Passion Fruit Tarts

I love the aroma of passion fruits and the tartness that cuts through any sweet tart crust. I made two types of crust, one with almond meal and the other without. Haven't had the chance to use the one with almond meal, but the one without was a bit hard. I think I might have overworked the dough a bit. Nonetheless, the passion fruit curd is lovely, bright and tangy. The white topping is not meringue. I cheated with stabilised whipped cream because there was left over.

Thai Milk Tea Cake

Yeah! Finally! Presenting, Thai milk tea cake, tea powder all the way from Thailand, comprising 3 components, the Thai milk tea chiffon cake, Thai milk tea infused buttercream and Thai milk tea drizzle. It's Thai milk tea tea inside out, the flavour of the tea is really strong. 

November to bake

Got my hands on the Thai tea powder, but haven't had time to bake at all. So looking forward to the end of this week, then I can have some time to rest and bake. 

It's been a long and tiring month, with all the drama and stress of handling multiple deadlines. Sometimes, self induced stress because of that obligation to fill those pockets of free time with responsibilities which were kindly relinquished. Oh well, enough said. Let's see, year end bakes. Let's raid the fridge for ingredients that need to be used up. 

Thai milk tea powder- Thai milk tea cake of course!

Eggs whites- buttercream and macarons

 

Green tea buttercream- green tea macarons

White lotus paste- cute Japanese piglet cakes

Pineapple paste- rosettes and Taiwanese pineapple squares 

Oh yes! If I can squeeze in that Christmas gingerbread house, that template I have prepared from last year. Think I'll skip the Christmas fruit cake this year. 

I think that should be enough to make my holiday wonderful! 

有时候是被自己的情绪累着。。。

Rosette Pineapple Tarts 2016

It's time to bake some pineapple tarts again. This year, I started a little earlier than the last 2 years. But I froze some pastry since I Realised it could be a bit too early.

Did the lazy way of just forking it too. 

Matcha Eclairs

So you would have guessed, flavour of the month is matcha. I made some matcha pastry cream for the drip on the matcha inside out cake, so I might as well make some choux pastry. Matcha Eclairs it shall be.

Combined 3 different recipes. Shall document soon. I really need to, now that I've learnt to combine and modify. Soon...

Though my sister asked what those green looking things were and my husband said they looked like caterpillars, I think they look fine and most importantly, that taste good! Bleah! 

Matcha Inside Out

I've been dying to try Thai Milk Tea Cake, but I cannot get my hands on Thai milk tea anywhere, not in Phoon huat, not in cold storage, not in Sheng shiong, not in the mama shop downstairs. 😭 finally, found a friend in Thailand now! But that means I got to wait. :( I shall trial with green tea powder for now. 

So here you go, matcha dripped matcha sponge frosted with matcha swiss meringue buttercream. It's matcha inside out literally. 

Though the drips are a little messy, it'll be better when I realize my Thai milk tea inspiration I'm sure. 😁

Nutella Party

Was asked to bake some Nutella brownies to feed 20 people, so I thought I'll set a theme, which will help me find inspirations and so I set out to research all things Nutella. 

I baked Nutella fudge brownies, done earlier and Nutella cookies.

And a Nutella chiffon cake, but Erm.. I went over the top with the chocolate. 

I hope they Will suit the taste of the tasters. 

My versions of Mont Blanc Cakes

My first try was for a birthday, but we didn't cut the cake, so I split the cake and still gave it to the birthday girl anyway. I think the piping can be better, so I'll be trying another one soon. Looking forward! 

Here's a second version with chestnut chiffon cake. The cake's lighter and has a subtle chestnut after taste.

五仁月饼

虽然过程很繁杂，但很好吃，不会太甜也不会太腻。

五谷杂粮，和人生一样，口感复杂，但这样才好吃，有味道。

Mooncakes 2016

So this year I started making mooncakes and the original plan was to make the traditional 5 nuts ones. Well, I did. Just. The last few bakes were distractions along the way when I was researching for an ideal recipe.

I made these cuties in June because I cannot resist cute things.

Then I bought some paste and discovered the sugar free white lotus paste is subtly sweet, wonderful for the not so sweet toothed and the older folks, so I made these. 

The final bakes were for the 5 nuts ones. I must say, they are quite difficult to make  because the filling doesn't bind easily and the resultant dough, filling round doesn't yield to the shape of the mould easily too.  A slight crack will result in a obvious one as I shape the rest of the mooncakes.

Here they are, last mooncake bakes 2016 and I finished almost all the nuts filings with the help of 2 friends! Yea!! 

The 5 nuts ones are not so sweet and packed with nutty goodness, suitable for the old folks. :)

Chocolate Drip Cake

This took me a long long time and honestly, I had to redo the drip about 4 times. The colour was really off, I bought 2 additional colours, teal and sky blue and still didn't get the baby blue I wanted. In a desperate attempt, I wanted to do candy melt, but that would mean going to the store a third time and the cake will turn out cloyingly sweet, so I threw out the idea, did a blue buttercream and made do with the slightly green chocolate drip. Well, at least the drip is glossy.

Was quite satisfied with the result, hope it's good enough for the photoshoot. 

Didn't put the stars because I didn't know if it'll look good for the photos, gave them together with the cake anyway and let the photographer decide. 

A note to self, I used the same sponge for the strawberry shortcake, a ratio of 1 part cream to 3 parts white chocolate for the chocolate drip and sky blue to achieve the colour. For the buttercream, ratio of butter to icing sugar is 1:2. For the toppers, fondant didn't work because they go soft in our humid weather, gum paste works much better, but try not to fridge them because they get slimy. If left with no choice, don't touch them after they are out of the fridge, they'll become shiny, but till dry out in time, albeit after a long time. 

Inspired

Thank you, inspiring people!

Breathing! 

Strawberry Shortcake

A friend wanted to bake a birthday cake for the husband and asked if I could help. I thought, why not, it'll be fun. So we set out to research on a suitable cake and decided on strawberry shortcake.

It was fun, albeit a little stressful because she was already 37 weeks pregnant! But all's good and we were very satisfied with the decoration and according to the tasters, the cake's yummy too. I secretly love the finished product too. 

I know they look the same, but I really love this cake. 

One Cake Four Ways

Because I needed to use up ingredients. I made a basic sponge and whipped cream. I varied the flavour of the whipped cream, vanilla, red bean, durian and caramel. I had left over red beans and durian pastry cream.

So here's the results 

Clockwise from the top, durian, redbean and caramel. 

For the last flavour, I was doing a trial cake and did a vanilla sponge with fresh blueberries. 

Cookie Cake

I made cookies into a cookie cake! Was requested to make one like those of Famous Amos, but I haven't tasted one, so I imagined it must taste like a cookie, but cut like a cake, so I adapted one recipe and it worked! Tastes best with a scoop of ice-cream.

I basically changed the flour to plain flour, sugar to brown sugar and baked in a 8.5 inches cake tin at 175 degrees for about 25 min. 

Mooncakes

Finally! I started using the pastes I bought for mooncakes. Not bad for a first time! I have more to bake though.

Just in case I forgot, my mooncake mould needs 50g of paste and 22g of dough. 

Yogurt Red Bean Potong

I made a big pot of red beans for a cake and I reckoned potong will be a good way to use these up. Really nice, minus the guilt because coconut milk is replaced with yogurt and there is no added sugar other than the already sweetened red beans.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked sweetened red beans

1 cup yogurt

1/3 cup cream

A pinch of salt

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend away until smooth. 

2. Pour into Popsicle mould till frozen.

3. To unmould, run through with hot water. I realised hairdryer works even better! :)

There! Enjoy! 

The moment when help becomes an inconvenience..... eat ice-cream... 

Durian Choux Puffs

I decided to try the durian choux puffs and researched for a few recipes. Decided on a durian custard recipe and regretted because It wasn't complete! I was supposed to heat the custard with the milk first and it just stated mix custard with durian and of course the filling didn't set!:( In an attempt to salvage the very expensive durian pulp, I heated up the custard after leaving it in the fridge for like 6 hours. Angry!! Never trust a recipe blindly!

But! I made a second batch! And it worked! 

The custard's smooth and fragrant! I'm going to be careful with online recipes. Lesson learnt. 

August bakes

Right, I've not been baking a lot, I need inspiration! I bought and made quite a bit of ingredients and to help me remember to use them, I shall pen down August bakes. Waste not the ingredients! 

Red beans- puddings or potong?

Chocolate coated coffee beans- I don't know why I bought them for, what do I do with them??? Decoration on desserts? Gotta use them fast, a lot! 

Chestnut purée and spread- Because they were on sales when I made Mont Blanc, so I bought like 3 cans of purée and to encourage myself to use them, I bought a can of spread. What was I thinking ?😓

Mooncakes ingredients- I bought them in July with the grand plan to try 5 nuts mooncakes, then I got distracted and did piggies, then I bought another 2 pastes on top of the 5 nuts.😭 why.....

Durian pulp- you know Phoon huat has 15% storewide and I saw 猫山王 pure pulp and the rest is history. 😪 

So the good thing is, I have all the the ingredients I need to make a lot of things! The challenge now is to stop buying and start baking! 

And so, August bakes...

1. Durian puffs

2. Mini piggies mooncakes

3. 5 nuts mooncakes

4. Red bean potong 

5. Chestnut cream cake maybe 

Note to self- Stop the retail therapy! Start the baking therapy! 

Matcha and Azuki Mousse Cake

The grand plan was to combine a few recipes to bake a birthday cake to my most trusted friend at work and another to a most helpful friend who, sadly, will be leaving for greener pastures.

I researched for a matcha sponge and decided on a light matcha chiffon. Then I searched for a matcha mousse recipe and adapted the recipe to make the Azuki mousse. The concern was whether the gelatine is enough to hold the mousse together and tada! I think it worked. ;)

However, my horrible piping skills very nearly ruined the cake when I tried to write some words on them. All in all I think they turned out pretty good. :)

Happy bdae, my dear friend and thank you, my other dear friend.