha.

Armed with my tart rings and feeling inspired, I went searching for a tart recipe to put my spanking new tart rings into good use! I was torn between the simple yet classic Tart Noire from a recent TWD, and the perennial household favourite - the Mango Tart. With time on my hands, I opted for the slightly more fussy one, the Mango Tart.

I made these using the basic recipes - Pâte Sablée and Vanilla Pastry Cream - from Baking from my home to yours, and put them together fairly quickly. Mum happened to buy two huge and sweet mangoes from the market, and these came at just the right time as the icing on the cake for these cheery babies.

The tart rings were a breeze to use. I love how the round shape yielded sturdier tart shells compared to my fluted tart pans. I've had tart bases breaking on me a number of times, but these rings were good, causing my tarts to remain intact despite my not-so-gentle handling. The removal process was also a breeze.

These fresh mango tarts were a great way to start off the week. I love how the sweetness of the mangoes complements the silky pastry cream and the crunchy base. Perhaps next time I'd make these with mango pastry cream to further heighten the mango flavour!

Mango Tart

recipes adapted from Baking from my home to yours

For Pâte Sablée

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Preparation:
1. Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.
2. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in--you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas.
3. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses--about 10 seconds each--until the dough, whisk will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds.
4. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change--heads up.
5. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and , very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
6. Butter the tart rings. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the ring, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Freeze the dough for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer.
7. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. Put the tarts on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes.
8. Remove the aluminium foil. Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

For Pastry Cream
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped or 1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
45g salted butter

Preparation:
1. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Working in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together until thick and pale. Whisking continuously, drizzle 1/4 cup of the hot milk into the yolks very slowly. Continue whisking as you pour the rest of the liquid in a steady stream over the tempered yolks.
3. Put the saucepan over medium heat and, whisk continuously and without stopping, while the mixture comes to the boil. Turn down the flame and keep the mixture at the boil, whisking energetically, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and scrape the pastry cream into a bowl. Allow the pastry cream to cool on the counter for about 3 minutes.
4. Stir in the vanilla extract and let steep for 5 mins, then stir in the butter into the hot pastry cream, continuing to stir until the butter is melted and fully incorporated. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the cream to seal the surface and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

When ready to assemble, spoon the pastry cream into the cooled tart shells and decorate the tarts with fresh mango slices. Top with instant jelly glaze.

Chocolate Almond Rounds

2010-07-09T22:31:00.000+08:00

I'm eating alot these days, finishing my meals and snacking consistently on top of this, ever since I got back from Taiwan. This is so not good....oh well. And what do I do to feed the incessant snack cravings? I bake more cookies.

I feel guilty when I was writing that down, knowing that I'm indulging in one of my favourite pasttimes to fuel the snack cravings, makes me feel terrible, like a cookie monster. Yet somehow, beyond all this uneasiness, I feel a distinct pleasure in snacking on the cookies that came out from my own kitchen, a sense of satisfaction. I wish that there will come a day when most of the food items found at home will be made by me - bread, granola, jams, sauces etc. That will be really, really nice...

Well, dream on for now. We'll see whether it happens in the future. In the meantime, more cookies from my kitchen for the cookie jar. I made these Chocolate Almond Rounds with the recipe from Okashi. I love slice and bake cookies. They keep and bake so beautifully, perfect for days when you crave a fresh tray of cookies. I especially love the look of the granulated sugar round the edges of each cookie, its sweetness complementing the sandy, buttery cookie perfectly.

I tried having one without the granulated sugar on the sides and the taste just doesn't cut it. Be sure to follow through with that extra step if you decide to make this alright? It'll be worth the effort, trust me.

Have these with a good cuppa coffee on a lazy weekend afternoon while enjoying a good book. Sometimes life can be so simple, yet very enjoyable...

Chocolate Almond Rounds

adapted from Okashi

Ingredients:

40g blanched almond silvers

150 pastry flour

20g cocoa powder

120g unsalted butter, softened

70g confectioner's sugar

1 egg yolk

pinch of salt

granulated sugar (for rolling)

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, then bake the almond silvers for 10 mins. Sift the flour and cocoa powder.

2. Beat butter, sugar and salt until softened. Add the egg yolk and mix well.

3. Fold flour and cocoa powder into the butter mixture using a spatula. Add the toasted almond silvers. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

4. Shape the dough into a log of about 4cm in diameter, wrap it with parchment and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Dough can keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

5. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

6. Slice the log into 7mm thick pieces, roll the edges in granulated sugar and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment 1 inch apart. Bake for about 20 minutes.

7. Let cookies cool before storing in an airtight contaiiner. Keeps up to 10 days.

Yields 30 cookies.

Rose Cranberry Cookies

2010-07-03T12:00:00.004+08:00

Can I tell you how much I love these cookies? These are so good I can't believe they have cemented their place as my current favourite cookie.

I first tasted this when my colleague baked some and encouraged us to try. Since then, I was completely sold and was even thick-skinned enough to ask for a second serving (this so did not happen before :P). However, I was not bold enough to ask for the recipe. Soon after, I stumbled upon the same recipe she used on Evan's blog and jumped at the opportunity to make them.

These cookies may look and taste good but the peeling of the rose petals is such a painful process! It's a good thing I was watching TV while peeling them so it didn't feel like it's such a chore. Five hours later, I ended up with two full cups of rose petals staring right back at me. I guess the only way to do justice to the efforts was to use them up completely :).

I followed the recipe exactly in my first batch and the cookies turned out absolutely beautiful. The only difference was that it took me just 20 minutes for my cookies to brown, 30 minutes yielded me burnt cookies...perhaps due to my very odd oven temperature. The cookies were so good I ate a third of the batch the first round! In order to ensure I have more cookies to share with my family and friends, I made a second batch with an reduced amount of rose essence (1/2 tsp). This proportion works best for me without the rose essence being too overpowering and the cookies turned out very very delicious.

Since I love these cookies so much, I've stored the extras away as my secret cookie stash - for times when I suddenly crave a good cookie or as guilty pleasures any time of the day. This is one cookie that I'll strongly encourage you to try out. If you're not too big a fan of of the rose/bandung flavour, go light on the rose essence or simply do away with it. The rose petals lend a very slight hint of rose to the cookie, which is not strong enough to put off anyone but brings out the beauty of this cookie with an added girly touch.

This might just signify the beginning of my love journey with roses...

Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs - So Good To Be Home

2010-06-26T23:22:00.002+08:00

I'm back! Back from an awesome holiday with awesome friends. Somehow, this trip to Taiwan felt more relaxed, less stressed over itinerary and directions, less frustrations, much more enjoyable. I ate alot, bought alot, spent alot and had lotsa fun. Though I've been there twice already, I'd still love to visit the place again, perhaps to the coastal and mountainous areas as well.

After two weeks without baking anything, my oven must have felt really bored and left out. Looking at my stash of supplies and reading the blogs for inspiration, I had two choices - Cranberry Rose Cookies and Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs. I opted for the latter as I didn't have rose buds on hand and regretted not buying them when I was in Taiwan. A trip to my nearby supermarket also left me disappointed. If anyone knows where to get these dried rose buds, please let me know!

With the ingredients I have on hand, I made these Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs. This was an easy recipe, put together simply with a food processor in a matter of minutes. Despite its simplicity, I love its flavour and texture - crispy with the added crunch provided by the cocoa nibs. The cookie had just the right amount of sweetness with a lovely raw cocoa flavour.

I realised how much I missed baking while I was away. I missed making my own sweet treats, enjoying the process and savouring the end results of the efforts. The sweets in Taiwan were really enjoyable. I visited Hello Kitty Sweets Cafe and Afternoon Tea, both lovely cafes which I wished we had on our shores. However, that familiar aroma coming out from my underused kitchen was sorely missed. So glad to be back, back in my own room, back in my kitchen, back on my blog. As much as I enjoyed my holiday, home is still the most comfortable place for me.

I packed these into simple clear packaging, as thank you gifts to my lovely travel buddies. I hope they enjoyed the trip as much as I do :).

Rose Chiffon Cake with Creme Chantilly

2010-06-06T00:30:00.003+08:00

I'm in the mood for some fun this month, some excitement, some love. I'll be heading overseas for a short trip in about a week's time and I'm really getting excited about it. Imagine, no work, no worries (almost!) for one entire week...it's going to be a blast to just let my hair down and enjoy myself for the first time in months. And since I'm in such a relaxed mood, the thought of whipping up a pink and pretty dessert really appeals to me.

I came across this post on Evan's blog and was really taken in by her beautiful, gorgeous photos. This was perfect, just the right cake I had in mind. I've always adored rose flavours in desserts, especially rose-flavoured macarons. However, I've never gotten around to making something with this lovely flavour. Inspired, I used the recipe from Evan's blog and made this. To be honest, I've never completely frosted a cake solely by myself before (previous attempts always helped by mum), and this wasn't quite the pretty cake I was looking to create. The topping was also quite a feeble attempt at creating a pattern design...haha.

Still, I feel pretty good about completing the entire cake myself, feels like I've at least taken that step forward. It may not be the nicest-looking cake around, but simply looking at pretty pink things already can make me happy for quite a while :).

Brrrrownies

2010-05-28T13:59:00.000+08:00

This is an extremely chocolatey month for me. I used up almost 1kg of chocolate (including the failed batch of custard cream) this month. I think I'm experiencing a severe case of chocolate overload.

I chanced upon York Peppermint Patties when I was at Carrefour the other day and the first thing that came to mind was to make these Brrrrownies. I've always adored the peppermint-chocolate combination and used to make them ever so often...but somehow I've stopped somewhere along the way.

These babies were delish. Rich, fudgy, sweet with hints of peppermint. Definitely my favourite brownie to date. Perhaps I'm biased, but boy, these are really good. Needless to say, they were wiped out in a flash. Sweet :).

Brrrrownies

adapted from Baking from my home to yours

Ingredients:
70g unsalted butter
85g bittersweet chocolate
85g unsweetened chocolate
130g sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
40g plain flour
170g York Peppermint Patties, chooped into bits

Preparation:
1. Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line an 8-inch baking pan with aluminium foil and grease generously.

2. Melt the butter and chocolate together over a double boiler and stir until the ingredients are just melted. Remove the bowl from heat, stir in the sugar, followed by whisking the eggs in one by one. Add the vanilla and whisk vigorously until the batter comes together in a shiny mass before adding the salt and flour. Stir until just incorporated. Use a spatula and stir in the York Peppermint pieces.

3. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is dull and a knife inserted comes out almost clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and leave to cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.

Yields an 8-inch square brownie, cut into 16 small pieces.

Chocolate Banana Cream Tart

2010-05-17T21:03:00.002+08:00

All Sunday I've been craving for something chocolatey with bananas. While sitting in service, I suddenly had a idea - a chocolate banana tart. On my way home, I gathered all the ingredients and went straight back to start on this only to fail my first attempt at making the custard cream. Sigh, it seemed like I was destined to leave my desire unfulfilled. I stood there for awhile, pensive, thinking about what I should do next. There was enough eggs, milk and chocolate for a second try....what am I waiting for? I put all these together, rectified my mistake and created my chocolate banana cream pie. Ahh...finally, the Sunday ain't so bad after all :)

When it comes to taking pictures, it's another failed attempt yet again. Lazy me can't wake up before heading to work to catch the warm day light for nice photos. Oh well, gotta make do with these...at least the pie was really delicious :). I used Dorie's recipe for the Chocolate Cream Tart in Baking from my home to yours, used semisweet chocolate and added bananas. The resulting flavour was lovely, with the semisweet chocolate not too overpowering for the banana flavour to shine through.

I'm easily satisfied, all it takes is a good Chocolate Banana Cream Tart :).

Chocolate Torte Souffle - Going Flourless

2010-05-02T17:35:00.003+08:00

Finally, April is over and the month of May is here. It seemed like only yesterday when we just started the year and was looking forward to a good 2010. Before I knew it, we're already into the second third of the year. April was yet another busy month...this time round with work more than anything else. Looking forward, May is going to be an eventful month for me and I'm really excited about all the things that will be happening this month and in the months ahead :).

I was going through my baking stash and found soooo many unused things! One of them of a 9-inch springform pan bought sometime last time yet was still wrapped in plastic. Another was a letterpress that I've been meaning to use but still hasn't been opened. There were MANY unused cookie cutters and a few mini tart pans. Gosh, I really have a habit of buying things thinking I will use them but end up buying more instead.

For a start, I decided to use my 9-inch round springform pan first. I used this droolworthy recipe from Eat and Be Happy which I had bookmarked for some time already. Since the ingredients required were simple and didn't need me to buy anything extra, I jumped at the opportunity to make this. It was easy to put together, but the baking time was rather tricky for me. Hers looked so moist and delicious while mine ended up drier and more fudgy. Perhaps I'll reduce my baking time by a couple of minutes the next time round. Taste-wise, this was intensely chocolatey without being heavy. The texture's light and airy with a nice crust to it.

I'm still a little peeved cos I didn't quite get the moist, melty chocolate texture I desired. Hope I get it right the next time!

Chocolate Torte Souffle

adapted and modified from Eat and be Happy

Ingredients:

250g Valrhona 68% dark chocolate, chopped

150g unsalted butter, cubed

150g castor sugar

7 eggs, separated

3 tbsps Baileys

Pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Line the base of a 9-inch springform pan with aluminium foil, grease the pan and set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler and stir till a smooth mixture forms. Leave to cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks together, add 100g of sugar and mix well till the mixture turns thick and pale yellow. Add the Baileys and the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk till well-combined.

4. Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites together with a pinch of salt till soft peaks form. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and beat the egg whites till they hold their shape but not dry.

5. Fold the egg whites gently into the egg yolk mixture in three separate additions and mix until just combined. Pour the prepared mixture into the pan.

6. Bake for an hour before lowering the oven temperature to 120C and bake for another 30 minutes. When the cake is done, turn the oven off and leave the cake to cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar. Serve when cake has cooled to room temperature.

Nibby Pecan Cookies - Discovering the Beauty of Cocoa Nibs

2010-04-24T22:02:00.002+08:00

This April, two of life's simple pleasures made me wonder what took me so long to find them. The first was Yuzu Tea, which has now become my staple comfort drink at home and at work. The second, is cocoa nibs. Since reading about it on one of the local food blogs, I've been searching for it and came across it at Sun Lik some months ago. I grabbed a pack and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. Finally, the packet was opened and the cocoa nibs got to see daylight today. Using the Nibby Pecan Cookies recipe from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, I made half a batch using these Valrhona cocoa nibs. The smell from the oven was so enticing that I had to try one immediately though the recipe recommended the cookies to be served 24 hours after baking. At first bite, I loved it. I love the crunchy, nutty texture of the cocoa nibs, the strong cocoa flavour yet without the sweetness of chocolate. Boy, why did it take me so long to find you my love?

These may not look like the most appetising food you can find, but I love it for its dark, intense flavour without the complicating sweetness to it. I love the crunchiness and bite it lends to this delicious cookie. Now I'm wondering what else can these cocoa nibs go into. As an ice cream topping maybe? Or as a mix in for chiffon cakes? Hmmmm any suggestions? I still have quite some cocoa nibs waiting to be used :).

Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake - Loving my ゆず茶

2010-04-17T20:40:00.003+08:00

These days my throat seems to be hinting to me on a possible inflammation. I can feel the heat rising from my throat, stopping at the base of my chin yet refusing to move from there. Without me asking, mum bought a jar of Yuzu Tea and told me to drink it. Once I tried, I was hooked. I simply love the sweet, citrusy, soothing drink that seems to quench that fiery throat. Since then, it has become my sweet comfort. I got mum to buy me another jar for my office and at the same time I also came across a Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake recipe online. How timely is that! Since I'm fascinated by all Yuzu Tea related things these days, how can I miss out on a recipe that marries two of my current most favourite foods?

This recipe yields a slightly different chiffon from the ones I usually make. It's a little denser, more moist, less eggy and with more bite. Weight-wise, it's also a little heavier. I love the strips of Yuzu that adds a cool citrusy touch to this cake. Instead of using my normal 21 cm chiffon pan, I used a 16cm one and 2 mini chiffon pans from Daiso. The best thing about this cake is definitely the smell. Imagine waking up to a nice warm cup of Yuzu Tea and a slice of Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake. To me, that's probably the best thing to have in the midst of the rainy season :).

Ooh how I love you Yuzu Tea...:P

Yuzu Tea Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
(A)
3 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
50g yuzu tea marmalade
50ml hot water
40ml vegetable oil
70g cake flour

(B)
4 egg whites
50g castor sugar
8g corn flour

Preparation:
1. Dissolve Yuzu Tea Marmalade in the hot water and sieve flour. Set aside.

2. Mix egg yolks, sugar in a medium bowl until pale, add the oil and mix till well incorporated. Add the yuzu tea mixture and mix well before adding the flour. Mix till the flour is fully incorporated into the mixture.

3. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy, add 1/2 the sugar and corn flour mixture and beat for a few minutes, add the remaining mixture and beat till stiff peak form.

4. Measure out 1/3 of the egg whites and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Then pour the mixture into the rest of the egg whites and gently fold in the egg whites until well incorporated.

5. Pour the batter into the chiffon pans (I used 1 16cm and 2 mini pans) and bake at 160 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Yields an 18cm chiffon cake.

Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies

2010-03-28T22:03:00.001+08:00

I'm back! Did anyone miss me? This month has been kinda crazy. My work schedule's been ultra packed, and with my Japanese lessons and all the birthday celebrations, including mine, it barely left me any time to indulge in some baking.

Well, I finally managed to squeeze in some time to bake some simple goodies yesterday! Saw this recipe for Famous Amos cookies on a blog and decided to try it. But the results left me a little disappointed...it's hardly like the Famous Amos cookies which I'd always enjoy. On its own, it's not a bad cookie, crunchy exterior, chockfull of chocolate chips and pecans and a balanced level of sweetness, just that it really can't be called a Famous Amos cookie. Personally, I love the crunchiness of the pecans, the deep chocolate flavour from the chopped up Valrhona chocolate and the crispy exterior of this cookie. If I were to make this another time, I would add a little more sugar to the recipe to sweeten it up a little more. Nevertheless, my family still enjoyed it, perhaps because these weren't as sweet as the usual cookies I make...haha.

Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

1/3 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

125g unsalted butter

60g brown sugar

50g castor sugar

1 egg (lightly beaten)

50g chopped pecans

50g chocolate chips

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Sift the plain flour together with the baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg a little at a time and beat till well-blended. Add the vanilla extract and mix till incorporated.

3. Add in the sifted flour mixture in two additions and mix till dough-form. Fold in the chopped pecans and chocolate chips.

4. Set rounded teaspoons of dough spaced 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies turn golden brown. Leave on baking sheet to cool before removing them.

Yields 48 cookies

Chinese New Year Favours

2010-02-23T23:03:00.001+08:00

I made this for a dear friend of mine. Though Chinese New Year is not a common season for favours, I was in the mood for making favours as I had a little more free time this year. I totally enjoyed shopping for the ribbons and for the container. The picture doesn't really show the beautiful flower motifs on the glass but I love totally love it. Hope I'll get the chance to pass to her soon!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake - My Favourite Chiffon Recipe

2010-02-21T00:10:00.003+08:00

I hope you aren't getting tired of seeing one chiffon cake following another shortly after. I'm in the process of experimenting with various recipes in search for my perfect chiffon formula and hence this may probably go on for some time, heh. Well, I'm glad that I finally get to make a chocolate chiffon cake. It wasn't one of the flavours on the top of my list but chocolate has always been my favourite dessert flavour, just haven't had it in chiffons as yet.

It's the 7th day of Chinese New Year. It's amazing how time flies, soon, the very special day will come when I will turn a year older, yet again. This just reminds me to really treasure the people and things around me. Instead of grumbling non-stop about the sad, bad and ugly, why not rejoice in what I already have and will have in time to come. There's so much to be happy about, so much to smile for.

For one, eating chocolate gets me smiling. Having a slice of cake makes me happy too. It's simple, yet very pleasurable. And this chocolate chiffon cake is a combination of both chocolate and cake, made using very little flour and oil. Hence, I can go on having one slice after another without feeling that I went overboard in my sweet indulgence.

After experimenting with a couple of recipes, some using cream of tartar and baking powder, some with corn flour, some using less eggs, some more, I've finally found my favourite recipe thus far. I doubt this is cast-in-stone kind of conclusive, but I'm pretty happy with what I already have now and am planning to stick to this unless convinced otherwise. I love my chiffon cakes soft, moist, slightly sweet and extremely light. This recipe fits my bill, and I hope you'll like it too :).

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:

(A)

50g cake flour

30g cocoa powder

5 egg yolks

20g castor sugar

70g water

60g vegetable oil

(B)

5 egg whites

90g castor sugar

10g corn flour

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl and mix well. Add water and oil and mix till incorporated. Add in flour and cocoa powder. Blend well and set aside.

2. Combine sugar and corn flour. Beat the egg whites till foamy. Gradually add half the sugar and corn flour and continue beating for a few minutes. Add the remaining sugar and corn flour and beat till stiff peak form.

3. Spoon out one-third of the meringe and gradually fold into the egg yolk mixture, taking care not to deflate the egg whites too much. When it's well-blended, pour the mixture into the remaining meringue and fold in gently, making sure that all the egg whites are incorporated into the mixture.

4. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon cake pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes before removing from the oven and turning it upside down to cool. Slice and serve.

Yields a 21 cm tube chiffon cake.

Black Sesame Chiffon Cake - A Sweet and Salty Combination

2010-02-15T11:07:00.001+08:00

It's day 2 of Chinese New Year and I made a Black Sesame Chiffon Cake for my family and relatives. The recipe is taken from Keiko Ishida's Okashi - a sweet, classy book with a clean and neat layout. I've been meaning to try this for some time but I couldn't find black sesame paste. One day when I was shopping at Sun Lik, I spotted it on their shelf! Of course, I grabbed it, and made this delicious cake. I love Keiko's chiffon cake recipes. They always yield a soft, cottony texture that's has a nice bite to it. I love this for its lovely texture as well as the sweet and salty combination that's refreshing and very tasty. This is one cake which I can eat and eat and not get sick of, as the saltiness of the sesame rounded out the sweetness level nicely.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Lemon Cream Tart - Birthday Dessert for the Girls

2010-02-07T10:11:00.002+08:00

I'm really glad that I can finally sit down, relax and chill out a little. This week has been pretty crazy at work, pretty hectic after work as well as I had to study for my Japanese paper. After it was over yesterday, I had to rush to buy ingredients to cook a meal for the family as it was my mum's birthday! Well, I'm glad they enjoyed the meal. I made waldorf salad, baked rice, shepherd's pie and ended the meal with this lovely lemon cream tart which, to me, was the best part of the meal. The cream is indeed smooth, luxurious and very delicious. It might look simple as it's just cream in a tart shell, but taste-wise it's lovely :).

The Lemon Cream Tart is one of the recipes I've been meaning to try from Baking from my home to yours. I'm finally able to try this after getting an instant-read thermometer. The cooking of the custard was a little tedious due to the continuous stirring, but the results fully justified the work! The texture was really light, with a tangy lemon taste, very yummy! The boys in my house don't quite like it though (I don't understand what's up with guys and lemons, somehow they just don't click ), but my mum loved it and so did I. I think it's a girl's thing to love lemons and their sourness, it really picks me up at the end of the day :).

Lemon Cream Tart
adapted from Baking from my home to yours

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 4 to 5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
1 fully-baked 9-inch tart shell

Preparation:
1. Have a thermometer, preferably an instant-read, a strainer and a blender (first choice) ready. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

2. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a large metal bowl that can be fitted into the pan of simmering water. Off heat, work the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs followed by the lemon juice.

3. Fit the bowl into the pan (make certain the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl) and cook, stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels warm to the touch. You want to cook the cream until it reaches 180°F. As you whisk the cream over heat—and you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling—you’ll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as the cream is getting closer to 180°F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Don’t stop whisking and don’t stop checking the temperature, getting to the desired temperature can take as long as 10 minutes.

4. As soon as the mixture reaches180°F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of a blender; discard the zest. Let the cream rest at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140°F, about 10 minutes.

5. Turn the blender to high and, with the machine going, add about 5 pieces of butter at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed while you’re incorporating the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going—to get the perfect light, airy texture, you must continue to beat the cream for another 3 minutes.

6. Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and chill the cream for at least 4 hours or overnight. When you are ready to construct the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell.

Yields one 9-inch tart.

Pretty Ribbons

2010-02-05T19:37:00.000+08:00

I finally managed to drop by Kin Soon Company on Arab Street to grab these pretty ribbons! Aren't they cute? I especially love the polka dotted ones with lace trimmings. I haven't quite figured out what I need them for but just bought them anyway cos I love ribbons! They could be used anywhere, ranging from cards, to scrapbooks, to packaging my baked goods...very versatile! They have lots more, but I figured I should rein myself in and not buy too much especially when I'm not sure how I wanna use them at this point. Love admiring them nonetheless!

Almond Crisps - Chinese New Year Cookies Part II

2010-02-02T20:09:00.005+08:00

Despite having planned to make this for quite some time, I haven't gotten around to it until now. One day, mum came back and told me about this delicious almond cookie that her colleague's daughter made and asked if I could try to make them too. She then asked her for the recipe and shared it with me. Little did I know, this is the exact same recipe that I have been meaning to try since ages ago!

I love these Almond Crisps for its sheer simplicity, using very basic ingredients to create a cookie that's delicious as well as popular with everyone who tried it. The only challenge is in spreading the batter thin enough such that the cookie will be crispy, and watching the oven carefully to make sure they don't burn. Otherwise, these were a breeze to make. My first batch was wiped out by my parents in a matter of minutes! Hence I made a much bigger second batch to ensure that this does not happen again...haha.

With this second batch, I can now share them with my friends and colleagues. This is one cookie I'll definitely make again and again :).

Almond Crisps

adapted from e's joie

Ingredients:

120g egg white (around 4 egg whites)

120g castor sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

80g plain flour (sifted)

1/2 tsp baking powder

Preparation:

1. Whisk together the egg whites, sugar and vanilla extract until all the sugar is dissolved.

2. Add in sifted flour and baking powder and mix till well-incorporated.

3. Spread a very thin layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and top with almond flakes. (Use parchment or silicon paper as far as possible as this cookie does not contain oil and sticks easily.)

4. Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 8 minutes or until the edges turn brown.

5. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before storing in an airtight container. (Letting the cookies out in the open for too long will cause them to turn soft and soggy. Hence, store immediately after they are cooled.)

Yields 120 cookies.