Green Tea Macarons

As mentioned in my earlier post, I attempted the 'preciooouussss~~' because I intended to use them for decorative purposes. I declared a disclaimer to mom; if I can't get it right, I would stick something else on the cake. Fortunately, the 'preciooouussss~~' were co-operative. I managed to nail it, twice in a row. These are the leftovers after assembling the cake. I had some lemon curd which I made for my scones, so I use it for these macarons. The tangy taste of the curd balances the sweetness rather well. Without further ado (no time to write too much), here's the recipe I used.

Green Tea Macaron
Ingredients
50g Icing Sugar
5g Green Tea Powder (use good quality ones)

*Sift together


30g Finely Ground Almond

35g Egg White (this time I used fresh egg white)
30g Sugar

Method
1) Prepare 2 11 x 14 inch baking tray, lined with silicon coated parchment paper (draw circles behind the parchment if required). Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

2) Add the ground almond to the icing sugar mixture, break up clumps if any.

3 In another clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg white till frothy. Add in sugar in 2 additions and whisk till soft peak.

4) Add in the ground almond mixture into whisked egg whites in 2 addition, fold till incorporated. Lift the spatula to see if it falls ribbon-like.

5) Load the batter into a piping bag with round tip. Pipe into circles. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes. The feet will start to form. Lower down the temperature to 110 degrees and further bake for another 15 minutes. Set aside to cool and remove from paper.

6) Pair them up and sandwich with Lemon Curd, buttercream or ganache. Refrigerate before serving.


















Frills in the making.

Airplane Cake

The cake is ordered by a loving wife for her husband's 32nd birthday. This is the second airplane cake I have made. I modelled this with reference to Ah Boy's toy, thus the plane looked a tad fat. This was a 1kg chocolate mousse cake so the plane was smaller. I encountered some problem attaching the wings and rudder. Partly my fault as I was impatient and start moving it around when the royal icing was apparently half-dried.


















To me, the ramp is an eyesore. I wanted to reduce the thickness of the ramp but it turned out not being able to support the plane's weight. I made the plane's wheels but that too, collapsed. So I had to choose between aesthetic and physics. It's a no-brainer anyway; science won.

























It was a challenge making it symmetrical and piping all those 'grass'. This is my design flaw, I should have used chocolate shavings on the side like my first airplane cake. But I have to admit, the 'grass' effect does look better.

Chocolate Macarons

This is Part 1 of my 3 part chronicles of my macaron-making journey (think Lord of The Rings). Personally, I feel that all bakers, at some point of time, will take on the challenge of making this tempermental dessert. For me, the push factor was the price. Recently, I bought 4 macarons at Canelé. I should have stopped myself when I didn't see any price tag on them. They cost me $9.80! I just couldn't take the blow and felt like crying when I ate them. Even more heartache to come, I squashed 2 pieces during transport. I consoled myself, at least I get to taste some flavours which I might not be able to make at home, like Bergamot.

These chocolate macarons were made in February, when I had plenty of egg whites to spare and too much time on hand. The reason for not posting earlier; I did not have the confidence. No confidence to admit that this might be a fluke or that I will be able to achieve those frilly feet next time round. Reason for posting this now? Recently, I revisited macarons twice (for decorating purposes), for a cake I made for another doctor. Having succeeded 3 times with the same recipe, I would say that this recipe and method is reliable and would love to share it.

The following recipe and method is adapted from Bernice of Baking Journey. I find her methods easy and debunked some of the theories which I read extensively online. Some recipes asked specifically for how many strokes of folding. To be honest, I lost count of the strokes after a while. Some asked for the whipped egg whites to be pressed against the bowl (Don't!). Some recipes asked to wait till a layer skin to form, I lack the patience. Once something is ready on the baking tray, my instinct will ask me to pop it into the oven quick. According to Bernice, waiting for the skin to form will cause cracks. Some are using Italian Meringue and Swiss Meringue method, that I would love to try out some day as it was said that it would yield a more stable batter. But for now, we go French.

Chocolate Macaron
Ingredients
50g Icing Sugar
15g Cocoa Powder

*Sift together

25g Finely Ground Almond

35g Egg White (about 1 egg white, I used my stash, which I froze and thawed)
30g Sugar

Method
1) Prepare 2 11 x 14 inch baking tray, lined with silicon coated parchment paper (draw circles behind the parchment if required). Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

2) Add the ground almond to the icing sugar mixture, break up clumps if any.

3) In another clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg white till frothy. Add in sugar in 2 additions and whisk till soft peak.

4) Add in the ground almond mixture into whisked egg whites in 2 addition, fold till incorporated. Lift the spatula to see if it falls ribbon-like. The batter should look shiny, slightly thick, not runny. The tip of the dropped batter should flatten quite fast (hope you know what I mean).

5) Load the batter into a piping bag with round tip. Pipe into circles. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes. The feet will start to form. Lower down the temperature to 110 degrees and further bake for another 15 minutes. Set aside to cool and remove from paper.

6) Pair them up and sandwich with Swiss meringue buttercream or dark chocolate ganache (I used both). Refrigerate before serving.

Happy Baking! それじゃ～～

Ben 10 Cake

This cake was done for sonny dearest of a fellow forumer at M4M. Her kid is a Ben 10 fanatic, same like my Ah Girl. She is forever nagging about the Omnitrix and said how she wanted to transform into aliens. So I asked, 'Won't mommy be scared and run away from you?'. To that, she answered, 'No.. you're my mommy, you won't run away.' Well said my dear, well said. It is one career you can never send our resignation in.



















The cake is a Chocolate Sponge cake with non dairy whipped cream and strawberries. For a Ben 10 fan, I think the ultimate gift is an Omnitrix. So instead of just a printed edible image, I threw in a Omnitrix watch.



















The black portion is made of chocolate fondant, so it cuts down the necessity of using too much black colouring. It tasted quite good too.



















It's easy to get a sample, I just asked Ah Girl. She did complained that I made her Omnitrix greasy. Okay, don't nag, I cleaned it up already. I am not very satisfied at the white stripes. I should have cut-and-joined. The cake was well received by the birthday boy and to the mommy, smiles on her kid's face is all that mattered.

Ah Girl couldn't really tell the 2 Omnitrix apart when I presented to her in a box, I had to pass her the toy. Last night while I was fiddling with the pictures, she has finally settled on her birthday cake. Looks like another Ben 10 cake is on the way.

じゃね～～

Elmo Cake

Welcome to Elmo's World. Kids love Elmo, was it because of it's big smile? Red fluffy fur? Being cute and cuddly? I'm not sure. I never bonded with Elmo. I grew up watching the Muppets, liking Kermit, Animal and the Swedish Chef. For Sesame Street, I love Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster.

Elmo is one of the most requested cake to date, besides Mahjong cupcakes. Instead of a 'flat' cake, this time round, I designed the eyes to be slightly higher, giving the cake more dimension. This cake is a 3 layered chocolate sponge cake with non dairy whipped cream with strawberries sandwiched between the layers. The nose and eyes are made of Marshmallow Fondant and the mouth and pupils are made of chocolate Marshmallow fondant.

Don't get me wrong when I said Elmo is not my favourite character, I do enjoy making it. Achieving Elmo's red coat is always a challenge, no matter how many times I do it. I'll concede that every time you look at Elmo's smile and smiles it brought on the kids faces, made all the effort worthwhile. Okay, kids, show me your tongues now.

Japanese Sweet Potato Cake

Erm.. they don't look too appetising, do they? But do trust me and take the plunge, they do taste great! My mom and sis (including me) love Isetan, especially when they have Hokkaido fair, Kyushu fair, etc. During these fairs, we will queue up (which I really dread doing, but will do when it comes to food) to buy specialties from that region. One of them is this Sweet Potato Cake that captured our hearts (my mom's, really).

Although it is named 'cake', it is not a cake actually. It is usually sold during Hokkaido fair and the price is really steep. I mean, who would buy a piece of sweet potato for 10 bucks? Well, my mom did. So to deter her from ever doing this again, I decided to recreate it. All my mom had to do is to be my sweet potato supplier and I will do the rest. It is important to get good, big, Japanese sweet potatoes. Those with purple skin and bright yellow flesh. Those skinnies from Vietnam will not make the cut.

Japanese Sweet Potato Cake
Ingredients
500g to 550g Sweet Potatoes
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tbsp Honey or 10g Sugar
15g Whipping Cream
15g Butter, softened to room temperature

1 Tbsp Honey for glazing (optional)

Method
1. Wash and steam the sweet potatoes till soft. Left aside to cool.

2. Slice cooked sweet potatoes in half and scoop out the centre, creating a cavity.

3. Mash the flesh through a mesh. Using a hand whisk, whisk in all ingredients till well mixed.

4. Spoon the mixture back into the cavity. Bake them at 180 degree C for 10 minutes or till browned. If decided to glaze; glaze with honey just before baking. Bake for about 4 or 5 minutes, remove from oven, glaze again. Pop back to the oven and bake till done.


じゃね～～

Kreativ Award

I received this award long time ago and it was left to rot in the draft folder. I would like to thanks Terri from A Daily Obsession for giving me this award. I hope I am as creative as you thought I am. You should really read her blog some time. She is one who doesn't mince her words and gives you her opinions as they are. Her entries are hilarious at most times and her food photography will leave you drooling. Talk about food porn.

I would like to take the opportunity to forward this award to follow bloggers who had worked hard, testing out recipes and making us wipe drool off our keyboards.

1. Edith from Precious Moments. Things coming out of her wok and her oven look so good. Her cupcakes often left me in awe. Her well-planned meals make you wished that you were her guests and yes, her picture of the beef brisket kills me over and over again.

2. Ida from Baking Fiend. Her macarons look wonderful, so does her Egg white Marble cake and her Hello Kitty fondant cake, and... you get the drift.

3. Elyn from Esjoie. She and her baking gadgets are inseparable! Her bakes never fail to impress and her Stained Glass cookies are simply beautiful.

4. Zu from Quick 'N' Easy Treats. Her simple and easy wokking recipes are a life-saver for busy moms. Check out her lovely cakes too.

5. Wiffy from Noob Cook. Another food porn contributor. Her simple yet delicious meals look so appetising through her lens. I have given up hope on myself. Shooting with a camera phone didn't help and I still couldn't make my Fuji work for me.

Now, please help to pass the award to other five food bloggers whom you think deserve it. Hope this will be an incentive to keep them going.

じゃね～～

Mahjong Cupcakes Encore

Back logs, back logs are haunting me. Been rather busy at work and had no time to post. New clients to attend to, new staff to train. During this downturn, I guess being busy is welcomed. I must say there are alot of mahjong fans around. I made these mahjong tiles once again for a lady. She left the tile selection entirely to me. I hope her mommy liked them. I had to use these plastic boxes as the machine broke down when I needed it most.


















As suggested by Jane, I put the real tiles and edible tiles side by side.





































To the person who sends me rude emails persistently about these mahjong tiles; I don't have to prove anything to you but for the sake of argument, I will. The above tiles are the proof that I do not use moulds to mould my tiles. Those moulds can only give you 十三么, not these flower cards. I do not use edible print outs either. Each and every one of them is handcrafted.

Having said my piece, it's back to work. Later.